Cluster Two

The picture depicts a group of combative women pilots known
as the "Night Witches" with their Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes in the
background.

Reina Pennington  is a professor at Norwich University, a private military university located in Vermont, and teaches military, Russian, and European history. An excerpt titled "Before the War" of her first book Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat  delineates a history of women pilots before the start of WW II (in Russia this war is most commonly referred to as The Great Patriotic War). Pennington chronicles their struggle to be accepted into aviation schools, the record breaking flights of the women who persevered -- most famously the Flight of the Rodina (Motherland), a flight undertaken by female pilots Marina Raskova, Polina Osipenko,and Valentina Grizodubova-- and the role that this played in collective mind of the Soviet Union as well as the military implications it had that culturally allowed Stalin to form Aviation Group 122, which encompassed three female fighting groups. The information provided in this chapter will help my research paper greatly into determining what factors (socially, culturally, and politically) of the pre-war period allowed for establishment of the Night Witches during the war. 

An LA Times article titled "Day of Glory for USSRs Night Witches" written by Robyn Dixon in 2001,Dixon is now the Johannesburg chief for the Times, provides information years after the aviation feats performed by the Night Witches. The article covered May 9, 2001's events,  the day that marked the 60 years since Stalin decreed the establishment of the three women air force units. This article not only provided insight into how people in in post-war years continue to celebrate these women, especially since the country they flew to defend no longer exists, but also provided snippets of interviews of the women as they discussed the extremes they would have committed to avoid becoming a POW of Germans. 

A thesis paper written by Captain Beth Ann Myers in 2003 and titled " Soviet and American Airwomen During World War II: A Comparison of their Formation, Treatment, and Dismal" provides an analysis of the similarities and differences of Soviet and American pilots. The evidence given is a synthesis of multiple historical and biographical works in order to understand the different problems women of both societies faced in entering the armed forces, while they served, as well as the lack of recognition that followed post-war. Not only was the information found in this thesis paper helpful for my own paper, but it also provided a page of references to continue the research part of my research paper. 

In 2009, BBC News created an audio slideshow by the simple name of "Night Witches" in which photographs, comic book images, Russian music, and voice-over interviews come together to inform the British audience of the feats of Russian women of WWII while also providing media attention for Irish-born American comic book writer Garth Ennis' meta-series known as Battlefields. The first issue of this comic series was titled "Battlefields: Night Witches." This audio slideshow provided further information into how and why the Russian women pilots would come to be known as "Night Witches" as well as how a contemporary culture has come to recognize and remember the women of years ago.