Anyone who knows me terribly well knows that I have a bit of an obsession with Sabaton, a metal(ish) band that uses historical events as a basis for their songs. Their most recent album, entitled "Heroes," focused mostly on distinguished individuals and divisions predominantly from WWII.
A number of remarkable stories present themselves in the album, but the first song that I heard was about the Russian 588th Night Bomber Division.
The most obvious distinction of the 588th was that it was composed entirely of females, due to a direct order from Joseph Stalin to create three women's divisions, but it was the only one to be fully maintained and commanded by women. Due to military shortage and no small amount of bias against female pilots, they were forced to use obsolete biplanes made of wood and canvas. Their planes were meant only as training vehicles but were forced into military service. They could only carry a maximum of six bombs, so the 588th was forced to make multiple bombing runs during the night. The weight of the bombs on the inferior planes resulted in them not carrying parachutes.
The real distinction of the division was the use that they managed to make of the bombers. The stall speed on the engines was significantly lower than that of the German aircraft that they were up against. They would stall their engines deliberately and free fall for a brief period and the planes that were tailing them could not shed speed fast enough to actually target them. The tactic was extremely dangerous and it took no small amount of courage, but it was very effective in making them hard to target.
The name, "Night Witches," was a result of the way that they attacked. Due to the low altitude capabilities of their planes, they were easy to hear and shoot down for the German AA installations on the ground. Their solution was to fly their planes up to an altitude that was far above what they were designed for and kill the engine. They would then glide their planes over their intended targets and release their bombs.
These tactics inflicted pure terror on the Germans. They could not hear the bombers' impending attack, only the air of the falling bombs. The Germans equated the sound to that of a witch's broomstick and gave them the name "Night Witches." Due to the gliding, there was no way of knowing when an attack would come, no way of sounding an alarm to get to shelter, and no way of knowing when the attack was over.
Those who attempted to shoot down the planes that had dropped their payloads did so at a price. They had no way of knowing when the last of the planes had left, so firing their flak guns essentially created a flashing target for any remaining Witches to aim at. The psychological toll of the Night Witches' attacks was immense. They were also called in to eliminate specific targets due to their stealth and precision.
The Soviet Government recognized their skill and courage in the face of immense adversity and many of the members were made Heroes of the Soviet Union or were awarded the Order of Lenin. They've played a few roles in pop culture, not the least of which is this song.
