Sabaton - Night Witches
@thescarletgarden1990 @minmeemaw @justwandering-neverlost @faiseuse-d-histoires @ashleyfanfic @xxthewolvenstormxx
A song about a russian flying ace squadron in the WW2, exclusively composed of Woman.Â
ACKSTORY: Scene is Spring of 1943, Georgy Zhukov has suffered his worst defeat of the war, the soviets have failed to relieve Stalingrad with Operation Winter Storm, and the Red Army just lost an estimated 90,000 troops in Kharkov. Â The situation for the Soviets seems desperate. Â But in the skies, Major Yevdokia Bershanskaya leads the women of the 588th Night Bomber Regimen. Formed by Colonel Marina Raskova, this was one of three air regiments that was to employ females, and the only regiment to be all women, the first in the world to allow women such a dominant role in air warfare. Â Though initially ridiculed, handed almost no equipment and only old uniforms and told to make do, they became one of the most effective air units of history. The 588th flew 30,000 missions over four years, dropping a total of 23,000 tons of ordinance on invading German armies. The girls--some were only 17, the oldest 26--flew almost exclusively at night because their planes were nothing but plywood and canvas. Â A single tracer round could ignite the frame. Flying these practice fighters, little more than crop-dusters, was extremely dangerous. Â After one mission Nadia Popova and her pilot Katya counted 42 bullet holes in her plane, not including those in her map and helmet. Because of the weight of the bombs they carried and the low altitudes at which they flew, they carried no parachutes. They had no radar to navigate their paths through the night skies -- only maps and compasses. Â But flying low and slow and quiet had its advantages. Â Their light frames and slow speeds made the planes highly maneuverable compared to the Nazis, and their relative silence allowed the 588th a sort of stealth--they would idle their engines as they neared their targets, and glide their way to their bomb release points. As a result of the soft "whoosh" that was the only sound preceding the bombs, the Nazis began calling the female fighter pilots Nachthexen: "night witches." Hated and feared for their ability to drop bombs with little more than the sound of a "witch's broom" to announce their presence, the Nazi's offered the reward of an Iron Cross to any pilot who could down a "Witch" Â The 588th wore the title "Night Witches" as a badge of honor.
