Talk:Night Witches

30,000 missions - 23,000 tons of bombs

"The regiment flew over 30,000 missions and dropped 23,000 tons of bombs.[3]"

Well that is interesting. The Po-2 could carry at best 350kg. So they must have flown at least 65.714 missions to drop 23.000 tons of bombs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.129.233.130 (talk) 14:21, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Another cultural reference

One may want to add Blood, Ash, Braids from Genevieve Valentine. Its story is about the Night Witches and features a couple of the notable members of this regiment. Yogurt (talk) 22:03, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

"Night Witches" in song

Hello. Will the information be indicated that the song about the "Night Witches" was recorded from the Swedish rock band Sabaton under the same name "Night Witches"? -- Bogolub (talk) 22:08, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

Table for list of awards

I changed the list to a table so that it was easier to pick out the different award types. (Hohum ^@) 13:47, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

I don't think the table is a good idea. The table makes it easy to skip over the entire table thinking all are Heroes of the Soviet Union. And it's only two colums, and not a good way to convey information. Very easy for readers to skip lines or mismatch names.--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 16:01, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Any documentaries?

Were there any documentary films or TB programs made in English language featuring ops of this group? Lexein (talk) 17:23, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Any docs?

Were there any documentaries of TV progrsms in English language about this group's ops in WWII? Lexein (talk) 17:25, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Cold welcoming

This all-female flying squadron was not welcomed into the military with open arms. Many of their male counterparts saw them as inferior and treated them with lack of respect. The women of the regiment were also given hand-me-downs of uniforms and over-sized shoes by the men, as well as rudimentary tools (such as rulers, flashlights, pencils, etc) that lacked the "luxury" that the male soldiers received with their tools (e.g.- radar, guns, radios, etc.)

This section is totally biased: it has reference to the website with no actual links to the historical documents or facts. https://historycollection.com/night-witches-women-russian-bomb-squad-terrorized-nazis-ww2/2/ I have found similar text in Russian that looks like an original used by the author but English version was changed to look like those women were treated as "inferior" and with lack of respect. https://www.marieclaire.ru/stil-zjizny/-nochnyie-vedmyi-sovetskie-letchitsyi-kotoryih-boyalis-vse-nemetskie-soldatyi/

The actual reason of providing them the men's clothes is that at that moment the army did not have women's clothes and forming of this regimen was unexpected. Also, their planes were unique so they had to invent their own instruments and devices for them so it quite natural that they were not provided with the same mech options as male pilots who used other types of planes. As for the treatment: at that time men tried to leave women in safety to defend them from the cruelty of war: of course most of them were surprised seeing female pilots but I doubt they treated women as "inferior" people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Berg O'tooRan (talk • contribs) 12:25, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

   I agree, a very strange statement and sources. Given that more than one such regiment was formed, there is at least another 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment and 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment.

References

Restarting engines

Is it true that the pilots had to climb out on the wing of their airplane while in flight in order to restart the engine after releasing their bombs? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 10:16, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Navigator Polina Gelman once had to do that after the bombs got stuck. But it was not a regular procedure.--PlanespotterA320 (talk) 15:40, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

March 2022 edit

Preserving here by providing this link; my rationale was: "remove section -- a compendium of trivia and tangentially-related items; see WP:MILPOP". --K.e.coffman (talk) 05:32, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Shaping of the Modern World

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 January 2025 and 21 May 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): LLKP, Rehina.S (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Marie-Anna Jean Laurent.

— Assignment last updated by Wikipee5000 (talk) 23:12, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

Origin of the name: Questionable?

The earliest mention of the name night witches is in the 1983 book Night Witches: Untold Story of Soviet Women in Combat which doesn't list primary sources for that claim. There is also no german language original source for that name. In fact linguistically the term seems rather odd. Isn't it more likely that the name was made up by the Soviets and the myth constructed that the Germans gave it to them, similar to the made up USMC myth with the term "Devil Dogs". I think the article should be expanded to account for the fact that the origin story of the name is most likely made up. Hohenfriedberg (talk) 10:32, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

This book directly contradicts the claim in the article: "...none of us was ever shot down, so the Germans began saying these are night witches, because it seemed impossible to kill us or shoot us down". The NYT article sounds like someone repeating an early meme/myth.--~2026-12663-47 (talk) 08:11, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

With all respect, but you linked to a reddit thread, I can't find any direct reference there. Hohenfriedberg (talk) 10:18, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

There doesn’t seem to be evidence that the Germans came up with the name. I’m going to remove the text claiming that the Germans made up the name. If I’m wrong, someone should provide a source showing that Germans came up with the nickname. IanUnggoy2000 (talk) 00:59, 31 May 2026 (UTC)