Night Witches: The Untold Story of Soviet Women in Combat

by Bruce Myles

Release Date: February, 1997

Edition: Paperback

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a good book

I like this book very much. I am waiting for the movie it is being filmed right now in Russia. It will be in Russian and English language. The heroines deserve to have their stroy told so everybody will know about them. I enjoyed the story of Lily Litvak who shot down the famous Nazi. The Nazi didn't believe it was a girl who had defeated him until he met her and she described the fight. Then he just put his head down in disgrace! This book tells her true story and the story of other Russian women who fought in World War 2.

Night Witches

Night Witches is a pioneer and readable non-fiction book about Soviet airwomen in combat in World War II. However, it is bad journalism as it was written in a somewhat sensational manner and is full of petty mistakes, such as misspelled names, and airwomen assigned to wrong photo captions, ranks, appointments, and even regiments. The appellation "Night Witches" itself, coined by the enemy, was considered offensive by Soviet airwomen. Night Witches has been largely superseded by books written or edited by the following: Anne Noggle (A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II, 1994); Kazimiera J. Cottam (Women in Air War: The Eastern Front in World War II and Women in War and Resistance, 1997 and 1998); and a forthcoming book by Reina Pennington (Wings, Women and War: Soviet Women in Military Aviation in the Second World War, University Press of Kansas, 2001).