14. The Women of the 588th Fought the Enemy and the Elements in the Air, and Sexual Harassment and Discrimination on the Ground
Braving bullets and frostbite in the air, while battling sexual harassment and skepticism on the ground, the women of the 588th soldiered on. Their commander, Marina Raskova, bucked them up with the Twelve Commandment of the Night Witches, the first of which was: “Be proud you are a woman“. Killing Nazis was their primary goal, but in their free time, the women did needlework, patchwork, decorated their airplanes, and danced.
Flying up to eighteen bombing missions a night, the 588th put up quite a record. One of their pilots, Irina Sebrova, flew over a thousand sorties. Collectively, the Night Witches flew over 30,000 combat sorties, during which they dropped over 3000 tons of bombs, and 26,000 incendiary munitions. Their last flight took place on May 4th, 1945, about forty miles from Berlin. However, despite being one of the most highly decorated Soviet Air Force units, the Night Witches were not included in the Victory Day Parade at the war’s end, because their Polikarpov planes were too slow and looked too old.