Night Witches Part 27

Senior Sergeant Matryona Yurodjeva-Samsonova a" airplane mechanic The young women of the 46th Taman Guards flew old wooden biplanes called Po-2s. These had been designed just as training planes, without c.o.c.kpit covers, radios or sophisticated instruments. They were fitted with four small bomb racks, but didn't get parachutes or self-defence machine guns until near the end of the war. Air crews flew in scorching summer weather and in the bone-bitter cold of Russian winters, when mechanics struggled to keep the fuel from freezing . . . and their own fingers from rotting with frostbite.

The Po-2s were nicknamed *flying sewing machines' and *flying coffins'. On the ground the women were sometimes mocked by men who couldn't believe mere girls were capable of such stamina and bravery. As for the Germans, they came up with the most evocative name for the air crews that buzzed and bombed them every night. They called them nacht hexen a" night witches a" saying the whooshing noise of the planes sounded like witches on broomsticks pa.s.sing over.

My spirit has always been emanc.i.p.ated, unconquered and proud. I was spell-bound by the mystery of flight. I thought of it as my integration with the universe.

Snr Lt Yevgeniya Zhiguelnko.

Superst.i.tions about witches and magic were driven underground by communism in the Soviet Union, along with most religious beliefs. They did not disappear completely. Spring still revived old rituals of offerings to Mother Earth, and tales were still told of the most powerful witch of all a" Baba Yaga.

Witches were said to summon their power from the earth, where the dead are buried, never from demonic sources. I first came across Baba Yaga as a child, reading the eerie story of clever Va.s.silisa, a girl who survives her visit to the witch's lair and is rewarded with supernatural help.

In stories, Baba Yaga is often portrayed as an ogress with stone teeth who devours children in her house raised up on chicken legs and surrounded by a bone fence. More impressively, the mythology also hints that she holds power over night and day, and that she guards the fountain of the water of life. She flies not on a broomstick, but in a mixing bowl called a mortar, speeding her way through the skies with a pestle.

Despite their communist upbringing, some Russian night-bomber girls tried fortune-telling in the magical darkness of New Year's Eve. They followed dream messages, and trusted in a mystical power to keep them and their comrades safe. After the war, a statue of Baba Yaga was sculptured showing her as an Air Force mascot complete with modern flying goggles!

They converted the whole great country into a big concentration camp of life-term inmates. They would turn people into programmed robots stuffed with slogans and cheers for the great Stalin.

Senior Sergeant Anna Popova a" flight radio operator.

Witches were not the worst thing to fear in Soviet Russia. Josef Stalin's communist rule brought tremendous change and upheaval as the vast country was forced to abandon old ways and dedicate itself to a new kind of society where all were supposed to be equal, and work for the common good. Under Stalin a ma.s.s surge of industrial advances gave Russia the strength and equipment to beat back the superior technology of German forces. Modernisation came at a terrible price. Stalin demanded total obedience. Secret police and networks of neighbourhood spies meant it wasn't safe to say, or do, or even dare think anything individual. There was an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. Arrests were common. Those arrested were rarely seen or heard of again.

Friendship, mutual support, and love of our motherland helped us to endure and to await the victory.

Senior Lieutenant Serfima Amosova-Taranenko.

This nightmare of paranoia and betrayal was matched by the fierce love and loyalty of the women in Marina Raskova's regiments. The young women fought to defend a beloved country, regardless of how oppressive the regime. Many fought and died. Ageing Night Witch survivors still meet in Moscow once a year, to laugh, to drink and to remember darker days and fallen comrades.

Researching all this history had me enthralled and appalled. At times I felt I was flying with the real night witches on some starlit night, or through thick sea-mists. In fact, my only flying experience has been in sleek modern gliders and rather stinky training planes. My only meetings with witches have been on the pages of fairy-tale books.

My story Night Witches is a fantasy tale set on a fictional world, with invented characters and cultures, but it draws on the bravery, loyalty, fear and betrayal experienced by Soviet women during the war. I've also explored universal questions a" How does it feel not to belong? How do you find the strength to do what you secretly feel is right? Who can you really trust in a world where loyalty is supposed to be blind? Most importantly a" where can you find the power to be yourself?

In Night Witches science, religion and imagination battle together for dominance. Life wins.

I want to say we experienced many feelings and emotions a" fear, joy, love, sorrow a" as we faced very hard experiences. Sometimes when we successfully completed a mission we even sang and danced there at the airfield because life is life, and we were young.

Snr Lt Zoya Parfyonova a" pilot and heroine of the Soviet Union.

In memory of the original Russian Night Witches who fought with great courage and loyalty.

end.