The Night Witches and the plywood bombers that terrorized the Eastern Front

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces — known to the Germans as die Nachthexen, the Night Witches — flew more than 23,000 combat sorties during World War II in open-cockpit biplanes made of plywood and canvas. Every pilot, navigator, mechanic, and officer in the regiment was a woman. They dropped approximately 3,000 tons of bombs on German positions across the Eastern Front, earning one of the highest honors in the Soviet military and the lasting terror of enemy soldiers who could never predict when the next silent attack would come.

What Aircraft Did the Night Witches Fly?

The regiment’s aircraft was the Polikarpov Po-2, a biplane originally designed in 1928 as a crop duster and trainer. Its specifications read like a joke next to frontline combat aircraft of the era. Maximum speed: roughly 94 miles per hour. Cruising speed: about 68 mph — slower than highway traffic. The Po-2 had an open cockpit, no radio, no armor plating, and no guns. For most of the war, crews flew without parachutes. Two crew members sat in tandem, exposed to the elements, carrying at most 600 pounds of ordnance per sortie. The navigator in the rear seat sometimes held bombs in her lap.

The airframe was fabric-covered wood. A single tracer round could ignite the entire aircraft. There was no ejection system. If a Po-2 was hit, the crew burned.

How Did the Regiment Form?

In 1941, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union was destroying aircraft and pilots faster than they could be replaced. Marina Raskova, a record-setting aviator sometimes called the Soviet Amelia Earhart, petitioned Stalin directly to create all-female aviation units. She had the fame and the political connections to make it happen. In October 1941, Order Number 0099 authorized three all-female air regiments: fighters, dive bombers, and night bombers. The 588th Night Bomber Regiment was the night bomber unit and the only one of the three that remained exclusively female for the entire war.

The recruits came from all backgrounds — university students, factory workers, teenagers barely out of flight school. Their commander was Yevdokiya Bershanskaya, a veteran pilot who had been flying since her teens. Most of the women were in their late teens or early twenties. Some were as young as 17.

Training at Engels Military Aviation School compressed a year or more of instruction into a few months. The women learned celestial navigation, night flying in sub-zero open cockpits, bomb release technique, and formation flying — all in the Po-2, because there was no upgrade. The Po-2 was the mission.

What Happened When They Reached the Front?

The regiment arrived at the front in June 1942 to immediate ridicule. Male soldiers and pilots saw young women climbing out of museum-piece biplanes and dismissed them. The women received hand-me-down men’s uniforms — boots so oversized they stuffed them with rags, flight suits that swallowed them whole.

The skepticism did not survive contact with reality.

How Did the Night Witches Attack?

The regiment flew exclusively at night, typically from midnight until dawn, hitting German encampments, supply depots, ammunition dumps, and troop concentrations just behind the front lines. Their tactics were simple and devastatingly effective.

A flight of three Po-2s would approach the target. Two aircraft flew in first, deliberately drawing fire, weaving and splitting to force German searchlights and anti-aircraft guns to track them. While the gunners were occupied, the third aircraft cut its engine entirely. With no power, the Po-2 became a near-silent glider — canvas and wood, invisible to radar, nearly invisible to the eye, drifting in on the wind. The only sound was air passing over fabric wings.

The Germans said it sounded like a broomstick sweeping across the floor. That is where the name came from: Nachthexen. Night Witches. Witches on broomsticks.

The navigator released bombs by hand. The pilot pushed the nose down to build speed, restarted the engine, and vanished into the darkness. Then they returned to the airfield, rearmed, and did it again. Some crews flew 15 to 18 sorties in a single night — in an open cockpit, in Eastern Front winters where temperatures regularly hit 30 to 40 degrees below zero. Touching bare skin to the aircraft’s metal parts meant instant freezing. Frostbite was constant. Navigators with frostbitten fingers that could barely grip a pencil went back up anyway.

Who Were the Most Notable Night Witches?

Nadezhda Popova flew 852 sorties over the course of the war. She was shot down multiple times. After one mission, her ground crew counted 42 bullet holes in the fuselage and wings. She flew again the next night.

Yevgeniya Zhigulenko completed 968 sorties and later became a film director, producing a movie about the regiment.

Irina Sebrova holds the individual record with over 1,000 sorties — more than a thousand individual combat missions in a plywood biplane.

How Effective Were They?

The regiment flew over 23,000 sorties and dropped approximately 3,000 tons of bombs during the war. The psychological impact matched the physical destruction. Standing orders at some German positions were to fire at any sound in the night sky, even without a visual target. Captured German soldiers reported fearing the Night Witches above all else because the attacks came without warning, repeatedly, all night long. There was no rest and no way to predict where the next strike would originate.

In 1943, the regiment earned the elite Guards designation, becoming the 588th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment — an honor reserved for units demonstrating sustained combat excellence. Twenty-three of their pilots received the Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation’s highest individual military decoration.

The regiment fought from the Caucasus to Belarus to Poland to Germany, flying its last mission in May 1945 within striking distance of Berlin. Four years of combat. In biplanes.

What Happened to the Night Witches After the War?

The regiment was disbanded almost immediately after the war ended. Unlike men’s units, the women were not invited to the victory parade in Moscow. They were told to go home. Many received no recognition for their service for decades. The Soviet Union, despite its propaganda about gender equality, showed little interest in celebrating female combat veterans once the fighting stopped.

Most Night Witches returned to civilian life as teachers, engineers, doctors, and mothers. Many did not speak about their wartime service for years. It was Popova and a few other veterans who eventually pushed for recognition and ensured the story survived.

Can You Still See a Po-2 Today?

The Po-2 had a long postwar career as a crop duster, trainer, and utility aircraft. Thousands were built, with variants produced into the 1950s. A few remain airworthy today in private collections and museums. Notable examples include aircraft at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino outside Moscow and the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków. Seeing one in person is striking — the aircraft is remarkably small and fragile-looking, which makes the courage required to fly it into combat all the more difficult to comprehend.

The regiment’s history was documented extensively in Soviet military records and later brought to Western audiences by historians including Bruce Myles, whose book Night Witches remains an essential account.

Key Takeaways

• The 588th Night Bomber Regiment was the only Soviet air unit to remain entirely female throughout WWII, flying more than 23,000 sorties in obsolete Po-2 biplanes.
• Their signature tactic — cutting engines to glide silently over targets — earned them the German nickname Nachthexen (Night Witches) and made them one of the most feared units on the Eastern Front.
• Individual pilots like Nadezhda Popova (852 sorties) and Irina Sebrova (1,000+ sorties) compiled combat records that remain extraordinary by any standard.
• The regiment earned the Guards designation and produced 23 Heroes of the Soviet Union, yet the women were excluded from postwar victory celebrations and went largely unrecognized for decades.
• The Po-2 itself — a 1928 crop duster with a top speed under 100 mph — proved that tactical ingenuity and raw courage could turn an obsolete platform into a devastating weapon.