Pe-2 Female Pilot and Navigator

[Krabat42]

Fond something here too:

FEMALE FACES OF THE AIR WAR War and Game

Krabat

[Nightwitch]

Nice article, Krabat. It's interesting to see the conflicting reports on the kill tallies of Litvyak and Budanova. I've heard anything from 5 to 20 for Budanova, with 8 being a common figure as well. 12 individual victories seems to be the more common tally for Litvyak, but it seems that this article implies 5. The Soviet sources definitely seem to be difficult to sort through, especially in the rough early years of the war.

[Krabat42]

Very true. I'm an archivist and historian and I very often find that in difficult times records are seldom kept and even then they are incomplete and contradicting. But history is not what happened then, but what has been written down then.

Krabat

[Nightwitch]

Originally Posted by Krabat42

Very true. I'm an archivist and historian and I very often find that in difficult times records are seldom kept and even then they are incomplete and contradicting. But history is not what happened then, but what has been written down then.

Krabat

Yeah, well put. Then again, my formal training is in Medieval History, so the WWII records look huge and fantastically well-kept by comparison!

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by Nightwitch

Wikipedia is a pretty good cursory overview. However, there are more and more books coming out on the subject as well. The seminal work in English is probably Anne Noggle's book "A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II." It's eminently readable and contains lots of personal interviews with the pilots in question. Another one, that's fairly recent is Reina Pennington's "Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat." I'd rate Pennington's book as second to Noggle's because Noggle has more personal interviews, but Pennington's work is of a more scholarly nature, and her appendices are invaluable. Wings, Women and War includes lists of all the personnel associated with Raskova's regiments throughout the war, and I've found that very useful. Also, there is a new book out in English this year that I'm ordering directly from the publisher, but that I haven't read yet. It's called "Red Sky, Black Death" and it is the memoirs of Anna Yegorova edited and translated into English by Kim Green. Anna Yegorova was an IL-2 pilot and the leader of an IL-2 regiment (or maybe just a flight leader, I'm fuzzy on the details as I haven't read the memoirs yet). At any rate, she was shot down, captured by the Germans, sent to a concentration camp, freed, interned by the NKVD, and finally released. I think it'll make for a compelling story and I can't wait to get my copy.

Why was she interned by NKVD?

[Nightwitch]

Originally Posted by drgondog

Why was she interned by NKVD?

She had to be "tested" by the NKVD because she was captured. It was automatically assumed that anyone who had been captured was either a traitor or a spy when they got back to the Soviet Union. It was kind of "illegal" to be captured, for lack of a better word. In cases with really high scoring aces who were captured, sometimes the support of the commanding officer was enough to get them back in their regiments. However, being captured automatically made you ineligible for the HSU, and it effectively killed your career - assuming you didn't "fail" your NKVD test.

[Graeme]

Originally Posted by Nightwitch

It was automatically assumed that anyone who had been captured was either a traitor or a spy when they got back to the Soviet Union.

Hi Nightwitch. I can't remember the General's(?) name but he escaped from a German prison and eventually had an audience with Stalin. He was telling Stalin his escape story but Stalin was nonplussed. Shortly afterwards Stalin said "Now comrade, tell me how you were captured!"

Myth?

[Nightwitch]

Originally Posted by Graeme

Hi Nightwitch. I can't remember the General's(?) name but he escaped from a German prison and eventually had an audience with Stalin. He was telling Stalin his escape story but Stalin was nonplussed. Shortly afterwards Stalin said "Now comrade, tell me how you were captured!"

Myth?

Possibly. I've never heard the story before. I find it kind of unlikely a general who was captured would get an audience with Stalin though. I imagine that sort of thing would be treated very harshly.

There's a lot of myth built up, especially in the Western world about retreating soldiers in the Soviet army being shot by the NKVD, and all sorts of things of that nature. However, from everything I've read, the NKVD interrogations of soldiers who had been captured seems to be very real. I've ordered Anna Yegorova's memoirs as of yesterday, so when I've read my copy I'll let you know what her personal experience was with it.

[GhostBlue]

NightWitch,

Don't want to spoil the book for you but here is a bit from it. This might be interesting and give part of the answer as to what happened after her liberation when Anna was turned over to SMERSH.


First, he confiscated my Party card and the awards. He scrutinized them for a long while under a magnifying glass. I was not allowed to sit down. I felt sure I would collapse, but I somehow managed to remain on my feet. Finally, the major let me sit. Ithought that no force on earth could tear me off of that chair, but I was wrong—when the major barked, “Stand up!” I rose as quickly as I could.
“Where did you get the awards and the Party membership card?
“Why did you allow yourself to be taken prisoner?
“What was your assignment?
“Who gave you that assignment?
“Where were you born?
“Whom are you supposed to contact?”
The major bombarded me with these and other questions all night long, repeating the same ones over and over again, nearly until dawn. No matter what I said, he shouted, “You’re lying, you German dog!”

From Chap. 58 with permission form the editor/translator.

GhostBlue

[Nightwitch]

You didn't spoil anything. I got my copy today at 2pm and finished reading it at 7pm.

[claidemore]

Klaudia Blinova flew Yaks with the 65th Guards and had a similar story. Shot down during a dogfight with FW190s of JG54, she was captured, escaped from a train with other POWs, was interrogated by NKVD once she made it back across the front lines, and eventually released back to her regiment. Stayed with the regiment till the end of the war but wasn't allowed to fly combat missions again.