Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat (Modern War Studies) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

For most Americans World War II is John Wayne, Tom Hanks, D-Day, and Pearl Harbor. The plucky British gave a hand now and then and the ungrateful French needed us once more to pull their goose-fat from the fire. Oh yes, it snowed a lot on the Eastern Front. Yet, more than a cursory examination of the Second World War shows even first year history students that the Atlantic Theatre was very much a Russo-German War, with the Western Front playing a secondary role. The Russian story of the Great Patriotic War has not imprinted itself on the American popular imagination. Even less known is the role played in that great struggle by Russia's women.

Over 800,000 women served their Motherland in World War II, nearly 200,000 of them decorated. 89 of those women eventually received Russia's highest award, the Hero of the Soviet Union. Reina Pennington's book tells the story of Russia's airwomen during World War II with the passion of a best selling novel. Yet, the well documented footnotes and thorough Appendix attest to the research that has gone into this scholarly work.

Pennington's book focuses on three female regiments formed by Soviet hero, Marina Raskova, but also gives insight into women who served in mostly male regiments. She provides a gripping account that will satisfy those hearing about the USSR's airwomen for the first time, as well as adding new information about command struggles within the fighter regiment.

The story of 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, staffed through the entire war completely with women pilots, navigators, mechanics and commanding officers, makes any current debates about the suitability of women in combat seem like a convocation of the flat earth society. These women settled that debate long ago. Pennington quotes Soviet test pilot and HSU Mark Gallai on what it was like for the women bombers to fly their missions in the outdated biplanes to which they were assigned:

"It means coming under fire from anti-aircraft weapons of every calibre...it means enemy night fighters, blinding searchlights and often bad weather, too; low cloud, fog, snow, ice, and gales that throw a light aircraft from one wingtip to the other...all this in a Po-2, which is small, slow and as easily set alight as a match."

Yet, these women, averaging 5-15 flights a night(more in the winter, less in the summer), surviving on 2-4 hours of sleep a day for four years, managed to fly over 24,000 sorties, drop 23,000 tons of bombs, and account for 23 Hero of the Soviet Union awards.

Up to this point English language readers interested in the heroic stories of these women have had the excellent works of Kazimiera Cottam ("Women in Air War," "Women in War and Resistance")and the interesting interviews conducted by Anne Noggle ("A Dance with Death"). Yet, as important as these works are, none attempts to tell the story of Soviet airwomen as a complete narrative. Pennington weaves the individual tales of these women into a fabric that is compelling in its humanity. Hers is the story of ordinary women in extraordinary times who achieved what today seems impossible. They gave the full measure of their devotion in a valiant fight that deserves to be known. Reina Pennington's "Wings, Women, & War" does honor and justice to the stories of these women.

I read this book cover to cover on Friday (in the office, door shut, looking very busy). Living with WW 2 aviation everyday through the collection of fighter aircraft we restore and fly in England, it is easy to become a little blasé about the way people lived their extraordinary lives in that time. This book hauled me right up by the collar all over again.

It is remarkable - the pages turn as easily as reading the most engrossing novel and yet this is clearly a thoroughly researched review of these womens' history. I am utterly impressed. To communicate passion for a subject while speaking with such authority - the authority that can only come with knowing and understanding a subject as well as Pennington does - is so rare.

Having read almost every single book available in the narrow field that covers these Soviet women, I belive this book sets the new benchmark.

If only history could always be communicated like this!

Probably the best-known female combatants on the Eastern Front are the three aviation regiments formed by Marina Raskova, aka the "Russian Earhart". During the past several decades, histories, memoirs, novels, photos, and films about these remarkable heroines have become available worldwide. Even so, Reina Pennington has uncovered some new and exciting material for this eagerly-awaited book! "Wings, Women, and War", the latest volume in the Modern War Series, contains a scholarly examination of the training and performance of Soviet airwomen. Of particular relevance to current US military gender-issues is updated information on female interaction with male counterparts and commanders. The 46th Guards Night Bombers were entirely segregated, while the 125th Guards Dive Bombers had integrated ground-personnel and tailgunners, and a male CO. In the 586th Fighter regiment, one squadron which early tranferred to elite, predominantly-male VVS units was permanently replaced by a male squadron. Therefore, objective statistics are available, and comparisons can be made of performances and unit cohesion under sustained combat conditions. Pennington dispels, once and for all, persistent Western myth surrounding the formation of Soviet female aviation regiments: that is, that women were recruited due to desperate shortages of male pilots, or that they were intended only for propaganda. In fact, the female volunteers went into circuit during the period of German air-superiority when Soviet planes, not pilots, were scarce. And though female ACEs were exploited by the front-line press, there was very little coverage otherwise of the Raskova regiments in either Russian or foreign newspapers. Particularly so of the 586th Fighter regiment, which following its formation and for years afterward has been shrouded in controversy. That PVO (Air Defense) unit was plagued by the problematic and incompetent command of the sisters Kazarinova. Although unqualified to fly the regiment's Yak-1's, these VVS officers had been decorated for ominous "unspecified services" during Stalin's military Purges. Distrusted by, yet bitterly envious of their women pilots, the Kazarinovas used their influence for personal revenge against their subordinates. The sisters were eventually replaced by Maj. Aleksandr Gridnev, a legitimate aviator who became the target of the Kazarinovas' resentment. Author Pennington obtained Gridnev's unpublished journal, and conducted extensive interviews with him and surviving regimental personnel, which shed fascinating new light on that controversy. These revelations are in themselves worth the purchase of the book! Pennington also interviewed veterans of the 46th and 125th Guards, but their excerpts and historical backgrounds have a familiar quality. In cross-referencing footnotes and bibliography, it is clear that much of this material's sources had been previously researched for K. J. Cottam's "Women in War and Resistance" and earlier publications. Other new material includes detailed lists of personnel, broken down by regimental assignment, job classification, and gender. "Wings, Women, and War" is a studious, impartial work. As such, it is much less intimate than Cottam's "Women in Air War" and Noggle's "A Dance With Death", which are collections translated from the participants' own words. Thus, all these books complement eachother perfectly, and I recommend them highly for enthusiasts of women's military studies and/or Eastern Front studies!