The Night Witches

We made 12 to 14 combat flights during the long winter nights. An extra five minutes of being on the ground could keep you from making another sortie. The pilots would get so tired that they didn't even get out of the cockpit when the aircraft landed between missions. Despite these being very basic by planes, the two-woman crew did have a flight plan. All the Germans could hear really was the wind in the wires and they likened it to women on broomsticks and they became the night witches.