Women in Air War

Book excerpt: This book is a unique collection of WWII memoirs that tell, in a simple, unaffected style, the story of the three women's air fighting groups which owed their existence to Marina Raskova, a remarkable pioneer woman navigator-pilot. My superiors made no distinction between male and female regiments of which the girls were very proud. I must admit, however, I sometimes wished they remembered that our regiment consisted of women, and would not send them into the very hell. Every pilot, every crew member became dear to me. I loved them all, was proud of them, and dreaded the possibility that any one of them might not return...," wrote Major Valentin Markov, the male commander of the women's dive bomber wing, in this unique collection of WWII memoirs that tell, in a simple, unaffected style, the story of the three women's wings which owed their existence to Marina Raskova, a remarkable pioneer woman navigator-pilot. Of the three women's wings, the night bomber regiment was awarded an unprecedented number of Gold Stars of Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest Soviet decoration, and its aircrews at times flew as many as eighteen short-range missions per night. The unit was staffed exclusively by women. In contrast, the dive bomber and fighter wings included some male personnel, mainly in ground support roles. As well, the fighter wing eventually acquired one male squadron, in part as replacement of a female squadron previously sent to Stalingrad. Alexander Gridnev, the unit's second permanent wing commander, recently presented his controversial memoirs to Reina Pennington, Russian history professor and retired U.S. Air Force captain, for translation into English.