Tombow 676: Tombow Dual Brush Pen – 676 – Royal Purple

The formation of was led by the legendary Marina Raskova. Captain Evdokia Bershanskaya, a pilot with ten years of experience, was appointed commander of the regiment. Under her command, the regiment fought until the end of the war. Sometimes it was jokingly called: “Dunkin regiment” , with a hint of a completely female composition and justified by the name of the commander of the regiment . The party-political leadership of the regiment was headed by Maria Runt. The formation, training and coordination of the regiment was carried out in in the city of Engels .The air regiment differed from other formations in that it was completely female. Created according to the same order, two other female air regiments became mixed during the war, but the 588th air regiment remained completely female until its disbandment: only women occupied all positions in the regiment, from mechanics and technicians to navigators and pilots.

On May 23, 1942, the regiment flew to the front, where it arrived on May 27. Then its number was 115 people – the majority were between the ages of 17 and 22 years. The regiment became part of the 218th night bomber aviation division.The first sortie took place in on June 12, 1942.

By order of the NKO of the USSR No. 64, dated February 8, 1943, for the courage and heroism of the personnel shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, the regiment was awarded the honorary title “Guards” , a new number and was transformed into 46- 1st Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment . For some time, Fortus, Maria Alexandrovna, was the chief of staff of the regiment, then – Rakobolskaya, Irina Vyacheslavovna.

From May 15, 1944, he was a member of the 325th Night Bomber Aviation Division. During the liberation of Crimea in May 1944, the regiment was temporarily part of the 2nd Guards Night Bomber Aviation Division. The Germans nicknamed them “Night Witches” for the fact that all combat missions were exclusively night, and before diving into enemy positions, the pilots turned off the engines on their Po-2 biplane and only a quiet rustle of air under the wings was heard, similar to the sound of a broomstick.

On October 15, 1945, the regiment was disbanded, and most of the pilots were demobilized.

Combat route

On June 12, 1942, the regiment’s first combat sortie took place. Then it was the territory of the Salsk steppes. At the same time, the regiment suffered its first losses.

• Until August 1942, the regiment fought on the rivers Mius, Don and in the suburbs of Stavropol.
• From August to December 1942, the regiment took part in the defense of Vladikavkaz.
• In January 1943, the regiment took part in breaking through the enemy’s defensive lines on the Terek River.
• From March to September 1943, the regiment’s pilots took part in breaking through the Blue Line defense on the Taman Peninsula and liberating Novorossiysk.
• Air battles in the Kuban – from April to July 1943
• From November 1943 to 1944, the regiment supported the landings on the Kerch Peninsula (including the famous Eltigen), the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula and Sevastopol.
• In June-July 1944, the regiment fought in Belarus, helping to liberate Mogilev, Cherven, Minsk, Bialystok.
• Since August 1944, the regiment operated on the territory of Poland, participated in the liberation of Augustow, Warsaw, Ostroleka.
• In January 1945, the regiment fought in East Prussia.
• In March 1945, the regiment’s guards took part in the liberation of Gdynia and Gdansk.
• In April 1945 and until the end of the war, the regiment helped in breaking through the enemy’s defenses on the Oder.

For three years of fighting, the regiment never went to reorganize. This is how they are characterized in the memoirs of I.V. Rakobolskaya and N.F. Kravtsova TTD “Po-2”: “The regiment was equipped with Po-2 aircraft. When the regiment was formed, there were 94,695 20 94,696 aircraft, then their number increased to 94,695 45 94,696.At the end of the war, there were 94,695 36 94,696 combat aircraft in the ranks. Our training aircraft was not designed for military operations. Wooden biplane with two open cockpits , located one behind the other, and dual controls – for the pilot and navigator. (Before the war, pilots were trained on these machines). Without radio communication and armored backs, capable of protecting the crew from bullets, with a low-power motor, which could reach a maximum speed of 94,695 120 km / h . The aircraft did not have a bomb bay, the bombs were hung in bomb racks directly under the plane of the aircraft. There were no sights, we created them ourselves and called them PPR (simpler than a steamed turnip ). The amount of bomb load varied from 100 to 300 kg . On average, we took 150-200 kg. But during the night the plane managed to make several sorties, and the total bomb load was comparable to that of a large bomber. The control was twofold: the aircraft could be controlled by both the pilot and the navigator. There were cases when navigators brought planes to the base and landed after the pilot died. “

Until August 1943, the pilots did not take parachutes with them, preferring to take another 20 kg of bombs instead.

Machine guns on airplanes also appeared only in 1944. Prior to that, the only weapons to protect against enemy fighters on board were the TT pistols of pilots and navigators. During the hostilities, the pilots of the air regiment made 23,672 sorties. Of these:

• Battle for the Caucasus – 2920 sorties;
• liberation of the Kuban, Taman, Novorossiysk – 4623 departures;
• liberation of Crimea – 6140 flights;
• liberation of Belarus – 400 flights;
• liberation of Poland – 5421 departures;
• Battle in Germany – 2000 sorties.

The breaks between sorties were 5-8 minutes, sometimes the crew made 6-8 sorties per night in the summer and 10-12 in the winter.

In total, the aircraft were in the air for 28 676 hours, (1191 full days).

Pilots dropped more than 3 thousand tons of bombs, 26,000 incendiary shells. The regiment destroyed and damaged 17 crossings, 9 railway trains, 2 railway stations, 26 warehouses, 12 fuel tanks, 176 cars, 86 firing points, 11 searchlights. 811 fires and 1,092 high-power explosions were caused.Also, 155 bags of ammunition were dropped. During the combat history of the regiment, 302 people served in it, with 94 695 91 94 696 military specialties from the regiment commander to the parachute stacker.

Irrecoverable combat losses of the regiment amounted to 94,695 23 people and 28 aircraft Despite the fact that the pilots died behind the front line, none of them is considered missing. After the war, the commissar of the regiment Evdokia Yakovlevna Rachkevich , with money collected by the entire regiment, toured all the places where the planes were killed, and found the graves of all the victims.

The most tragic in the history of the regiment was on the night of August 1, 1943, , when four aircraft were lost at once. The German command, irritated by the constant night bombing, transferred a group of night fighters to the regiment’s area of ​​operations. This came as a complete surprise to the Soviet pilots, who did not immediately understand why the enemy anti-aircraft artillery was inactive, but the planes caught fire one by one. When it became clear that night fighters Messerschmitt Bf.110 , flights were discontinued, but before that, the German ace pilot, who only in the morning became the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, Josef Kotsiok, managed to burn three Soviet bombers in the air together with the crews, which did not have parachutes. Another bomber was lost due to anti-aircraft artillery fire. Killed that night: Anna Vysotskaya with navigator Galina Dokutovich, Evgenia Krutova with navigator Elena Salikova, Valentina Polunina with navigator Glafira Kashirina, Sofya Rogova with navigator Evgenia Sukhorukova.

However, in addition to combat, there were other losses. So, on August 22, 1943, in the hospital , the chief of communications of the regiment, Valentina Stupina, died of tuberculosis. And on April 10, 1943, already at the airfield, one plane, landing in the dark, landed directly on another, which had just landed. As a result, the pilots Polina Makagon and Lida Svistunova died immediately, Yulia Pashkova died from her wounds in the hospital. Only one pilot survived – Khiuaz Dospanova, who received severe injuries – her legs were broken, but after several months of hospitals, the girl returned to service, although due to improperly fused bones, she became an invalid of the 2nd group.Crews also perished even before being sent to the front, in accidents during training.

During the war years, 23 servicemen of the regiment were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union:

1. Guards Art. Lieutenant Aronova Raisa Ermolaevna – 960 sorties. Awarded on 15 May 1946.
2. Guards st. Lieutenant Belik Vera Lukyanovna – 813 sorties. Awarded posthumously on 23 February 1945.
3. Guards st. Lieutenant Gasheva Rufina Sergeevna – 848 sorties.Awarded on 23 February 1945.
4. Guards st. Lieutenant Gelman Polina Vladimirovna – 869 sorties. Awarded on 15 May 1946.
5. Guards st. Lieutenant Evgenia Andreevna Zhigulenko – 968 sorties.
6. Guards st. Lieutenant Makarova Tatyana Petrovna – 628 sorties. Awarded posthumously.
7. Guards st. Lieutenant Meklin Natalya Fedorovna – 980 sorties. Awarded on 23 February 1945.
8. Guards Major Nikulina Evdokia Andreevna – 740 sorties.Awarded on 26 October 1944.
9. Guards Lieutenant Nosal Evdokia Ivanovna – 354 sorties. Awarded posthumously. The first female pilot to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.
10. Guards st. Lieutenant Parfyonova Zoya Ivanovna – 680 sorties. Awarded on 18 August 1945. Participant of the Victory Parade.
11. Guards st. Lieutenant Evdokia Borisovna Pasko – 790 sorties.
12. Guard Captain Popova Nadezhda Vasilievna – 852 sorties.
13. Guards st. Lieutenant Raspopova Nina Maksimovna – 805 sorties.
14. Guard Captain Larisa Nikolaevna Rozanova – 793 sorties.
15. Guards st. Lieutenant Rudneva Evgenia Maksimovna – 645 sorties. Awarded posthumously.
16. Guards st. Lieutenant Ryabova Ekaterina Vasilievna – 890 sorties.
17. Guard Captain Olga Alexandrovna Sanfirova – 630 sorties. Awarded posthumously.
18. Guards st. Lieutenant Sebrova Irina Fedorovna – 1,004 sorties.
19. Guard Captain Maria Vasilievna Smirnova – 950 sorties.
20. Guards st. Lieutenant Syrtlanova Maguba Huseynovna – 780 sorties. Awarded on 15 May 1946.
21. Guards st. Lieutenant Ulyanenko Nina Zakharovna – 915 sorties. Awarded on 18 August 1945.
22. Guards st. Lieutenant Khudyakova Antonina Fedorovna – 926 sorties.
23. Guard Captain Marina Pavlovna Chechneva – 810 sorties. Awarded on 15 May 1946.

In 1995, two more navigators of the regiment received the title of Hero of Russia:

• Guards st. Lieutenant Akimova Alexandra Fedorovna – 680 sorties.
• Guards st. Lieutenant Tatyana Nikolaevna Sumarokova – 809 sorties.

The title “People’s Hero” (Kazakhstan) was awarded to one pilot:

• Guards Art. Lieutenant Dospanova Khiuaz Kairovna – more than 300 sorties.

As you can see, it was not in vain that the enemies were afraid of them! Everlasting memory! And may it never happen again! A woman is called to give life! And do not take away …