No offence but Amy Johnson was a babe and a v cool aviator lady.
THERE NEEDS TO BE A MOVIE ABOUT THE NIGHT WITCHES DAMNIT.
BADASS LADIES BOMBING THE SHIT OUTA NAZI’S. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE??
OKAY WE”RE GONNA DO HISTORY KIDs, GET READY FOR THE MOST FACE-MELTINGLY AWESOME WAR STORY YOU’VE EVER HEARD about Irina Sebrova and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, or Night Witches as the Nazi’s called them because they hated them so much. The Night Witches were a group of Russian Aviatrixes during WW2,
THESE ARE THEM, AND
THIS IS THEIR BADASS LEADER IRINA SEBROVA.
now Russia had absolute shit equipment during WW2, and since the Night Witches were all women they were given the shittest of the shit equipment, and by shit, I mean World War One era biplanes that would hardly fly.
Yeah, ^THIS^ is what they had to fly, their job was to fly stealth missions. STEALTH. MISSIONS. In a super loud bi-plane that was originally meant to be fucking crop-duster. Now, in this plane, the navigator sat in front and the pilot sat in back (fairly common for bi-planes). Now, since these planes were so deafeningly loud and they were supposed to be flying stealthy night missions, the Night Witches solved that problem, BY TURNING OFF THE GODDAMN PLANE AND GLIDING ON AIR CURRENTS OVER THEIR BOMBING SITE. That is hardcore as fuck. Now, in addition to basically being flying death-traps, these planes had a slight problem, and by slight problem, I mean sometimes the bombs wouldn’t release. Now how do you solve that problem? How can you complete your mission if the bombs don’t drop? Well, if you’re a Night Witch you do what the navigators would do, AND CLIMB ONTO THE FUCKING WING AND DETACH THE BOMB BY HAND! You thought turning off the plane was badass? The plane was off while they were climbing onto the wing of a plane made of cloth and wood! Now to make things more badass, the Night Witches weren’t given supplies that were deemed ‘extraneous’ like, oh, a goddamn PARACHUTE. Seriously, no parachutes, and Irina Sebrova survived being shot down, TWICE, each time having to dodge German patrols while surviving the Russian winter. Now, for an American bomber in World War 2, if he survived 25 missions he was given an honorable discharge and it was considered he had done his duty to the Allies. Want to know how many missions Irina Sebrova flew? It’s more than 25. Irina Sebrova, Wing Commander of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew 92, that’s almost four tours of duty for an American, and those were just day missions!! Guess how many night missions Sebrova flew? ONE THOUSAND EIGHT. That’s right, she flew 1,008 night missions and 92 day missions, if she was American this would have meant she completed forty-four tours of duty. The Night Witches weren’t just badasses, they were heroes with such incredible amounts of courage that they carried out the most insane acts of braveryto protect their homeland and their people.
Some more pics of these amazing women.
Just to add to the awesomeness, the Night Witches have a suitably metal song written about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7NSUFDHFgg
And a really good RPG! http://bullypulpitgames.com/games/night-witches/
Yup! Which I’ll be playing soon with some other game industry ladies!
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space, painted by Amir Nuriahmetovich Mazitov, 1964.
Betty Skelton was the First Lady of firsts. She was the first woman to undergo NASAs physical and psychological tests for astronauts, plus she broke numerous flying records AND racing records. She flew her first plane at age 12, got her pilots license at 16 and joined the WASPs at 18.
She was also complimented for her ability to do all of this while maintaining her unwavering femininity.
Anna Fisher, an astronaut with the sparkle in her eyes on the cover of Life magazine in 1985. She was the first mother in space.
