A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II

Soviet Airwomen in World War II

Text and contemporary portraits by

ANNE NOGGLE

Introduction by Christine A. White

Pilot, deputy commander of the regiment in flying

46th Guards Bomber Regiment

Preface
ix

Acknowledgments
xiii

Introduction, by Christine A. White
3

i. Major Marina Raskova, 1912-43
15

2. The 46th Guards Bomber Regiment
18

3. The 125th Guards Bomber Regiment
99

4. The 586th Fighter Regiment
157

5. Women Fliers in Male Regiments
220

Portraits of Soviet Women Airforce Veterans, 1990-91
247

The Adventure of a Woman Airforce Service Pilot in Moscow
316

In the fall of 199o I traveled to the Soviet Union to photograph and
record the stories of women Soviet Army Air Force veterans, the first
women ever to fly combat. My sponsor was the Aeronautical Society
of the Soviet Union, whose representative, Aleksandr Panchenko, put
me in touch with the personnel of the regiments, scheduled the interviews, and provided a translator. Panchenko himself acted as our
interpreter at times, and his expertise in aviation was extremely helpful. Margarita Ponomaryova, an English-language teacher at the military academy in Moscow, did the bulk of the translating and traveled
with me to Kiev and Leningrad, where we also interviewed.

In the spring of 1991 I was again in the Soviet Union to continue
the interviews. Margarita came to the United States that summer for
two months while we worked further on the translations. In 1992 I
returned to what had now become Russia, to listen to a few more
stories and enjoy the company of my new friends.

When first on my way to the Soviet Union, with the whole process
of logistics behind me, I finally had time to reflect on my intentions:
what was this commitment? During World War II just over a thousand of us in the United States won our wings, graduating from what
must be thought of as an experimental flight training program, and
became officially known as Women Airforce Service Pilots-women
military pilots-our country's first. Most of us were very young, and
our thoughts were not on the historical significance of what we were
doing but on the flying assignments that lay before us and of doing
well at fulfilling them.