The Ukranian woman posed in this publicity photo, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was the most highly decorated sniper in the Soviet armies, with more than 300 confirmed kills. She was taken out of the line and used for propaganda tours, during one of which she visited the United States. She met FDR at the White House, becoming the first Soviet citizen to visit the White House.
Many Soviet women fought behind the German lines as partisans. (This is an obviously posed publicity photo.)
Another Soviet partisan.
. . .
Marina Raskova, Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the world's earliest first class aviators, used her influence with the Soviet government to convince Stalin to found a women's aviation regiment--the 588th Night Bomber regiment, which became the most decorated aviation regiment in the Soviet Union, male or female. The entire regiment was female, mechanics and flight crew, and of course, the support personnel.
The 588th was stationed north of Stalingrad, and quickly came to terrorize the Germans, who called them "the Night Witches." They could, of course, fly more sorties during the long nights of the Russian winters, and the flight officers shown above--Katya Ryabova and Nadya Popova--set a record with 18 sorties in a single night.
. . .
Lydia Litvyak served in the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, another of the three all-female aviation regiments, and was an ace with more than ten kills. She was known as the White Rose of Stalingrad.
Raya Surnachevskaya, Hero of the Soviet Union, was a fighter ace, who commanded a squadron in the 586 Fighter Aviation Regiment.
Captain Maria Smirnova, Hero of the Soviet Union, was one of the "Night Witches," the most highly decorated pilot in the unit, which was re-designated the 46th Guards Aviation Regiment. The Guards designation was the highest unit commendation in the Soviet armed forces.
More women of the "Night Witches."
Rosa Shanina was another deadly Soviet sniper, with more than 100 kills (confirmed kills were difficult to prove, and most snipers undoubtedly had far more kills than the confirmed number).
Yelizaveta Mironova (pictured here in a publicity still) was a sniper in the Soviet Marines.
G.I.s were startled to find Russian women at the front lines when the American and Soviet armies met at the river Elbe. This publicity still shows American war correspondents with Russians soldiers in Torgau, Germany.
Katya Budanova was another Soviet fighter ace. Both Budanova and Litvyak were killed in action.
. . .
Natalya Meklin flew 982 combat sorties with the "Nachthexen," the Night Witches as the Germans dubbed them. The women flew the U-2/Po-2 biplane, an old, slow 1928 model. They developed a technique of feathering the prop, and then shutting down the engine to glide down to their bomb run altitude, starting up the engine again as they made their bomb run--which accounts for the terror they inspired in the German infantry, who didn't hear them coming until it was too late.
Soviet female aviators were awarded Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest military honor, on 29 occasions. Twenty-three of these went to the Night Witches.
More than 800,000 Soviet women served during the Great Patriotic War. Although most of them served in support roles, to free men for the front, more than 150,000 served in combat. A great many served as drivers of armored fighting vehicles, because they fit more comfortably into the driver's compartment, and it did not require great physical strength. The woman pictured above, Alexandra Samusenko, rose to command an armored battalion. She was killed in combat in 1945, just before the end of the war.
