"Deadliest Woman in WWII?" Topic

When a college-educated kindergarten teacher walked into a Soviet Union military center during the fire and rage of World War II, it did not seem as strange then as it may sound now. It was late 1941, a year that ended with the death of her first brother during the siege of Leningrad. She was initially turned away by the local military commissariat who knew how hot it was at the front, but after losing two more siblings, in 1942 Roza Shanina finally succeeded in joining the 2,484 Soviet women serving their motherland as snipers…

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That's pretty incredible.

Not her? link

Information is the power:
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Rosie the Riveter!

My wife?

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Link refers to certain diseases that incapacitated armies throughout the ages.

Rosie the Riveter!

My Mom built parts for P-39s during the war. Many P-39s were sent to the USSR in Lend Lease …

If wiki is to be trusted, 800.000 women made up 3% of military personnel in the Red Army (it'd be much larger in partisan units but impossible to find statistics there).

Ladies received 200.000 decorations and 89 received the Hero of the Soviet Union award.

The three female air force regiments flew over 30.000 combat sorties.

Tough ladies :)

Yes, I remember reading about one female Soviet air unit called "The Night Witches", IIRC. And they were one of the most highly decorated air units for the Russians.

An autobiographical war story told by an American officer who was liberated by and fought beside the Soviet Army, tells of an encounter with a female tank commander whose rousing battle-exhortation to the male troops accompanying the tanks in an assault was "Follow my @$$ like you could get it!"

The best book I've found to date on the subject of the three combat air regiments of women in the VVS during WW2 is Anne Noggle's A Dance With Death.

Ms. Noggle was herself a WASP during WW2 and became a professional photographer postwar. She had encountered a number of VVS female pilots when handing over Lend-Lease aircraft. Noggle stated that the one thing that hit her immediately about her Soviet counterparts was that they always asked "Where is push-push?" meaning "Where is the gun trigger?" something that Noggle and her fellow WASPS were not told as part of their formal flight and aircraft familiarization training.

This led Noggle to eventually travel to Russia in the 1990s, and interview surviving female veterans of the VVS from WW2. A Dance With Death is the result of that effort, and it is one Helluva read IMHO.

The two bomber regiments were given Guards status in recognition of their excellent combat performance. The fighter regiment was restricted to defensive patrols, which under the rigid tactical doctrine of the VVS meant that they were not afforded the luxury of "hot pursuit" granted to Western fighter pilots. Even so, a number of the best female VVS fighter pilots like Lilya Litvak were seconded to male fighter units, and went on like Litva to achieve fighter ace status.

There is even an interview with the only female IL-2 Sturmovik pilot, a woman who was so competent as a pilot that she was promoted to the position of regimental navigator responsible for leading all combat sorties to and from their targets.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Maybe Julia Child and her cooking _before_ she learned about salmonella and food poisoning?

An autobiographical war story told by an American officer who was liberated by and fought beside the Soviet Army, tells of an encounter with a female tank commander whose rousing battle-exhortation to the male troops accompanying the tanks in an assault was "Follow my @$$ like you could get it!"

That would be Guards Captain Aleksandra Samusenko
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