The Night Witches
America had Amelia Earhart. Britain had Amy Johnson, and Russia had Marina Raskova. "Who?" I hear some ask, while others will know straight away. Aviatrixes. Record breaking female pilots. While Amelia Earhart tragically went missing during a flight in 1937, Britain's Amy Johnson signed up during Word War Two to fly with the ATA, tragically losing her life in the Thames Estuary on a freezing day in January 1941. Marina Raskova, often regarded as the Russian Amelia Earhart, was the first woman to become a navigator with the Soviet Air Force in 1933. One year later, she began teaching at the Zhukovskii Air Academy, again the first woman to do so. Marina Raskova When WW2 broke out, many female pilots volunteered for service, but their applications were blocked. It would appear that they were actively discouraged from serving their country, undoubtedly a sign of the times. After all, female pilots were not engaged in active service in America or Britain either. They