World War II German nickname for the female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, known later as the 46th “Taman” Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, of the Soviet Air Forces. The regiment flew harassment russian ladies night and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 until the end of the war. At its largest, it had 40 two-person crews.

An attack technique of the night bombers was to idle the engine near the target and glide to the bomb release point, with only wind noise left to reveal their location. German soldiers likened the sound to broomsticks and named the pilots “Night Witches. When the regiment was deployed to the war-front in June 1942, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment was within the 4th Air Army on the Southern Front. Members of the regiment were deployed from the Engels Military Aviation School to the Southern Front as part of the 218th Division of the 4th Air Army on 23 May 1942, where they arrived on 27 May. 12 June 1942: The regiment’s baptism by fire took place on the Southern front in bombings of river crossings on the Mius, Severny Donets, and Don rivers as well as roads in the Sal steppes and Stavropol suburbs. December 1942: In the Battle of the Caucasus, the regiment defended the city of Vladikavkaz as well as bombing enemy equipment and troops in Digora, Mozdok, and Prokhladnaya.

January 1943: Assisted in the breakthrough of enemy defensive lines on the Terek River as well as offensive operations against ground troops in the Kuban River valley and Stavropol. September 1943: Assisted in the breakthrough of the Kuban bridgehead and the liberation of Novorossiysk. July 1943: Participated in the campaign of aerial warfare over Kuban. Eltigen Operation as part of the Crimean Offensive and in the city of Sevastopol. July 1944: Bombed enemy fortifications along the Pronya River, helping to take control of Białystok, Cherven, Minsk, and Mogilev in Byelorussia. August 1944: Operations over Poland in campaigns to expel the Germans from the cities of Augustów, Warsaw, and Ostrołęka. January 1945: Participated in the East Prussian Offensive.

March 1945: Participated in offensives over Gdynia and Gdansk. 15 October 1945: The regiment was disbanded following the end of the war and service members were demobilized. In total the regiment collectively accumulated 28,676 flight hours, dropped over 3,000 tons of bombs and over 26,000 incendiary shells, damaging or completely destroying 17 river crossings, nine railways, two railway stations, 26 warehouses, 12 fuel depots, 176 armored cars, 86 firing points, and 11 searchlights. Yevdokiya Nosal, the first member of the regiment to be awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the first female pilot to be posthumously awarded the title. Irina Sebrova flew 1,008 sorties in the war, more than any other member of the regiment.