Customer Reviews

A Dance With Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II

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4 star:		(1)
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In this excellent book, surviving Soviet veterans of World War ll are interviewed about their service in the Red Air Force. Not only pilots and navigators, but gunners and ground crew also, relate their experiences of what is commemorated in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Ms. Noggles'recent photos (taken in the early 1990's) contrast poignantly with the black-and-white photos, taken over half a century ago, of the young airwomen in uniform. I highly recommend this book. Read about the courage and sacrifice of these aviators, and the horrific circumstances and conditions which they endured, and remember that these were perfectly ordinary young Soviet women. Some had personally experienced Stalinist oppression, but when their country's existence was threatened, they all voluntarily joined in her defense.

This book touched me.

This book is well-written, informative, clear. These accounts of bravery are honest, heartfelt, and depict perfectly the little-known women who flew bomber and fighter combat mission against Luftwaffe aces. They overcame criticism and doubts by their superiors. They fought during terrible winters, suffocating summers, with bare necessities and strict military discipline. They lived, chatted, loved, and died, caught in the largest-scale military conflict in history, and survived, as heroes, as reminders to us all that under incredible odds and the most adverse circumstances, the human spirit rises to the occasion and overcomes.

I will read this book many times.

I loved this book about the brave women who fought in world war 2. Not many people had known that women flew in combat so long ago. This book will make the readers see what it was like when everybody had to fight. These women are heroines. I like the photos of the women in their old age with all their medals. They look like anybodies Grandmother! I would be proud to know them. This book makes me feel like I do.

A superlative book..action packed! I was astonished at their courage and patriotism. (Who would actually go out on nightly bombing attacks in a PO-2? They did!) Their continual struggle against the Nazis was made so much more burdensome under the unjust tyranical yoke of Communism. What fine women and what a great "eye-opener".

I found this book to be much more accurate than any internet source about the same subject. Further credibility is lent by the fact that many of those interviewed reflected upon the same events, from different perspectives (e.g., the so unfortunate death of the their contemporary idol, Marina Raskova). As with all eyewitness accounts, you can also get a grim reality of life during the war in Soviet-held territories. Imaging a mother, who has to put her children into an orphanage, because her skills are needed on the front-line. There is nearly no account at all without mentioning the death of a husband, brother or father in the war - everyone seems to have lost someone very dear. This book is a must-read for every fan of IL-2 Sturmovik air combat simulator.

The Soviet Airwomen in WW2 were very overlooked by the international community. This book is one of the best sources of information on them, because that's exactly what this book is. Their story, told in their own way.

I have studied carefully and for a long time this book. As the author of the most recent book about the Night Witches ("Le Streghe della Notte", in Italian) and the other Soviet Aviatrixes, I feel deeply in debt with Noggle's book. This book is a treasure. There are so many important informations and datas that I used and quoted in my book. Its biggest merit is that it contains the memories of many Soviet airwomen, famous and almost unknown, that now are disappeared or that are no more available to speak to interviewer, mostly if from foreign countries. Moreover this is probably the only book that is quoted as excellent by Russian Experts and museum directors. If I can say, there are only some smalls defects. The first and bigger is that this book is not an historical book. It is a book, as I said before, of memories. So to read the history of the Soviet Airwomen, You have to buy other books, those of Henry Sakaida ("Heroines of Soviet Union" Osprey, Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941-45 (Elite)) available here on Amazon. Or, even better, because is more exaustive, that of Pennington ("Wings, War and Women" Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat (Modern War Studies) ). Moreover, sometimes the veterans look a little confused in their memories (for instance, Pasportnikova wrote that the presumed body of Litvyak was found in Bielorussia, while the place was in Ukraine). Last, there are the same problems that affect all the English-written books about the Soviet airwomen: 1) the pictures are few and of low quality; 2) It relies too much on Soviet sources, that in many cases are wrong for propagandistic reasons or because they did not confront them with the German sources. So, for instance, You can find here that on the 2 June 1943, during an air battle against Germans they shot down five Luftwaffe fighters, while on that day the Jagdgeschwader involved did not lose any aircraft.