Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II [Paperback]

Bruce Myles (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers; 1997 edition (June 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897332881
• ISBN-13: 978-0897332880
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #780,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Night Witches, August 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II (Paperback)

Night Witches is a pioneer and readable non-fiction book about Soviet airwomen in combat in World War II. However, it is bad journalism as it was written in a somewhat sensational manner and is full of petty mistakes, such as misspelled names, and airwomen assigned to wrong photo captions, ranks, appointments, and even regiments. The appellation "Night Witches" itself, coined by the enemy, was considered offensive by Soviet airwomen. Night Witches has been largely superseded by books written or edited by the following: Anne Noggle (A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II, 1994); Kazimiera J. Cottam (Women in Air War: The Eastern Front in World War II and Women in War and Resistance, 1997 and 1998); and a forthcoming book by Reina Pennington (Wings, Women and War: Soviet Women in Military Aviation in the Second World War, University Press of Kansas, 2001).

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These airwomen deserve recognition, May 13, 2000

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II (Paperback)

Despite the occasional misinformation, and the journalistic embellishment in novelizing these true historical events, this is still a terrific book which deserves a larger audience. Any high-school student will find it as inspiring and historically-significant as "Anne Frank's Diary" or "Summer of My German Soldier". It's an entertaining read for anyone who would like to get a personal insight of the young Soviet women (many of them idealistic teenagers) who joined the struggle against the invaders of their homeland. And these gallant Russians' story deserves to be remembered! Author Bruce Myles thought so, after accidentally encountering a single reference to the women's air-regiments of the Great Patriotic War. He was so intrigued that he came to Russia to personally interview, through a translator, a number of veterans of those regiments. His admiration and respect for the veterans and their deeds is evident in his writing. Read this book along with K. J. Cottam's more factual biographies and translated memoirs and Anne Noggles' more recent interviews of Soviet women combat-aviators.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, January 17, 2000

By 

H. Magill "HLM" (Phoenix, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II (Paperback)

While the historical accuracy may be in question, the book itself is very enjoyable and exciting to read. I wish the text had not ended with the war but gone on to discuss how the women re-adjusted to society and what they did after the war.