Wings, women, and war : Soviet airwomen in World War II combat /

Former USAF Soviet intelligence specialist Pennington has used both her Russian and doctoral training to make the first serious study of the women who served in the three all-female Soviet air regiments. Her work eclipses Bruce Myles's Night Witches (1981) and Anne Noggle's A Dance with Death (CH, Feb'95) because she visited Russia, interviewed the survivors, and had access to their diaries and photo albums as well as to official archives. John Erickson's foreword helps set the context. What is notable is that women had been in aviation from before the Great Patriotic War. When the Nazis invaded on June 22, 1941, women flocked to volunteer and flew as many as 14 sorties a night and some 100 operations before being either killed or rested. The bibliography is a virtual checklist of Russian and English sources; an appendix lists the names of those who served. All levels and collections. R. Higham emeritus, Kansas State University