Over a four year period (between 1941 to 1945), the 588th Night Bombing Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces flew an astounding estimated 30,000 missions and dropped some 23,000 tons of bombs. Every night, up to 40 planes, with a crew of two, using only maps and compass, and carrying only two bombs, would fly their dangerous low-level missions at night in sometimes freezing weather and through walls of enemy fire. The astounding fact is that the regiment was comprised of young Russian women ages 17 to 26. Flying the overwhelmingly outclassed Polikarpov Po-2 plywood and canvas biplane (usually used as a cropduster), these amazing and courageous young pilots flew their missions primarily at night, at low altitudes, and during their bombing run, with the engine cut off. The harried Germans nicknamed them the "Nachthexen", "Night Witches" as they would appear out of nowhere and with the engines idled during their final bomb run made a ruffled whooshing sound that was sometimes compared to an owl swooping silently on it's prey or like witches on silent broomsticks. Their actions kept the German troops anxious and fearful as well as accurately inflicting serious damage. Evidence of their success in this is that anyone who downed a Nachthexen was automatically awarded the Iron Cross. An interesting note, is that aerodynamically, a great deal of their success was that the Po-2 could fly and maneuver slower than the stall speed of the German fighters and was able to evade them with a surprising agility. The Russian crews were forced to fly at a lower altitude because of the weight of their bombs and the pilots and gunner carried no parachutes, so the two-seater needed any edge it could muster. Given its construction, when hit with tracers, the flimsy craft would ignite like paper so this was no small advantage The Soviet Union was the first country to allow women to fly in combat and return enemy fire (and drop bombs of course). Nadezhda Popova who recently passed on at age 91, flew an amazing 852 missions and 18 missions on a single night. An amazing story of dedication and courage that makes for some interesting and surprising reading. I hope to have more to come on this theme. Gives me a chance to try out more experiments with these alpha plane forests, and give credit to these amazing young women aviators. Polikarpov Po-2: Excellent model generously available free on sharecg, by Pedro Caparros. Thank you for your great work on this, Pedro. Pilots and Navigator/gunners: The free and amazingly versatile ApolloMax figure (female morphs!) and ADH3d flight gear Poser7, Vue 6 Infinite, PS Cs3