USA Today: Nazi-fighting 'Night Witch' dead at 91

[Poll_Blind]

Nazi-fighting 'Night Witch' dead at 91:

There can't be too many World War II heroes with a better nickname than this: The "Night Witches" were a group of Russian women who piloted bomb-laden crop dusters over the invading German army, and their story is getting a fresh look in the wake of the death of one of the first and most celebrated women to join their ranks. Nadezhda Popova, who died in Moscow on July 8 at age 91, can claim 852 of the 30,000 missions the women flew in a 4-year span. (PRI's The Worldshares this amazing counterpoint: U.S. bomber pilots were generally "rotated out" of combat after completing 25 missions.) During that time the "Night Witches" unleashed 23,000 tons of bombs on the Nazis, helping push them out of Russia.

They got their name from the Germans, who likened what the New York Times calls the "whooshing" of their planes to the sound a witch's broomstick might make; the Washington Post explains they killed their engines right before unloading their bombs to up the surprise factor. And they were good at what they did, so much so that Germans spewed rumors that the women relied on pills and injections that gave them cat-like night vision.

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I'm just in love with that second paragraph. Look, life doesn't go on forever and we all have to die sometime. But when you've lived a life which includes an obituarial anecdote that your combat against the Nazis was so fierce they thought you had supernatural powers? You had a very good run.

PB