Women's Aviation Regiment
During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans called the "Night witches" the pilots of the famous 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, created on the basis of the order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR "On the formation of women's aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force" dated October 8, 1941. The initiator of this order was the legendary Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, a participant in the 6,450 km non–stop flight from Moscow to the Far East (village of Kerby), which lasted more than 26 hours, during which the women's world aviation flight range record was set. She used her position and personal contacts with Stalin to obtain permission to form women's combat units.
From the moment of its formation until the end of the war, the Night bomber regiment remained the only unit staffed exclusively by women. It was equipped with Po-2 aircraft. When the regiment was formed, there were 20 aircraft, then their number increased to 45. At the end of the war, there were 36 combat aircraft in service. The strength of the regiment was 115 people aged from 17 to 22 years.
Captain Evdokia Bershanskaya, a pilot with ten years of experience, was appointed commander. Under her command, the regiment fought until the end of the war.
Why "Night Witches"? The Germans called them "Night Witches" because all combat missions were exclusively night-time, and before diving into enemy positions, the pilots turned off the engines on their Po-2 biplanes and only a soft rustle of air under the wings, similar to the sound of a broom, remained audible. And then hell began for the enemy!
This is which regiment Irina Sebrova, a native of the Tula region, joined in the spring of 1942. And in this regiment she managed to become one of the best.
1004 death calls
Irina Sebrova was a real "night witch". She even had a matching number on the tail of the plane–the 13th, which she was proud of.
Irina was born on December 25, 1914 in the village of Tetyakovka, Tula province. After school, she went to Moscow. Graduated from the College of the flour milling industry. She worked in a factory. In her spare time, she attended the Moscow Aero Club, and graduated from the Kherson Military Aviation School of Pilots in 1940. She was an instructor pilot at the Frunze Aero Club in Moscow. In 1942, she graduated from the Military Aviation School of Pilots.
On the fronts since May 1942. During the war, Senior Lieutenant I. F. Sebrova, flight commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (325th Night Bomber Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, 2nd Belorussian Front) of the Guards, made 1,004 combat night sorties to bomb enemy troops! And every flight is towards death. And it happened that during one night Sebrova made nine or ten flights!
When Irina Sebrova was presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944, one enumeration of her exploits in the war took up several pages.
"Dropped 21,600 kg of bomb cargo to destroy the enemy's motorcycle parts, manpower and fortifications. As a result of accurate bombing attacks, the enemy suffered the following damage: 160 strong explosions, 109 fires were caused in the enemy camp, 2 enemy crossings, 4 searchlights, 3 artillery points, and over 2 platoons of enemy infantry were destroyed. The damage inflicted on the enemy is shown far from incomplete data, but only what was to be accounted for.
Comrade. Sebrova performs combat missions perfectly. She is not afraid: neither the fire of anti-aircraft artillery, nor the searchlights of the enemy. He always boldly and confidently takes his plane to the target and accurately hits it. When performing combat missions, he shows high combat skills, perseverance, courage, bravery and heroism.
The link of Comrade. Sebrova dropped 228,000 kg of bomb cargo and over a million leaflets on enemy troops."
And then there are examples from her combat activities. All of them are confirmed by other crews. Only after that, a successful attack was credited to the pilot.
"On the night of September 19, 1943, in the Pavlodolskaya area, despite heavy enemy barrage fire, Sebrova carried out 8 sorties, as a result of personal bombing, two strong fires were caused.
On the night of March 10, 1943, she destroyed enemy manpower and equipment at Krymskaya point and on the road from Krymskaya village and to Kievskaya point. When approaching the village of Kievskaya Sebrova, it was captured by three enemy searchlights and shelled with strong anti-aircraft fire. Skillfully maneuvering, she brought the plane out from under fire unharmed and carried out bombing precisely at the target. As a result of the bomb attacks, subsequent crews of Senior Lieutenant Popova's guard and Senior Lieutenant Klopkova's guard observed a strong explosion and 1 fire. According to the crews, cars with fuel were on fire.
On the night of September 13, 1943, she bombed a concentration of enemy troops in the Novorossiysk area. Despite the strong barrage of enemy fire, skillfully maneuvering, Sebrova reached the target, carried out bombing, resulting in two fires.
On the night of December 3, 1943, at an altitude of 100-150 meters, she dropped bags of ammunition and food to our troops in the Eltigen area. Those leaving the entourage confirmed that on the night of December 3, the task was completed perfectly."
In the winter of 1944, Ira went on vacation for ten days. She visited Moscow and her native village of Tetyakovka, where her father and younger sister Klava stayed. There, Ira learned about how her mother had died. When she returned to the regiment, she told her combat friends:
"The Germans were in the village for a short time, they were quickly kicked out. And Mom died...She probably would still be alive... They took away everyone's warm clothes. And her felt boots were pulled off by force... Mom had a heart condition...".
I. Sebrova's trip to her native place seemed to have doubled her strength.
"Ira Sebrova made the most sorties in the regiment — 1004, it's even scary to pronounce. I don't think you can find a pilot with so many combat missions in the whole world. And she was a quiet, modest, seemingly not a bright girl," recalled her friend I. Rakobolskaya.
She was also awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (three times), the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, the Red Star; medals.
No one is forgotten
23 men became Heroes of the Soviet Union in the regiment. And the irretrievable combat losses of the regiment during the war amounted to 23 people.
The most tragic in the history of the regiment was the night of August 1, 1943, when the regiment lost four aircraft at once. The German command, irritated by the constant night bombing, transferred a group of Messerschmitt Bf.110 fighters with night vision devices to the regiment's area of operations. This came as a complete surprise to the Soviet pilots, who did not immediately understand why the enemy anti-aircraft artillery was inactive, but at the same time, their planes caught fire one by one.
Until they figured out and developed a new tactic for night sorties, they were under constant threat of not returning to their airfield. And Irina Sebrova seemed to escape death only by a miracle.
"Once it seemed to me that the Ira had been shot down by anti–aircraft guns," wrote pilot Natalia Meklin in her memoirs. – It was in the summer of 1943, shortly after that night when our regiment lost 4 crews at once. At that time, Ira was replacing squadron commander Dina Nikulina, who was in the hospital after being wounded. Having received the task to allocate 2 crews for a reconnaissance flight with bombing at a selected target, the Ira decided to fly itself with navigator Zhenya Rudneva, and appointed me and navigator Polina Gelman as the second crew.
Flying along a set route and noting all the firepower that we encountered, Polina and I suddenly saw the beams of searchlights shoot up into the sky ahead and grab the U-2 plane. "Yay!" I thought. The shelling began. The bullet trails seemed to pierce through and through the plane. Heavy machine guns were firing and anti-aircraft guns were firing. The plane was tumbling in the air, trying to get out of the beams.
Having increased the speed, I fly at full throttle straight to Ira. I also had bombs. Now the plane is very close. I see Ira sliding, diving, throwing the plane to the sides, moving away from the fiery tracks. But now there's a searchlight mirror under the wing of my plane, and a machine gun next to it. It's time! Polina pushes the levers and the bombs fly down. The spotlight goes out immediately.
And suddenly I see Iran's plane diving steeply — it seems to me that it is falling, and I lose sight of it. Out of the beams or shot down? This question tormented me all the way back. It seemed to me that the plane was crawling like a turtle, even though we were flying at maximum speed. When we sat down, Ira hadn't returned yet. But now the plane lands. Polina and I run to him and jump onto the plane as we go.
— Ira! Zhenya!
Yes, it was them, safe and sound. Ira and Zhenya got off the plane and calmly, as always, reported to the commander of the Bershanskaya regiment about the completion of the task."
Despite the fact that the pilots died behind the front line, none of them is considered missing. After the war, the regiment's commissar Evdokia Yakovlevna Rachkevich, with money raised by the entire regiment, traveled to all the places where the planes were destroyed, and found the graves of all the dead.
Since 1948, Senior Lieutenant I. F. Sebrova of the Guard has been in reserve. She worked at the Moscow Aviation Institute. She lived in Moscow. She died on April 5, 2000. She was buried at the Rakitki cemetery (plot 2).
