Pe-2 Female Pilot and Navigator

[Nightwitch]

Why was she interned by NKVD?

She had to be "tested" by the NKVD because she was captured. It was automatically assumed that anyone who had been captured was either a traitor or a spy when they got back to the Soviet Union. It was kind of "illegal" to be captured, for lack of a better word. In cases with really high scoring aces who were captured, sometimes the support of the commanding officer was enough to get them back in their regiments. However, being captured automatically made you ineligible for the HSU, and it effectively killed your career - assuming you didn't "fail" your NKVD test.

 

[Graeme]

It was automatically assumed that anyone who had been captured was either a traitor or a spy when they got back to the Soviet Union.

Hi Nightwitch. I can't remember the General's(?) name but he escaped from a German prison and eventually had an audience with Stalin. He was telling Stalin his escape story but Stalin was nonplussed. Shortly afterwards Stalin said "Now comrade, tell me how you were captured!"

Myth?

 

[Nightwitch]

Hi Nightwitch. I can't remember the General's(?) name but he escaped from a German prison and eventually had an audience with Stalin. He was telling Stalin his escape story but Stalin was nonplussed. Shortly afterwards Stalin said "Now comrade, tell me how you were captured!"

Myth?

Possibly. I've never heard the story before. I find it kind of unlikely a general who was captured would get an audience with Stalin though. I imagine that sort of thing would be treated very harshly.

There's a lot of myth built up, especially in the Western world about retreating soldiers in the Soviet army being shot by the NKVD, and all sorts of things of that nature. However, from everything I've read, the NKVD interrogations of soldiers who had been captured seems to be very real. I've ordered Anna Yegorova's memoirs as of yesterday, so when I've read my copy I'll let you know what her personal experience was with it.

 

[GhostBlue]

NightWitch,

Don't want to spoil the book for you but here is a bit from it. This might be interesting and give part of the answer as to what happened after her liberation when Anna was turned over to SMERSH.


First, he confiscated my Party card and the awards. He scrutinized them for a long while under a magnifying glass. I was not allowed to sit down. I felt sure I would collapse, but I somehow managed to remain on my feet. Finally, the major let me sit. Ithought that no force on earth could tear me off of that chair, but I was wrong—when the major barked, "Stand up!" I rose as quickly as I could.
"Where did you get the awards and the Party membership card?
"Why did you allow yourself to be taken prisoner?
"What was your assignment?
"Who gave you that assignment?
"Where were you born?
"Whom are you supposed to contact?"
The major bombarded me with these and other questions all night long, repeating the same ones over and over again, nearly until dawn. No matter what I said, he shouted, "You're lying, you German dog!"

From Chap. 58 with permission form the editor/translator.

GhostBlue

 

[Nightwitch]

You didn't spoil anything. I got my copy today at 2pm and finished reading it at 7pm.

 

[claidemore]

Klaudia Blinova flew Yaks with the 65th Guards and had a similar story. Shot down during a dogfight with FW190s of JG54, she was captured, escaped from a train with other POWs, was interrogated by NKVD once she made it back across the front lines, and eventually released back to her regiment. Stayed with the regiment till the end of the war but wasn't allowed to fly combat missions again.

 

[EdKenshin]

This is a picture of Lt. Elena Kulkova (on the right) with her navigator, standing in front of their Petlyakov Pe-2, somewhere on the Eastern Front. I don't know the date. I did some digging to look up the name of the navigator, as I'd only heard she was also named Elena. That turned up three names of Elena's who served in the 587th BAP/125thGvBAP during the war - Elena Azarkina, Elena Iushina, and Elena Ponomareva. Elena Ponomareva died during the war, and Lt. Kulkova never mentioned the death of a navigator to me, so I suspect it was one of the other two, but I'm not certain. Anyway, this picture was given to me by Elena Kulkova herself, and she autographed it for me, though the autograph was at the very bottom and clipped out by the scanner.

View attachment 398186

She preferred to be called Day Sorceress, since her regiment was not part of the Po-2 Night witches . Or at least that's what she said when I met her in the early 2000s, LOL.