Remark:
When i did say some of the technical descriptions made in the opening post of this thread are correct, i was referring to the stall speed of the planes involved.
Of course the ancient biplane could not carry that much bombs. 23,000 tons of bombs dropped from those biplanes only? Flat and plain bullshit.
The bombload was very limited, just as the biplanes in service were.
Furthermore, the soviets have been trying to "prove" they kept extremely detailed records of all of their operations. I seriously doubt any detailed archives of the units of which the Night Witches were partof numbers of sorties flown and tonnage of bombs dropped were ever kept.
I have seen photos of the air-bases from which the night witches operated: the conditions were as primitive and basic as you can imagine.
Bomb-taxi: the brutality of the soviet regime of Stalin was very very real and measurable. You have to believe that. Brutality in the russian ranks followed the chain of command down to batallion levels.
Over-rated? Well, it might depend on what over-rated means to you!
Aleksandr Novikov, the VVS general credited with conducting a "profound reform" in the organization and performance of the soviet military air force has been accordingly overinflated.
That they improved a bit is true; that they produced some very capable planes is also true: yet something of course they are never going to admit is the fact thousands and thousands of new pilots got sent to the front lines only with a crash course as training.
Soviets mass produced their fighters along with pilots; do not forget the russians were fighting a brutal war in their own soil. Time was something the soviets did not have to create a masterfully trained breed of pilots.
Their losses in 1945 ALONE: +/- 11,000 combat planes lost to all causes speaks all by itself.
As someone said here, as late as in 1944, parachutes were not issued to most units in the VVS, with the exception of some ace pilots and other officers.
The night witches might have been very brave, but their losses were frightful and the material damage they inflicted was minimum. I stick to my original idea: their job was more of pushing the nerves of a few groups of German troops to the limits.