Women flew missions in WW2!!

[B-25 Pilot]

I don't know about anyone else, but I recently learned from doing research that women pilots went on missions. I'm not talking about taxing aircraft, but actually doing bombing runs and solo missions and things like that. Although almost all country had women in their air force, the only allied country to have women fly missions were the soviets. To be honest, this makes me rethink everything that the soviets did. We help them not get invaded and then the cold war happens! But they were the only country to respect women and not think that women couldn't handle it.

Hard working women
I researched two of the pilots. One is named Nadezhda Iopva. She flew bombing missions on Germany every night since she got into the air force. She flew a total of 852 missions! She discibed flying threw enemy flak as: "Sailing threw a wall of enemy fire.



The next pilot, Pauline Gower, was British. She wanted to fly so badly that she taught the violin so that she could earn money to learn how to fly. Her parents didn't support her so she had to follow her dream all by herself. She didn't go on any missions but I thought that her love for flying, that she would go against her parents wishes, was incredible.

 

[tyrodtom]

I don't think it was so much because they respected women, it was because they were desperate.
They were in survival mode, they had to get help from wherever they could get it.

They also had some awfully young soldiers.
You think that was because they respected kids ?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I don't think it was so much because they respected women, it was because they were desperate.
They were in survival mode, they had to get help from wherever they could get it.

They also had some awfully young soldiers.
You think that was because they respected kids ?

Ding, ding, ding...

 

[pbehn]

I don't know about anyone else, but I recently learned from doing research that women pilots went on missions. I'm not talking about taxing aircraft, but actually doing bombing runs and solo missions and things like that. Although almost all country had women in their air force, the only allied country to have women fly missions were the soviets. To be honest, this makes me rethink everything that the soviets did. We help them not get invaded and then the cold war happens! But they were the only country to respect women and not think that women couldn't handle it.

Hard working women
I researched two of the pilots. One is named Nadezhda Iopva. She flew bombing missions on Germany every night since she got into the air force. She flew a total of 852 missions! She discibed flying threw enemy flak as: "Sailing threw a wall of enemy fire.

View attachment 581343

The next pilot, Pauline Gower, was British. She wanted to fly so badly that she taught the violin so that she could earn money to learn how to fly. Her parents didn't support her so she had to follow her dream all by herself. She didn't go on any missions but I thought that her love for flying, that she would go against her parents wishes, was incredible.

View attachment 581344

Far from respecting women as has been said they were desperate. In general the UK rule was that women weren't put in a position to be killed or to kill, so as not to have the nations future mothers burdened with having taken life. The people who refer to this "respect" will report an accident in which 100 people died including 4 women and children. It may seem glamourous to be firing the gun in an ack ack team, until you bring a plane down and go to see the wreckage. This is now represented as a lack of respect. Many women in UK and USA flew aircraft, in fact it was quite common, that isn't the same as flying an aircraft to drop high explosives on a city though. Even when I was a young kid women could still have a high profile life just being an aviator, I saw Sheila Scott when I was a kid, she was actually just flying a plane like everyone else, but being a woman she should be respected as "equal". Sheila Scott - Wikipedia

 

[B-25 Pilot]

Yes I guess that the soviets were desperate, but like pbehn said, the British didn't put women in the war and yet they were desperate. So yes the soviets did it because they were desperate but they were still the only allied force to use women in missions.

 

[pbehn]

Yes I guess that the soviets were desperate, but like pbehn said, the British didn't put women in the war and yet they were desperate. So yes the soviets did it because they were desperate but they were still the only allied force to use women in missions.

Women were used extensively during the war, not only making "stuff" but also flying planes in a non combat role there were 166 women in the British air transport auxilliary, about 1/8 of the total. The British were never so desperate as the Russians, we didn't have Germans on the UK mainland. There were 67,000 civilian deaths in UK more than any single military service suffered so being a civilian wasn't risk free. In an anti aircraft team one pulls the trigger and 5 others were needed for ranging fusing and passing the ammunition, the 5 who weren't pulling the trigger could be men or women they weren't "disrespected". A Spitfire pilot in the BoB may have pulled the trigger and got the glory, he also had the risks. To get him in that position with that plane and those guns needed a huge number of men and women.

 

[Crimea_River]

..... To be honest, this makes me rethink everything that the soviets did. We help them not get invaded and then the cold war happens!

Who's "we" and how do "we" help them not get invaded?

 

[pbehn]

Who's "we" and how do "we" help them not get invaded?

My father was on Arctic convoys he didn't mention stopping Russia being invaded, I suppose the closest to that was the goings on in Greece and Yugoslavia.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

We help them not get invaded and then the cold war happens

Germany says hold my beer.

Operation Barbarossa - Wikipedia

 

[B-25 Pilot]

we would be the untited states. united states (AKA we) sent troops and supplies into the soviet union.

 

[pbehn]

we would be the untited states. united states (AKA we) sent troops and supplies into the soviet union.

So did "we".

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

we would be the untited states. united states (AKA we) sent troops and supplies into the soviet union.

And the Germans still invaded...

 

[Crimea_River]

And the Germans still invaded...

Exactly. And at the cost of some 25 million Russians.

 

[B-25 Pilot]

ok, i guss this thread kinda turned into a argument, but i just wanted to share some research notes.

 

[pbehn]

ok, i guss this thread kinda turned into a argument, but i just wanted to share some research notes.

It is a discussion, a long time after the event it has been decided in some quarters that western women were disrespected because they weren't allowed to kill, usually proposed by people who are pacifists anyway. It is not normal human behaviour to kill another human, for it to be normalised needs special circumstances, even in times of war many men had problems with it at the time and after. In the fantasy world of western female aviators in the war, it never includes the fire bombing of Dresden by massed squadrons flown by bronzed Amazon aviators.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

ok, i guss this thread kinda turned into a argument, but i just wanted to share some research notes.

So while you're at it you can add these to your notes:

Lydia Litvyak - Wikipedia

Yekaterina Budanova - Wikipedia

 

[BiffF15]

massed squadrons flown by bronzed Amazon aviators.

Can I get a pin up calendar of that?

Cheers,
Biff

 

[pbehn]

Can I get a pin up calendar of that?

Cheers,
Biff

At present only socially distanced versions are available.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Can I get a pin up calendar of that?

Cheers,
Biff

 

[ssnider]