Reina Pennington

A Comparative Study of the USA and USSR, 1941-1945

Women and Military Aviation in the Second World War

Robin Higham

With entries overviewing groups such as the Amazons, women in the Spanish Civil War, and Native American women and entries profiling over 300 women, tells their stories, focusing particularly on women who fought. With a focus on those who fought, this two-volume reference for scholars and general readers contains alphabetically arranged entries on some 300 military women from antiquity to the present. The entries are also listed by geographic region, time period, branch of service, prisoner status, and by group or organization. Pennington (affiliation not cited) presents a historical overview of women in the military and in war in the introduction, while an extensive timeline traces the accomplishments of women in military history reaching back to 9000 BCE. Bibliographic surveys of women as prisoners of war and women's participation in military medicine are found in the appendix.

Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A-Q

Amazons to Fighter Pilots: R-Z

John Erickson

The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow women pilots to fly combat missions. During World War II the Red Air Force formed three all-female units -- grouped into separate fighter, dive bomber, and night bomber regiments -- while also recruiting other women to fly with mostly male units. Their amazing story, fully recounted for the first time by Reina Pennington, honors a group of fearless and determined women whose exploits have not yet received the recognition they deserve. Pennington chronicles the creation, organization, and leadership of these regiments, as well as the experiences of the pilots, navigators, bomb loaders, mechanics, and others who made up their ranks, all within the context of the Soviet air war on the Eastern Front. These regiments flew a combined total of more than 30,000 combat sorties, produced at least thirty Heroes of the Soviet Union, and included at least two fighter aces. Among their ranks were women like Marina Raskova ("the Soviet Amelia Earhart"), a renowned aviator who persuaded Stalin in 1941 to establish the all-women regiments; the daredevil "night witches" who flew ramshackle biplanes on nocturnal bombing missions over German frontlines; and fighter aces like Liliia Litviak, whose twelve "kills" are largely unknown in the West. Here, too, is the story of Alexander Gridnev, a fighter pilot twice arrested by the Soviet secret police before he was chosen to command the women's fighter regiment. Going well beyond the handful of uncritical, journalistic, or poorly documented previous accounts, Pennington draws upon personal interviews and the Soviet archives to detail the recruitment, training, and combat lives of these women. Deftly mixinganecdote with analysis, her work should find a wide readership among scholars and buffs interested in the history of aviation, World War II, or the Russian military, as well as anyone concerned with the contentious debates surrounding military and combat service for women.

Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat

Wings, Women, and War

The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow women pilots to fly combat missions. This book tells the story of these young, fearless, and patriotic women pilots and their substantial contribution to the Soviet Air Force's success on the Eastern Front.

Reina Pennington

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