Game-players flew their versions of “Night Witch” bombing missions recently in a downtown Vancouver convention center. The game was inspired by Russian women who bombed German invaders during World War II.
Those Russian women had inspirations of their own. One of their heroes actually did fly over that part of downtown Vancouver, two years before the start of WWII. Valery Chkalov’s transpolar flight ended at Pearson Field in 1937.
During a 2012 Vancouver celebration of the flight’s 75th anniversary, a representative of Seattle’s Museum of Flight described Chkalov’s influence.
Ron Hobbs recalled when two Russian women who’d flown dive-bombers in WWII visited the Seattle aviation museum. Galina Brok-Beltsova and Elena Kulkova were part of the 587th Bomber Regiment.
As we noted in 2012, Hobbs wanted them to see the Museum of Flight’s bust of Chkalov.
“I naively thought that I would have to explain to them through the interpreter who Chkalov was,” Hobbs said. “One of the women recognized the bust from 10 meters away and began muttering ‘Chkalov.’ She walked up to the bust and stroked it, continuing to chant the name. … Because of Chkalov, this woman had been inspired to become a pilot.”
She wasn’t the only one. Three regiments of Soviet women flew combat missions in WWII.
The 588th Night Bomber Regiment, portrayed in the GameStorm convention, flew biplanes with a top speed of 95 mph. Pilots idled their engines on their bomb runs so the Germans couldn’t hear them coming.
During their visit to Seattle, someone referred to Brok-Beltsova and Kulkova as “Night Witches” — maybe thinking that all the women flew at night. One of the former dive-bombers smiled and announced: “I am not a ‘Night Witch.’ I am a ‘Day Sorcerer.’ “
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
