Night witches

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Continuing with the female aces of World War II, today I'm featuring a model I made a few years ago.
The "Stalin's Falcons" for the Soviets, or the "Night Witches" (Nachthexen) for the Germans, were a squadron (initially the 588th) formed exclusively by women, thanks to the initiative of Marina Reskova. They carried out nighttime bombing raids on German infantry lines, piloting Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes (as far as I know, the aircraft with the greatest number of units manufactured in the history of aviation). Beginning in January 1943, in recognition of their combat performance, the 588th was promoted to the "46th Taman Night Bomber Regiment." The Po-2 was so slow that its maximum speed was below the stall speed of the Bf-109 and Fw-190, making it difficult to hunt them, even by JG-52!

"We simply couldn't understand that the Soviet airmen that caused us the greatest trouble were in fact women. These women feared nothing. They came night after night in their very slow biplanes, and for some periods they wouldn't give us any sleep at all.
Hauptmann Johannes Steinhoff, Commander of II./JG 52, Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, September 1942"

Some references:
bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A5849076
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches

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