re: Night Witches of the Soviet Union - WYHI

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Knowing the Russians of the era, I'd be surprised if any of them was really a pilot.

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Well by definition they were pilots, but I get your drift. Many may not have had a lot of flying hours under their belt, or skirt.

But that was true of other countries also. Many of the British aviators may have graduated flight school, but they had very few hours in a Spitfire. Can you imagine going into combat during the Battle of Britain, in a high performance aircraft like the Spitfire, with zero combat hours? Attacking German bombers is one thing, but if you had to take on a seasoned Luftwaffe pilot, you were either a born combat aviator or dead.