Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat.(Book Review)

by Reina Pennington. University Press of Kansas (http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu), 2501 West 15th Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66049-3905, 2002, 312 pages, $29.95.

In some of the many thousands of books--both popular and scholarly--that deal with the history of airpower in World War II, one occasionally encounters mention of Soviet women who served as combat aviators. Fleeting allusions to female fighter aces or the exploits of a night-bomber regiment known as the "Night Witches" occasionally crop up. Recent debates within the US military regarding the role of women in combat have rekindled memories of the US Army Air Forces' use of female pilots during World War II and have brought belated recognition to the surviving veterans of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Yet, …