April 2, 2021 • 34 mins
Listen along with us as we talk about life with four kids and some history thrown in just for funzies. We're covering the incredible careers of The Soviet Night Witches and a couple great This Day In History facts for you as well.
*This podcast doesn't contain swear words. As always, we want you to feel comfortable listening to this podcast with kids in the room.
Sources:
https://www.wrightmuseum.org/2020/10/01/the-soviet-night-witches/
http://www.seizethesky.com/nwitches/nitewtch.html
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Making a Difference: True Stories Celebrating our Better Selves.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pearl (00:00):
This morning I supervised our youngest as he cleaned the
bathroom top to bottom
AJ (00:07):
Why did he have to clean the bathroom top to bottom
Pearl (00:10):
there there appears to have been an incident where
number three was going to thebathroom and number four shoved
him and subsequent How do I saythis
AJ (00:23):
liquid materials
Pearl (00:25):
Yeah there's a there was just pee everywhere So I was
like you know what you'recleaning this up
AJ (00:29):
You're leaving out a key component of this story He was
not paying into the toilet
Pearl (00:35):
He was peeing in the toilet at that point I think But
during the cleanup
AJ (00:39):
there's some conflicting
Pearl (00:40):
there's so many conflicting stories here during
the cleanup we discovered therewas like a shampoo bottle and a
little like medicine bottle likea Tylenol thing you know Yeah
Where did they get I don't knowhe picked yeah he picked it up
from the back corner of thetoilet Cause the toilet is
sitting in the corner of theroom and they had stashed back
(01:03):
there multiple small bottleswith pee in them
AJ (01:08):
because why not
Pearl (01:09):
It's an experiment They were experimenting with
something for some reason Idon't know but
AJ (01:13):
Maybe they're going to grow up to be famous scientists
because they sure like toexperiment
Pearl (01:17):
Oh gosh Yeah
AJ (01:27):
this is my lovely wife Pearl Her
Pearl (01:30):
This is my wonderful husband AGA Hearst And this is
the stories we forgot It's yourfavorite podcast Good for you
Good for you listening to yourfavorite
AJ (01:43):
All right Pearl What do we have up for today's show
Pearl (01:46):
Today we're going to do a brief recap of the history of
swearing on Netflix starringNicholas cage and no I'm kidding
I'm totally kidding Terrible Itwas a terrible show There's
nothing more cringe inducingThen watching Nicholas cage
swear I don't know SamuelJackson all day long say
anything It's hilarious Nicholascage page is just icky
AJ (02:10):
It's a little cringy
Pearl (02:11):
So cringy Nicolas cage with his dyed hair
AJ (02:15):
He's so
Pearl (02:16):
such a cringy show but it really did give us some pointers
for talking to the kids thisword was actually invented in
1643 It first shows up in thisdocument it means to strike
AJ (02:25):
And anyways
Pearl (02:26):
Yeah so we're going to be talking about the first female
pilots in combat
AJ (02:33):
Ooh I have another female first for our this day in
history
Pearl (02:38):
fascinating and then whatever age he has for this day
in history let's see other funnythings that happened in this
week we sat down with our oldesttwo and we covered
AJ (02:48):
Oh yes That was fun
Pearl (02:50):
that was I was real cringy more crunchy for us for
sure
AJ (02:55):
Oh for sure the oldest played dumb acted like she
didn't know any swear wordsright Large quotation marks
there And the second I thinklegitimately didn't know any
He's very well read So I thinkmaybe if he
Pearl (03:10):
I think if you pointed out a word to him and said that
was a swear word he'd be like Ohyeah I've read that a bunch
AJ (03:14):
Yeah yeah He's the one who if you Told him a swear word
he'd say it like four or fivetimes right in front of us And
Pearl (03:20):
Just to test it out and see how it sounded
AJ (03:22):
our nerves are just on ed We're like twitching while he's
saying
Pearl (03:26):
don't ever say that again
AJ (03:27):
And of course Pearl and I can't make eye contact or we
will begin gigglinguncontrollably
Pearl (03:32):
Yeah we
AJ (03:33):
how mature we are
Pearl (03:33):
Yeah It's yeah It's just really difficult We we decided
that We would rather them learnabout swear words from us and
learn more about context and howwhen and why people use them so
that they would be getting theirinformation from the best
(03:54):
sources available to themInstead of finding out from
peers and friends Oh here's thisreally bad word you know So we
were determined to sit downcover all the bad words with
them and demystify swearing butthen also talk about what makes
it offensive how it offendspeople what kind of scenarios
are going to be we didn't bringrecommend swearing but it was
(04:16):
more listen this word doesn'tmake baby Jesus cry but it makes
Ben a nice Christ It don't sayit
AJ (04:23):
That was a good line I really liked that Of course Then
we were texting with our friendsduring this a little bit because
a
Pearl (04:31):
I felt yeah I felt like as soon as we started we
couldn't think of any swear
AJ (04:34):
yeah We completely
Pearl (04:35):
of three What are the swear words
AJ (04:38):
and I'm like I know I'm missing some but
Pearl (04:40):
like Googling what are swear words coming up with these
lists of these absurd justabsurd compilations of swearers
where you're like who says thisLiterally no one
AJ (04:50):
Yeah Although boy people get real creative I'll have to hand
it to them but anyways yes So wewrote them all down on a sheet
of paper handed them over handedthe sheet of paper over to the
kids and be like okay here theyare just review them And very
cursory glance and they handedthem back and were off there and
they were ready to leave
Pearl (05:10):
afternoon Nope no questions here Don't
AJ (05:13):
Overall a fairly comical experience Oh And the two
youngest were trying to sneak upon us the whole time and
Pearl (05:20):
on us Yeah because The we don't want the two youngest to
know
AJ (05:26):
Cause they already swear more than anyone in the house Of
people
Pearl (05:29):
specifically but so much potty talk and just the youngest
is really cantankerous So lateron when it like a day or two
later he was we're at a friend'shouse and the kids were in a
tree and these Perfectly politepedestrians managed to happen to
(05:50):
walk past this tree that acouple little boys in
AJ (05:54):
three little boys
Pearl (05:55):
and they started saying things I don't really know I all
I know is that our youngest isvery susceptible to peer
pressure and showing off forpeople So I think the first
thing they said was we foundyour boyfriend
AJ (06:12):
we found your boyfriend
Pearl (06:14):
Hey lady we found your boyfriend Yeah
AJ (06:16):
when they told me this I Was fighting to keep a straight face
Right Because it was fairlyupset with them for yelling at
some stuff don't
Pearl (06:25):
at strangers and that's not the that's the nicest thing
they said to her
AJ (06:29):
yeah I think it progressed just a little bit to Hey stinky
lady maybe a few other
Pearl (06:34):
Might've been some other more toilet Yeah adjacent words
AJ (06:39):
it was the two older who instigated it And then the
youngest just does
Pearl (06:45):
It was like the two older had the idea like Oh this would
be funny And the youngest islike well I'm doing it
AJ (06:51):
Yeah The first the two older probably got like a polite smile
and wave from the lady and thenthe younger one Just
Pearl (06:58):
Hey stinky lady Yeah Oh gosh So yeah
AJ (07:03):
much
Pearl (07:03):
number four does not need to know any swear words
AJ (07:06):
Oh for sure I can not imagine
Pearl (07:08):
if he knew swear words
AJ (07:09):
would be so bad for us We would get lots of notes
Pearl (07:12):
Oh I can't I can't even imagine
AJ (07:15):
Lots of talks
Pearl (07:16):
so what'd you got AGA
AJ (07:18):
well for this day in history history
Pearl (07:23):
Again this is amazing every time
AJ (07:27):
I know you love it That's why I keep it on this day in
history which As of recordingit's April 1st the first one I
just find tsunamis to beterrifyingly fascinating So on
April 1st, 1946 there was anunder sea earthquake off the
Alaskan coast
Pearl (07:47):
Oh this one is a bad one
AJ (07:50):
which triggered up
Pearl (07:51):
a doozy
AJ (07:52):
It triggered a massive tsunami that it did kill 159
people in Hawaii In the middleof the night 13,000 feet beneath
the ocean surface a 7.4magnitude tremor was recorded in
the North Pacific back Islandwas hit by the tsunami shortly
after the quake
Pearl (08:11):
and that's Hawaii Yes Okay
AJ (08:14):
and enormous wave estimated at nearly 100 feet high crashed
onto the shore
Pearl (08:21):
Unbelievable
AJ (08:22):
a lighthouse located 30 feet above sea level where five
people live was smashed topieces by the wave Meanwhile the
wave was heading toward theSouthern Pacific at 500 miles
per hour
Pearl (08:35):
I just can't I can't I couldn't comprehend it at all
AJ (08:38):
Yes In Hawaii 2,400 miles South of the quakes epicenter
captain Wicklund of the U S Navywas the first to spot the
incoming wave at about 7:00 AMfour and a half hours After the
earthquake he was on the bridgeof a ship 46 feet above sea
level putting him at eye levelwith a quote monster wave that
(08:59):
he described as two miles longNow if you don't know much about
tsunamis like myself I do knowenough that as the wave comes in
it just sucks all the waterright from the shore So as the
first wave came in to Hawaii andall the water in Hawaii is high
(09:24):
low Bay seemed to disappearBoats were left on the sea floor
next to flopping fish which justpicturing this all of a sudden
you're on the beach you're inyour boat And all of a sudden
your boat just starts sinkingand you're like what In the
world And then you realizeyou're sitting on dry ground And
then you see this massive wavecoming in
Pearl (09:46):
so bad
AJ (09:48):
A 32 foot wave devastated the town the bridge a bridge in
the town was picked up by thewave and pushed 300 feet away
just it was just it wasdevastating I'm not going to go
into all the devastation of itlike I said I think 159 people
died This tsunami did prompt theus to establish the seismic sea
(10:11):
wave warning system two yearslater Uh yeah it's now known as
the Pacific tsunami warningsystem using under sea buoy
throughout the ocean withseismic activity detectors to
find possible killer waves Thewarning system was used for the
first time on November 4th, 1952
Pearl (10:30):
So is this five years 47
AJ (10:33):
46 I think it's six that day and evacuation was successfully
carried out Of course theexpected wave never materialized
which is good but they did havea system that probably would've
saved a lot of lives So it didspur some positive changes but
wait there's more on this day inhistory history
Pearl (10:57):
Thank you
AJ (10:58):
April 2nd 1917 I felt like this was a good one Jeanette
Rankin first woman elected to usCongress assumes on April
Pearl (11:11):
a N K I N Correct All right Yep
AJ (11:14):
Jeanette Pickering Rankin and the first woman ever elected
to Congress takes her seat inthe U S Capitol as a
representative from Montana Shewas born on a ranch near
Missoula in 1880 She was asocial worker in Montana and
Washington before joining thewomen's suffrage movement in
1910 she campaigned for thewomen's vote in 1914 and was
(11:38):
instrumental in the passage ofsuffrage legislature legislation
in Montana this is cool She'sinstrumental in passing this And
then two years later shesuccessfully ran for Congress in
Montana on a progressiveRepublican platform calling for
total women's suffrage
Pearl (11:55):
while you're doing this
AJ (11:57):
1916
Pearl (11:58):
Okay
AJ (11:59):
Women's suffrage legislation protection I think children and
us neutrality in the Europeanwar She was a lifelong passivist
Following her as election as arepresentative her entrance into
Congress was delayed for a monthAs the congressmen discussed
whether a woman should beadmitted into the house of
representatives So finally onApril 2nd, 1917 she was
(12:22):
introduced in Congress as itsfirst female member That same
day president Woodrow Wilsonaddressed a joint session of
Congress and urged a declarationof war against Germany World war
one was on April 4th So two daysafter she was admitted the
Senate voted for war by a widemajority on April 6th the vote
(12:44):
went to the house she was apacifist she cited public
opinion in Montana and she votedagainst it One of only 50
representatives who votedagainst the declaration of war
she continued to speak out forsuffrage and children's
protections she lost her seat in1918 She became an important
(13:05):
figure in suffrage and pacifistorganizations Then in 1940 she
was again elected as a pacifistrepresentative from Montana This
is very interesting right beforeworld war II She's elected right
now right before world war twoshe's reelected she argued
vehemently against FDRs warpreparations And even after
(13:27):
let's see after Pearl Harbor shecast the sole dissenting vote
against a formal declaration ofwar against Japan Then she left
office in 1943 she again stayedactivism stayed active in
pacifism and social reform Shedied in 1973 at the age of 93 So
(13:48):
there you are Jeanette Pickeringranking first woman ever elected
to the U S Congress
Pearl (13:53):
That's so funny that it took them so long to decide
whether or not she be in theroom with them
AJ (13:58):
Doesn't that just sound like a very stuffy conversation
Pearl (14:01):
Oh my goodness I bet that they had some really ridiculous
AJ (14:05):
Oh I'm sure I'm sure
Pearl (14:08):
I don't know
AJ (14:08):
Just ridiculous
Pearl (14:09):
I bet they're dumb all right next step We're going to
read an excerpt from making adifference True stories
celebrating our better selves byTom Reynolds Now this is a
collection of a hundred 100 wordstories that he compiled You can
find it on Amazon we're I'm soI'm just going to read number 24
(14:32):
Number 24 is early entrepreneurborn in 1848 Louis Howard
Latimer was the son of slaveswho fled from Virginia to
Massachusetts At the age of 16he joined the Navy and later
received an honorable dischargeFollowing the civil war He
taught himself mechanicaldrawing and drafting completing
an apprenticeship He became adraftsman for Alexander Graham
(14:56):
bell whom he helped to secure apatent for the telephone later
he developed the carbon filamentthat enabled Thomas L Edison to
secure a patent for theincandescent light bulb In
addition Latin Mer played theflute became a writer and taught
drafting an English to newimmigrants So
AJ (15:16):
what an inspiration
Pearl (15:18):
right This guy who had his hand in everything he's the
son of slaves in 1848 while bornin 1848 So he's living in the 18
hundreds he's in the Navy he'sworking
AJ (15:33):
for
Pearl (15:33):
Graham bell He's working with Thomas Edison
AJ (15:37):
That is quite a resume Quite the resume and all self-taught
Pearl (15:42):
Yeah so that that's just a little I love sharing excerpts
from that book because it's justthese tidy little a hundred word
basically a paragraph about aperson
AJ (15:51):
you can Google search the rest of
Pearl (15:53):
it You can Google search the rest of it
AJ (15:55):
What was his name one more time
Pearl (15:56):
That was how Louis Howard
AJ (15:59):
Lewis Howard Latimer
Pearl (16:00):
There you have it Do a Google search on Lewis Howard
Latimer Alright next
AJ (16:05):
for the main event No wait on me Pearl
Pearl (16:08):
the podcast Or as we say in the industry on the pod we're
going to be talking about theSoviet night witches dun dun dun
AJ (16:21):
I feel like I need a cackle in the background
Pearl (16:24):
They didn't call themselves the Soviet night
witches
AJ (16:27):
what did they call themselves
Pearl (16:29):
they called themselves the
AJ (16:31):
probably some Russian term that Very difficult to pronounce
Pearl (16:35):
whatever was in Russian but they were the Russia's They
were the all women pilots ofRussia's 588th night bomber
aviation regiment
AJ (16:44):
It's one thing to give yourself a really cool nickname
It's a whole nother level to begiven a killer nickname by your
enemies
Pearl (16:54):
right Absolutely actually not only did they have a killer
nickname but because they onlyoperated at night the Germans
were certain that the Russianswere giving there that these
pilots like shots or pills orsomething to make them see At
night So they were like they hadthese mystical super powers
according to the Germans likethose Russians are doing
(17:16):
something they're figuringsomething out and make their
pilots see at night
AJ (17:19):
that was in some of the days when they were experimenting
trying to create some sort ofsuper soldier So they probably
thought Russia had cracked thecode
Pearl (17:27):
I guess what I don't know about the super soldiers
AJ (17:30):
Oh I think the Germans were experimenting with all kinds of
yeah
Pearl (17:33):
Yeah Human experimentation was not
something new
AJ (17:37):
going to create the next they thought they were going to
create the or that they were thegreatest race on earth and they
were
Pearl (17:45):
So they're feeling a little bit stymied by these
Russian pilots and not only arethese Russian pilots these are
women Russian pilots And notonly are they female Russian
pilots but they are flying inwooden biplanes in world war two
AJ (18:01):
Oh gosh Biplanes okay Oh my
Pearl (18:05):
like A wooden version of the ones at flight
demonstrations and air shows So
AJ (18:11):
Flight development I think was rapidly developing in world
war two but probably most ofthem were not flying wooden
biplanes
Pearl (18:20):
nothing Yeah Only these women
AJ (18:22):
Even though even the Tuskegee airmen were flying
better planes than that
Pearl (18:27):
before I launch into this story just a tiny bit of context
if you are also not a historianlike I am in world war II The
United States and the Sovietunion had a very uneasy Alliance
they had obviously they hadconflict prior to world war II
and after world war two but theenemy of your enemy is also your
friend and that's the conceptthat they applied in world war
(18:50):
II During world war II they hada common enemy and that common
enemy was Nazi Germany Sobecause they had this common
enemy of Nazi Germany Theyworked together so as one of our
allies in world war two Russiaand this is interesting I didn't
know this but Russia actuallyallowed women to fight in combat
(19:15):
in world war II
AJ (19:16):
That's interesting
Pearl (19:17):
I had no idea
AJ (19:19):
I wonder Do you know why
Pearl (19:21):
I don't know I'm assuming it had something to do with the
desperation of their position Idon't think they were doing it
by choice
AJ (19:26):
Yeah but that was that's what I was thinking
Pearl (19:28):
because they didn't allow them to continue after world war
II In world in Russia at thetime flight was a really big
deal A lot of women were pilotsit was much more commonplace in
Russia in the forties thirtiesand forties for women to be
hobbyists hobbyist pilots
AJ (19:47):
Really
Pearl (19:47):
Yeah so the the like the main celebrity hobbyist pilot
basically our version of AmeliaEarhart was a woman named
AJ (19:58):
please let her
Pearl (19:59):
was a woman named Marina rash Cova recce Cova so Marina
started getting letters fromwomen all over the Soviet union
and they were saying we want tobe pilots We want to be pilot
We're good at this And we wantto be pilots in defeating the
(20:19):
defeating Nazi Germany
AJ (20:21):
Oh okay Like we want to serve
Pearl (20:22):
We want to serve in the air force yeah it's it was also
a little bit of a conflict not aconflict It was an irony because
women were serving on the frontlines but they weren't allowed
into the Soviet air force let'ssee Germany invades Russia in
1941 Germany is activelyinvading Russia and these women
are really They really want tojoin the war effort as pilots
(20:47):
and they want to join the wareffort but they don't want to go
in on the front lines a footsoldiers They want to be able to
do as pilots and use theirskills
AJ (20:56):
Makes sense and yeah I'm sure if you're actively being
invaded by Nazi Germany you'regoing to
Pearl (21:02):
get a little motivation there Yeah
AJ (21:04):
have to cut through the red tape
Pearl (21:05):
Marina Resco VA was a little bit of a celebrity figure
and one of her fans was a mannamed Joseph stolen
AJ (21:12):
Oh really Yeah
Pearl (21:13):
so she actually met with him and she showed them all the
letters that she'd been gettingfrom women pilots all across the
Soviet union And she said Listencoach
AJ (21:23):
put me in coach
Pearl (21:24):
but me and so she so Stalin said yes and they some
some women were integrated intoregiments to fight with male
pilots Some women were enlistedinto women only regimens
AJ (21:42):
Yeah
Pearl (21:43):
So there is three all women fighting groups the five
86th fighter aviation regimentthe five 87th bomber aviation
regimen and the five 88 nightbomber aviation regiment So
we're specifically talking aboutthe night bomber the five 88 so
thousands of women are enlistingSo apparently it was a really
(22:03):
big deal to have your pilotslicense and to fly for fun and
AJ (22:07):
that would certainly cut down on the training time They
could just be like you canalready fly
Pearl (22:11):
Most of these women Most of these women were late teens
to mid twenties So not all ofthem knew how to fly but it was
a really popular concept forwomen and so they didn't have
the Soviet air force had nowomen pilots so the women
basically just spent anintensive year just like
Training like crazy learning allthis stuff that normally takes
(22:33):
several years to complete thelearned obviously how to fly how
to navigate without modernnavigational tools how to
maintain the aircraft the onlyspecial the only special
allowance that the Navy gavetheir female Pilots was extra
soap So they had to wear men'suniforms men's shoes And but
(22:56):
they did get extra soap
AJ (22:57):
extra that's good
Pearl (22:59):
What happened was they had all these women that they
trained and then they split theminto the three the three
aviation regimens So there's theThe first the most qualified
pilots were assigned to the five86 fifth fighter aviation
regimen the second was yoursecond class pilots are going to
AJ (23:16):
bomber group
Pearl (23:16):
bomber aviation regimen and the least qualified is going
to the night bombers Butironically the night bombers
became the ones became thefamous ones who are the most
feared by the
AJ (23:28):
The night which is
Pearl (23:30):
the Nazis Yeah
AJ (23:32):
Doesn't it seem like flying at night would require more
skill I don't know Maybe you'remore of a target during the day
though
Pearl (23:40):
Yeah as I tell you this story it's going to become very
apparent that I know little tonothing about operating aircraft
but
AJ (23:47):
baby I already knew that
Pearl (23:48):
thank you not condescending at all let's see
So there weren't enough modernplants to go around for all of
the women that wanted to fightAnd this is basically like a
made up position for women sothe five 88th The five 88th
regiment was given super out ofdate by planes that were
primarily used as crop dustersor training planes
AJ (24:11):
Hello man They were just scraping the bottom of the
barrel
Pearl (24:14):
These planes were made out of plywood with canvas
stretched over So we're like TheWright brothers would have
recognized
AJ (24:22):
I was going to say it's one step above what the Wright
brothers were flying
Pearl (24:25):
So
AJ (24:26):
here go fly this against the Nazis
Pearl (24:28):
Because because of all the handicaps of this plane it's
really slow It can only carrytwo bombs it doesn't have any
AJ (24:37):
only two bombs
Pearl (24:38):
Only carry two moms It doesn't have any modern
equipment navigation equipmentbecause of all of these
handicaps that's why theydecided that it was going to be
a night bomber division becauseif it was daytime they would
definitely have been obliterated
AJ (24:51):
I guess you could fly under the cover of darkness to a
Pearl (24:54):
The night which has also carried no parachutes because
they flew so close to the groundthat
AJ (25:01):
Oh that makes sense they probably just wouldn't they
probably wouldn't have opened
Pearl (25:05):
Yeah Yeah They were flying too close to the ramp for
the parishes to be effective butthey were flying close to the
ground because the bombs were soheavy compared to the plane So
the plane just couldn't get
AJ (25:15):
they could get the altitude
Pearl (25:17):
Yeah they didn't have any like I said they didn't have any
modern navigation in the planeso they're having to operate
using flashlights maps campusespencils stopwatches all of these
AJ (25:29):
Yeah
Pearl (25:30):
So much more difficult
AJ (25:31):
Good old fashion navigation skills
Pearl (25:34):
so much more difficult
AJ (25:35):
Jeez Did they navigate using the stars yeah it
Pearl (25:39):
The cockpits of course are open This is a biplane right
So freezing weather rain windthese are also Russia women So
maybe they're just a little morebad-ass than frostbite they some
of the advantages though of theSuper light aircraft was and I
(26:00):
don't really understand how thisworks but apparently because it
was so lightweight it was muchmore maneuverable than the
German planes which made themharder to shoot down but the
biggest advantage that they hadwas that they were they didn't
show up on German radars orinfrared detectors and the top
speed was slower than the stallspeed of German fighter planes
(26:21):
So it was difficult to engagethem from the air
AJ (26:25):
that's a little comical but right
Pearl (26:28):
Yeah they also could take off and land almost anywhere
they didn't need nice airstripsor anything
AJ (26:35):
Yeah Yeah that's true I guess take what advantage you
can get
Pearl (26:39):
Yeah because there because their planes could only
carry two bombs the night whichis would fly multiple sorties
which are multiple bombing runsin a single night what they do
is they would drop their twobombs So we turn to their
temporary base get more fuelgrab two more fly off again each
(26:59):
sortie lasted between half anhour to an hour
AJ (27:02):
because it's not like they're flying along distance
Germany's actively involved
Pearl (27:06):
right Yeah Yeah There's they're super close
AJ (27:09):
that's terrifying though Here I'll drop a bomb Let
everybody know I'm here See youguys in an hour
Pearl (27:16):
back in half an hour Yeah Yeah So one of the strategies
that they would use and this isfrom a Wright museum.org One of
the strategies that they woulduse is let's see the night which
is destroyed devised a strategyto foil the Germans They would
fly in groups of three When theyneared their target two planes
(27:37):
would fly through the circlesand then fear off in different
directions which caused the certsearchlights and flat guns to
target them Then the pilot inthe third plane would fly
towards the objective When thenavigator tapped her on the
shoulder she would kill theengine and drift in near
silently toward the target withonly the faint whooshing sound a
wind through the stretchsignaling the impending attack
(27:58):
then the navigator would dropher bombs in the pilot Hopefully
would we start the engine of flyoff The three planes would
switch places until he droppedall their bombs and then they
returned to the base for more Sothey had this technique
AJ (28:12):
That's pretty amazing except I feel like being so low and so
slow It does seem like theywould be very susceptible to
flat guns and searchlights I'mcurious how they avoided those
Although I guess they would havebeen pretty maneuverable too Bob
(28:33):
and
Pearl (28:34):
So So they had this technique where they would kill
the engine And then as they'regliding down now they're just
fully in free fall not free-fallthey're gliding as
AJ (28:45):
with style
Pearl (28:47):
as as they're gliding towards their target the
navigator then releases thebombs if the bombs don't release
which was apparently Semi commonbecause these are old planes
she'd have to get out on thewing and mess with the trigger
to get the trigger to releasethe bombs Naturally So we're
basically talking about A stuntthe flying
AJ (29:05):
Yeah What do they call like aerial acrobats
Pearl (29:07):
something like that So then then she'd fly back in and
then she'd climb back in restartand fly off one of the things
that so I one of the things thatI found about the
maneuverability so what theywould do and this is from CS the
sky.com So what they would do isthey were very slow when a
German plane would try tointercept Their biplanes they
(29:30):
would throw their biplanes intoa tight turn at an airspeed that
was below the stalling speed ofthe German planes And this would
force a German pilot to make awider circle and come back for
another try only to be met bythe same tactic So also many of
the witches flew solo to theground that they were hidden by
head rows
AJ (29:47):
what Yeah Okay That's low
Pearl (29:49):
Yeah Really low one of the one of the funny things is
that so they're beginning to geta little bit of a legendary can
I need to get a little bit of alegendary roof reputation to the
point that German pilots werepromised an iron cross for
shooting down one of thesebiplanes you shoot down a night
which you get an iron cross
AJ (30:10):
Sounds like motivation
Pearl (30:11):
your fighter plane and go shoot down a biplane with two
ladies in it one of them's outon the wing you will give you an
iron cross So that's just crazyyeah obviously they had they had
tons of if they fought a ton ofred tape bureaucracy sexism they
basically their mission was todisrupt the Germans And so they
(30:35):
did that by their night bombswere keeping the Germans from
sleeping obviously they'redestroying things but they're
just rattling the Germans 24seven
AJ (30:42):
Yeah that's true They I bet they oftentimes weren't
necessarily going after highvalue targets but just creating
Pearl (30:50):
Basically just being massive pests they've got these
pesky little airplanes that aredifficult to spot You can't see
them come in You can't hear themcome in Then all of a sudden you
hear this whistling sound andthen boom from June, 1942 to
October, 1945 the five 88thnight bombers flew approximately
2300 672 combat sorties Theydropped over 3000 tons of bombs
(31:16):
26,000 incendiary shells theydestroyed or damaged 17 river
crossings nine railways torailway stations 26 warehouses
12 fuel depots 176 armored cars86 prepared firing positions and
11 searchlights plus they alsomade over 150 supply drops of
food and ammunition to Sovietlet's see after 32 night which
(31:40):
is of the 588th aviationdivision 38 32 night which has
died in service 89 of them wonthere any 89 of these women won
their country's highest honorthe hero of the Soviet union
award Yeah In world war II or 89Soviet women won their country's
highest honor And 22 of thosewere night witches after the war
(32:01):
the Soviet union had a massivevictory parade but the night
which is couldn't participate init because their planes were too
slow So
AJ (32:09):
Wait you said only like 38 of them died that's incredible
Seems incredible to me
Pearl (32:16):
Yeah
AJ (32:18):
I thought it might be like super high fatalities That is a
wild story Pearl Those are somepeople committed to what they're
Pearl (32:27):
Yeah So that is the story of the the the night witches
there's several there's actuallyseveral books about them Most of
them are more recent There's onecalled the Huntress from 2019 I
don't know about any of thesebooks I'm not giving book
recommendations but it would beinteresting to read some of
these stories It's a fascinatingpicture to look at the
(32:47):
development of women in culturein the Soviet union in the
forties compared to the UnitedStates And
AJ (32:55):
yeah it's something I definitely don't know much about
Pearl (32:58):
Yeah these women were crazy and they were all really
young they're all Late teensearly twenties And they just did
some absolutely crazy stuff onairplanes
AJ (33:08):
Probably promptly got kicked out of the military
Pearl (33:12):
would imagine
AJ (33:13):
as the war was over And they just returned to their normal
lives Yeah
Pearl (33:17):
Yeah I don't
AJ (33:18):
What's some crazy stories
Pearl (33:19):
crazy stories from grandma Yeah
AJ (33:22):
Grandma tell her one again where you climbed out on the
wing and right out ran the Nazifighter planes That's wild
Thanks for sharing that That wasit That was very
Pearl (33:33):
your welcome So that's what that's all we got for this
week
AJ (33:38):
That's the pod
Pearl (33:40):
Thanks for listening.
Feel free to share the podcastwith your friends.
And let us know if you have astory idea.
We always need good stuff.
AJ (33:50):
Yeah.
Go to the stories.
We forgot.com and submit a storyidea there.
Pearl (33:55):
All right.
Thanks guys.
AJ (33:56):
Thanks.
Bye.
Pearl (33:57):
Bye.
This morning I supervised our youngest as he cleaned the
bathroom top to bottom
AJ (00:07):
Why did he have to clean the bathroom top to bottom
Pearl (00:10):
there there appears to have been an incident where
number three was going to thebathroom and number four shoved
him and subsequent How do I saythis
AJ (00:23):
liquid materials
Pearl (00:25):
Yeah there's a there was just pee everywhere So I was
like you know what you'recleaning this up
AJ (00:29):
You're leaving out a key component of this story He was
not paying into the toilet
Pearl (00:35):
He was peeing in the toilet at that point I think But
during the cleanup
AJ (00:39):
there's some conflicting
Pearl (00:40):
there's so many conflicting stories here during
the cleanup we discovered therewas like a shampoo bottle and a
little like medicine bottle likea Tylenol thing you know Yeah
Where did they get I don't knowhe picked yeah he picked it up
from the back corner of thetoilet Cause the toilet is
sitting in the corner of theroom and they had stashed back
(01:03):
there multiple small bottleswith pee in them
AJ (01:08):
because why not
Pearl (01:09):
It's an experiment They were experimenting with
something for some reason Idon't know but
AJ (01:13):
Maybe they're going to grow up to be famous scientists
because they sure like toexperiment
Pearl (01:17):
Oh gosh Yeah
AJ (01:27):
this is my lovely wife Pearl Her
Pearl (01:30):
This is my wonderful husband AGA Hearst And this is
the stories we forgot It's yourfavorite podcast Good for you
Good for you listening to yourfavorite
AJ (01:43):
All right Pearl What do we have up for today's show
Pearl (01:46):
Today we're going to do a brief recap of the history of
swearing on Netflix starringNicholas cage and no I'm kidding
I'm totally kidding Terrible Itwas a terrible show There's
nothing more cringe inducingThen watching Nicholas cage
swear I don't know SamuelJackson all day long say
anything It's hilarious Nicholascage page is just icky
AJ (02:10):
It's a little cringy
Pearl (02:11):
So cringy Nicolas cage with his dyed hair
AJ (02:15):
He's so
Pearl (02:16):
such a cringy show but it really did give us some pointers
for talking to the kids thisword was actually invented in
1643 It first shows up in thisdocument it means to strike
AJ (02:25):
And anyways
Pearl (02:26):
Yeah so we're going to be talking about the first female
pilots in combat
AJ (02:33):
Ooh I have another female first for our this day in
history
Pearl (02:38):
fascinating and then whatever age he has for this day
in history let's see other funnythings that happened in this
week we sat down with our oldesttwo and we covered
AJ (02:48):
Oh yes That was fun
Pearl (02:50):
that was I was real cringy more crunchy for us for
sure
AJ (02:55):
Oh for sure the oldest played dumb acted like she
didn't know any swear wordsright Large quotation marks
there And the second I thinklegitimately didn't know any
He's very well read So I thinkmaybe if he
Pearl (03:10):
I think if you pointed out a word to him and said that
was a swear word he'd be like Ohyeah I've read that a bunch
AJ (03:14):
Yeah yeah He's the one who if you Told him a swear word
he'd say it like four or fivetimes right in front of us And
Pearl (03:20):
Just to test it out and see how it sounded
AJ (03:22):
our nerves are just on ed We're like twitching while he's
saying
Pearl (03:26):
don't ever say that again
AJ (03:27):
And of course Pearl and I can't make eye contact or we
will begin gigglinguncontrollably
Pearl (03:32):
Yeah we
AJ (03:33):
how mature we are
Pearl (03:33):
Yeah It's yeah It's just really difficult We we decided
that We would rather them learnabout swear words from us and
learn more about context and howwhen and why people use them so
that they would be getting theirinformation from the best
(03:54):
sources available to themInstead of finding out from
peers and friends Oh here's thisreally bad word you know So we
were determined to sit downcover all the bad words with
them and demystify swearing butthen also talk about what makes
it offensive how it offendspeople what kind of scenarios
are going to be we didn't bringrecommend swearing but it was
(04:16):
more listen this word doesn'tmake baby Jesus cry but it makes
Ben a nice Christ It don't sayit
AJ (04:23):
That was a good line I really liked that Of course Then
we were texting with our friendsduring this a little bit because
a
Pearl (04:31):
I felt yeah I felt like as soon as we started we
couldn't think of any swear
AJ (04:34):
yeah We completely
Pearl (04:35):
of three What are the swear words
AJ (04:38):
and I'm like I know I'm missing some but
Pearl (04:40):
like Googling what are swear words coming up with these
lists of these absurd justabsurd compilations of swearers
where you're like who says thisLiterally no one
AJ (04:50):
Yeah Although boy people get real creative I'll have to hand
it to them but anyways yes So wewrote them all down on a sheet
of paper handed them over handedthe sheet of paper over to the
kids and be like okay here theyare just review them And very
cursory glance and they handedthem back and were off there and
they were ready to leave
Pearl (05:10):
afternoon Nope no questions here Don't
AJ (05:13):
Overall a fairly comical experience Oh And the two
youngest were trying to sneak upon us the whole time and
Pearl (05:20):
on us Yeah because The we don't want the two youngest to
know
AJ (05:26):
Cause they already swear more than anyone in the house Of
people
Pearl (05:29):
specifically but so much potty talk and just the youngest
is really cantankerous So lateron when it like a day or two
later he was we're at a friend'shouse and the kids were in a
tree and these Perfectly politepedestrians managed to happen to
(05:50):
walk past this tree that acouple little boys in
AJ (05:54):
three little boys
Pearl (05:55):
and they started saying things I don't really know I all
I know is that our youngest isvery susceptible to peer
pressure and showing off forpeople So I think the first
thing they said was we foundyour boyfriend
AJ (06:12):
we found your boyfriend
Pearl (06:14):
Hey lady we found your boyfriend Yeah
AJ (06:16):
when they told me this I Was fighting to keep a straight face
Right Because it was fairlyupset with them for yelling at
some stuff don't
Pearl (06:25):
at strangers and that's not the that's the nicest thing
they said to her
AJ (06:29):
yeah I think it progressed just a little bit to Hey stinky
lady maybe a few other
Pearl (06:34):
Might've been some other more toilet Yeah adjacent words
AJ (06:39):
it was the two older who instigated it And then the
youngest just does
Pearl (06:45):
It was like the two older had the idea like Oh this would
be funny And the youngest islike well I'm doing it
AJ (06:51):
Yeah The first the two older probably got like a polite smile
and wave from the lady and thenthe younger one Just
Pearl (06:58):
Hey stinky lady Yeah Oh gosh So yeah
AJ (07:03):
much
Pearl (07:03):
number four does not need to know any swear words
AJ (07:06):
Oh for sure I can not imagine
Pearl (07:08):
if he knew swear words
AJ (07:09):
would be so bad for us We would get lots of notes
Pearl (07:12):
Oh I can't I can't even imagine
AJ (07:15):
Lots of talks
Pearl (07:16):
so what'd you got AGA
AJ (07:18):
well for this day in history history
Pearl (07:23):
Again this is amazing every time
AJ (07:27):
I know you love it That's why I keep it on this day in
history which As of recordingit's April 1st the first one I
just find tsunamis to beterrifyingly fascinating So on
April 1st, 1946 there was anunder sea earthquake off the
Alaskan coast
Pearl (07:47):
Oh this one is a bad one
AJ (07:50):
which triggered up
Pearl (07:51):
a doozy
AJ (07:52):
It triggered a massive tsunami that it did kill 159
people in Hawaii In the middleof the night 13,000 feet beneath
the ocean surface a 7.4magnitude tremor was recorded in
the North Pacific back Islandwas hit by the tsunami shortly
after the quake
Pearl (08:11):
and that's Hawaii Yes Okay
AJ (08:14):
and enormous wave estimated at nearly 100 feet high crashed
onto the shore
Pearl (08:21):
Unbelievable
AJ (08:22):
a lighthouse located 30 feet above sea level where five
people live was smashed topieces by the wave Meanwhile the
wave was heading toward theSouthern Pacific at 500 miles
per hour
Pearl (08:35):
I just can't I can't I couldn't comprehend it at all
AJ (08:38):
Yes In Hawaii 2,400 miles South of the quakes epicenter
captain Wicklund of the U S Navywas the first to spot the
incoming wave at about 7:00 AMfour and a half hours After the
earthquake he was on the bridgeof a ship 46 feet above sea
level putting him at eye levelwith a quote monster wave that
(08:59):
he described as two miles longNow if you don't know much about
tsunamis like myself I do knowenough that as the wave comes in
it just sucks all the waterright from the shore So as the
first wave came in to Hawaii andall the water in Hawaii is high
(09:24):
low Bay seemed to disappearBoats were left on the sea floor
next to flopping fish which justpicturing this all of a sudden
you're on the beach you're inyour boat And all of a sudden
your boat just starts sinkingand you're like what In the
world And then you realizeyou're sitting on dry ground And
then you see this massive wavecoming in
Pearl (09:46):
so bad
AJ (09:48):
A 32 foot wave devastated the town the bridge a bridge in
the town was picked up by thewave and pushed 300 feet away
just it was just it wasdevastating I'm not going to go
into all the devastation of itlike I said I think 159 people
died This tsunami did prompt theus to establish the seismic sea
(10:11):
wave warning system two yearslater Uh yeah it's now known as
the Pacific tsunami warningsystem using under sea buoy
throughout the ocean withseismic activity detectors to
find possible killer waves Thewarning system was used for the
first time on November 4th, 1952
Pearl (10:30):
So is this five years 47
AJ (10:33):
46 I think it's six that day and evacuation was successfully
carried out Of course theexpected wave never materialized
which is good but they did havea system that probably would've
saved a lot of lives So it didspur some positive changes but
wait there's more on this day inhistory history
Pearl (10:57):
Thank you
AJ (10:58):
April 2nd 1917 I felt like this was a good one Jeanette
Rankin first woman elected to usCongress assumes on April
Pearl (11:11):
a N K I N Correct All right Yep
AJ (11:14):
Jeanette Pickering Rankin and the first woman ever elected
to Congress takes her seat inthe U S Capitol as a
representative from Montana Shewas born on a ranch near
Missoula in 1880 She was asocial worker in Montana and
Washington before joining thewomen's suffrage movement in
1910 she campaigned for thewomen's vote in 1914 and was
(11:38):
instrumental in the passage ofsuffrage legislature legislation
in Montana this is cool She'sinstrumental in passing this And
then two years later shesuccessfully ran for Congress in
Montana on a progressiveRepublican platform calling for
total women's suffrage
Pearl (11:55):
while you're doing this
AJ (11:57):
1916
Pearl (11:58):
Okay
AJ (11:59):
Women's suffrage legislation protection I think children and
us neutrality in the Europeanwar She was a lifelong passivist
Following her as election as arepresentative her entrance into
Congress was delayed for a monthAs the congressmen discussed
whether a woman should beadmitted into the house of
representatives So finally onApril 2nd, 1917 she was
(12:22):
introduced in Congress as itsfirst female member That same
day president Woodrow Wilsonaddressed a joint session of
Congress and urged a declarationof war against Germany World war
one was on April 4th So two daysafter she was admitted the
Senate voted for war by a widemajority on April 6th the vote
(12:44):
went to the house she was apacifist she cited public
opinion in Montana and she votedagainst it One of only 50
representatives who votedagainst the declaration of war
she continued to speak out forsuffrage and children's
protections she lost her seat in1918 She became an important
(13:05):
figure in suffrage and pacifistorganizations Then in 1940 she
was again elected as a pacifistrepresentative from Montana This
is very interesting right beforeworld war II She's elected right
now right before world war twoshe's reelected she argued
vehemently against FDRs warpreparations And even after
(13:27):
let's see after Pearl Harbor shecast the sole dissenting vote
against a formal declaration ofwar against Japan Then she left
office in 1943 she again stayedactivism stayed active in
pacifism and social reform Shedied in 1973 at the age of 93 So
(13:48):
there you are Jeanette Pickeringranking first woman ever elected
to the U S Congress
Pearl (13:53):
That's so funny that it took them so long to decide
whether or not she be in theroom with them
AJ (13:58):
Doesn't that just sound like a very stuffy conversation
Pearl (14:01):
Oh my goodness I bet that they had some really ridiculous
AJ (14:05):
Oh I'm sure I'm sure
Pearl (14:08):
I don't know
AJ (14:08):
Just ridiculous
Pearl (14:09):
I bet they're dumb all right next step We're going to
read an excerpt from making adifference True stories
celebrating our better selves byTom Reynolds Now this is a
collection of a hundred 100 wordstories that he compiled You can
find it on Amazon we're I'm soI'm just going to read number 24
(14:32):
Number 24 is early entrepreneurborn in 1848 Louis Howard
Latimer was the son of slaveswho fled from Virginia to
Massachusetts At the age of 16he joined the Navy and later
received an honorable dischargeFollowing the civil war He
taught himself mechanicaldrawing and drafting completing
an apprenticeship He became adraftsman for Alexander Graham
(14:56):
bell whom he helped to secure apatent for the telephone later
he developed the carbon filamentthat enabled Thomas L Edison to
secure a patent for theincandescent light bulb In
addition Latin Mer played theflute became a writer and taught
drafting an English to newimmigrants So
AJ (15:16):
what an inspiration
Pearl (15:18):
right This guy who had his hand in everything he's the
son of slaves in 1848 while bornin 1848 So he's living in the 18
hundreds he's in the Navy he'sworking
AJ (15:33):
for
Pearl (15:33):
Graham bell He's working with Thomas Edison
AJ (15:37):
That is quite a resume Quite the resume and all self-taught
Pearl (15:42):
Yeah so that that's just a little I love sharing excerpts
from that book because it's justthese tidy little a hundred word
basically a paragraph about aperson
AJ (15:51):
you can Google search the rest of
Pearl (15:53):
it You can Google search the rest of it
AJ (15:55):
What was his name one more time
Pearl (15:56):
That was how Louis Howard
AJ (15:59):
Lewis Howard Latimer
Pearl (16:00):
There you have it Do a Google search on Lewis Howard
Latimer Alright next
AJ (16:05):
for the main event No wait on me Pearl
Pearl (16:08):
the podcast Or as we say in the industry on the pod we're
going to be talking about theSoviet night witches dun dun dun
AJ (16:21):
I feel like I need a cackle in the background
Pearl (16:24):
They didn't call themselves the Soviet night
witches
AJ (16:27):
what did they call themselves
Pearl (16:29):
they called themselves the
AJ (16:31):
probably some Russian term that Very difficult to pronounce
Pearl (16:35):
whatever was in Russian but they were the Russia's They
were the all women pilots ofRussia's 588th night bomber
aviation regiment
AJ (16:44):
It's one thing to give yourself a really cool nickname
It's a whole nother level to begiven a killer nickname by your
enemies
Pearl (16:54):
right Absolutely actually not only did they have a killer
nickname but because they onlyoperated at night the Germans
were certain that the Russianswere giving there that these
pilots like shots or pills orsomething to make them see At
night So they were like they hadthese mystical super powers
according to the Germans likethose Russians are doing
(17:16):
something they're figuringsomething out and make their
pilots see at night
AJ (17:19):
that was in some of the days when they were experimenting
trying to create some sort ofsuper soldier So they probably
thought Russia had cracked thecode
Pearl (17:27):
I guess what I don't know about the super soldiers
AJ (17:30):
Oh I think the Germans were experimenting with all kinds of
yeah
Pearl (17:33):
Yeah Human experimentation was not
something new
AJ (17:37):
going to create the next they thought they were going to
create the or that they were thegreatest race on earth and they
were
Pearl (17:45):
So they're feeling a little bit stymied by these
Russian pilots and not only arethese Russian pilots these are
women Russian pilots And notonly are they female Russian
pilots but they are flying inwooden biplanes in world war two
AJ (18:01):
Oh gosh Biplanes okay Oh my
Pearl (18:05):
like A wooden version of the ones at flight
demonstrations and air shows So
AJ (18:11):
Flight development I think was rapidly developing in world
war two but probably most ofthem were not flying wooden
biplanes
Pearl (18:20):
nothing Yeah Only these women
AJ (18:22):
Even though even the Tuskegee airmen were flying
better planes than that
Pearl (18:27):
before I launch into this story just a tiny bit of context
if you are also not a historianlike I am in world war II The
United States and the Sovietunion had a very uneasy Alliance
they had obviously they hadconflict prior to world war II
and after world war two but theenemy of your enemy is also your
friend and that's the conceptthat they applied in world war
(18:50):
II During world war II they hada common enemy and that common
enemy was Nazi Germany Sobecause they had this common
enemy of Nazi Germany Theyworked together so as one of our
allies in world war two Russiaand this is interesting I didn't
know this but Russia actuallyallowed women to fight in combat
(19:15):
in world war II
AJ (19:16):
That's interesting
Pearl (19:17):
I had no idea
AJ (19:19):
I wonder Do you know why
Pearl (19:21):
I don't know I'm assuming it had something to do with the
desperation of their position Idon't think they were doing it
by choice
AJ (19:26):
Yeah but that was that's what I was thinking
Pearl (19:28):
because they didn't allow them to continue after world war
II In world in Russia at thetime flight was a really big
deal A lot of women were pilotsit was much more commonplace in
Russia in the forties thirtiesand forties for women to be
hobbyists hobbyist pilots
AJ (19:47):
Really
Pearl (19:47):
Yeah so the the like the main celebrity hobbyist pilot
basically our version of AmeliaEarhart was a woman named
AJ (19:58):
please let her
Pearl (19:59):
was a woman named Marina rash Cova recce Cova so Marina
started getting letters fromwomen all over the Soviet union
and they were saying we want tobe pilots We want to be pilot
We're good at this And we wantto be pilots in defeating the
(20:19):
defeating Nazi Germany
AJ (20:21):
Oh okay Like we want to serve
Pearl (20:22):
We want to serve in the air force yeah it's it was also
a little bit of a conflict not aconflict It was an irony because
women were serving on the frontlines but they weren't allowed
into the Soviet air force let'ssee Germany invades Russia in
1941 Germany is activelyinvading Russia and these women
are really They really want tojoin the war effort as pilots
(20:47):
and they want to join the wareffort but they don't want to go
in on the front lines a footsoldiers They want to be able to
do as pilots and use theirskills
AJ (20:56):
Makes sense and yeah I'm sure if you're actively being
invaded by Nazi Germany you'regoing to
Pearl (21:02):
get a little motivation there Yeah
AJ (21:04):
have to cut through the red tape
Pearl (21:05):
Marina Resco VA was a little bit of a celebrity figure
and one of her fans was a mannamed Joseph stolen
AJ (21:12):
Oh really Yeah
Pearl (21:13):
so she actually met with him and she showed them all the
letters that she'd been gettingfrom women pilots all across the
Soviet union And she said Listencoach
AJ (21:23):
put me in coach
Pearl (21:24):
but me and so she so Stalin said yes and they some
some women were integrated intoregiments to fight with male
pilots Some women were enlistedinto women only regimens
AJ (21:42):
Yeah
Pearl (21:43):
So there is three all women fighting groups the five
86th fighter aviation regimentthe five 87th bomber aviation
regimen and the five 88 nightbomber aviation regiment So
we're specifically talking aboutthe night bomber the five 88 so
thousands of women are enlistingSo apparently it was a really
(22:03):
big deal to have your pilotslicense and to fly for fun and
AJ (22:07):
that would certainly cut down on the training time They
could just be like you canalready fly
Pearl (22:11):
Most of these women Most of these women were late teens
to mid twenties So not all ofthem knew how to fly but it was
a really popular concept forwomen and so they didn't have
the Soviet air force had nowomen pilots so the women
basically just spent anintensive year just like
Training like crazy learning allthis stuff that normally takes
(22:33):
several years to complete thelearned obviously how to fly how
to navigate without modernnavigational tools how to
maintain the aircraft the onlyspecial the only special
allowance that the Navy gavetheir female Pilots was extra
soap So they had to wear men'suniforms men's shoes And but
(22:56):
they did get extra soap
AJ (22:57):
extra that's good
Pearl (22:59):
What happened was they had all these women that they
trained and then they split theminto the three the three
aviation regimens So there's theThe first the most qualified
pilots were assigned to the five86 fifth fighter aviation
regimen the second was yoursecond class pilots are going to
AJ (23:16):
bomber group
Pearl (23:16):
bomber aviation regimen and the least qualified is going
to the night bombers Butironically the night bombers
became the ones became thefamous ones who are the most
feared by the
AJ (23:28):
The night which is
Pearl (23:30):
the Nazis Yeah
AJ (23:32):
Doesn't it seem like flying at night would require more
skill I don't know Maybe you'remore of a target during the day
though
Pearl (23:40):
Yeah as I tell you this story it's going to become very
apparent that I know little tonothing about operating aircraft
but
AJ (23:47):
baby I already knew that
Pearl (23:48):
thank you not condescending at all let's see
So there weren't enough modernplants to go around for all of
the women that wanted to fightAnd this is basically like a
made up position for women sothe five 88th The five 88th
regiment was given super out ofdate by planes that were
primarily used as crop dustersor training planes
AJ (24:11):
Hello man They were just scraping the bottom of the
barrel
Pearl (24:14):
These planes were made out of plywood with canvas
stretched over So we're like TheWright brothers would have
recognized
AJ (24:22):
I was going to say it's one step above what the Wright
brothers were flying
Pearl (24:25):
So
AJ (24:26):
here go fly this against the Nazis
Pearl (24:28):
Because because of all the handicaps of this plane it's
really slow It can only carrytwo bombs it doesn't have any
AJ (24:37):
only two bombs
Pearl (24:38):
Only carry two moms It doesn't have any modern
equipment navigation equipmentbecause of all of these
handicaps that's why theydecided that it was going to be
a night bomber division becauseif it was daytime they would
definitely have been obliterated
AJ (24:51):
I guess you could fly under the cover of darkness to a
Pearl (24:54):
The night which has also carried no parachutes because
they flew so close to the groundthat
AJ (25:01):
Oh that makes sense they probably just wouldn't they
probably wouldn't have opened
Pearl (25:05):
Yeah Yeah They were flying too close to the ramp for
the parishes to be effective butthey were flying close to the
ground because the bombs were soheavy compared to the plane So
the plane just couldn't get
AJ (25:15):
they could get the altitude
Pearl (25:17):
Yeah they didn't have any like I said they didn't have any
modern navigation in the planeso they're having to operate
using flashlights maps campusespencils stopwatches all of these
AJ (25:29):
Yeah
Pearl (25:30):
So much more difficult
AJ (25:31):
Good old fashion navigation skills
Pearl (25:34):
so much more difficult
AJ (25:35):
Jeez Did they navigate using the stars yeah it
Pearl (25:39):
The cockpits of course are open This is a biplane right
So freezing weather rain windthese are also Russia women So
maybe they're just a little morebad-ass than frostbite they some
of the advantages though of theSuper light aircraft was and I
(26:00):
don't really understand how thisworks but apparently because it
was so lightweight it was muchmore maneuverable than the
German planes which made themharder to shoot down but the
biggest advantage that they hadwas that they were they didn't
show up on German radars orinfrared detectors and the top
speed was slower than the stallspeed of German fighter planes
(26:21):
So it was difficult to engagethem from the air
AJ (26:25):
that's a little comical but right
Pearl (26:28):
Yeah they also could take off and land almost anywhere
they didn't need nice airstripsor anything
AJ (26:35):
Yeah Yeah that's true I guess take what advantage you
can get
Pearl (26:39):
Yeah because there because their planes could only
carry two bombs the night whichis would fly multiple sorties
which are multiple bombing runsin a single night what they do
is they would drop their twobombs So we turn to their
temporary base get more fuelgrab two more fly off again each
(26:59):
sortie lasted between half anhour to an hour
AJ (27:02):
because it's not like they're flying along distance
Germany's actively involved
Pearl (27:06):
right Yeah Yeah There's they're super close
AJ (27:09):
that's terrifying though Here I'll drop a bomb Let
everybody know I'm here See youguys in an hour
Pearl (27:16):
back in half an hour Yeah Yeah So one of the strategies
that they would use and this isfrom a Wright museum.org One of
the strategies that they woulduse is let's see the night which
is destroyed devised a strategyto foil the Germans They would
fly in groups of three When theyneared their target two planes
(27:37):
would fly through the circlesand then fear off in different
directions which caused the certsearchlights and flat guns to
target them Then the pilot inthe third plane would fly
towards the objective When thenavigator tapped her on the
shoulder she would kill theengine and drift in near
silently toward the target withonly the faint whooshing sound a
wind through the stretchsignaling the impending attack
(27:58):
then the navigator would dropher bombs in the pilot Hopefully
would we start the engine of flyoff The three planes would
switch places until he droppedall their bombs and then they
returned to the base for more Sothey had this technique
AJ (28:12):
That's pretty amazing except I feel like being so low and so
slow It does seem like theywould be very susceptible to
flat guns and searchlights I'mcurious how they avoided those
Although I guess they would havebeen pretty maneuverable too Bob
(28:33):
and
Pearl (28:34):
So So they had this technique where they would kill
the engine And then as they'regliding down now they're just
fully in free fall not free-fallthey're gliding as
AJ (28:45):
with style
Pearl (28:47):
as as they're gliding towards their target the
navigator then releases thebombs if the bombs don't release
which was apparently Semi commonbecause these are old planes
she'd have to get out on thewing and mess with the trigger
to get the trigger to releasethe bombs Naturally So we're
basically talking about A stuntthe flying
AJ (29:05):
Yeah What do they call like aerial acrobats
Pearl (29:07):
something like that So then then she'd fly back in and
then she'd climb back in restartand fly off one of the things
that so I one of the things thatI found about the
maneuverability so what theywould do and this is from CS the
sky.com So what they would do isthey were very slow when a
German plane would try tointercept Their biplanes they
(29:30):
would throw their biplanes intoa tight turn at an airspeed that
was below the stalling speed ofthe German planes And this would
force a German pilot to make awider circle and come back for
another try only to be met bythe same tactic So also many of
the witches flew solo to theground that they were hidden by
head rows
AJ (29:47):
what Yeah Okay That's low
Pearl (29:49):
Yeah Really low one of the one of the funny things is
that so they're beginning to geta little bit of a legendary can
I need to get a little bit of alegendary roof reputation to the
point that German pilots werepromised an iron cross for
shooting down one of thesebiplanes you shoot down a night
which you get an iron cross
AJ (30:10):
Sounds like motivation
Pearl (30:11):
your fighter plane and go shoot down a biplane with two
ladies in it one of them's outon the wing you will give you an
iron cross So that's just crazyyeah obviously they had they had
tons of if they fought a ton ofred tape bureaucracy sexism they
basically their mission was todisrupt the Germans And so they
(30:35):
did that by their night bombswere keeping the Germans from
sleeping obviously they'redestroying things but they're
just rattling the Germans 24seven
AJ (30:42):
Yeah that's true They I bet they oftentimes weren't
necessarily going after highvalue targets but just creating
Pearl (30:50):
Basically just being massive pests they've got these
pesky little airplanes that aredifficult to spot You can't see
them come in You can't hear themcome in Then all of a sudden you
hear this whistling sound andthen boom from June, 1942 to
October, 1945 the five 88thnight bombers flew approximately
2300 672 combat sorties Theydropped over 3000 tons of bombs
(31:16):
26,000 incendiary shells theydestroyed or damaged 17 river
crossings nine railways torailway stations 26 warehouses
12 fuel depots 176 armored cars86 prepared firing positions and
11 searchlights plus they alsomade over 150 supply drops of
food and ammunition to Sovietlet's see after 32 night which
(31:40):
is of the 588th aviationdivision 38 32 night which has
died in service 89 of them wonthere any 89 of these women won
their country's highest honorthe hero of the Soviet union
award Yeah In world war II or 89Soviet women won their country's
highest honor And 22 of thosewere night witches after the war
(32:01):
the Soviet union had a massivevictory parade but the night
which is couldn't participate init because their planes were too
slow So
AJ (32:09):
Wait you said only like 38 of them died that's incredible
Seems incredible to me
Pearl (32:16):
Yeah
AJ (32:18):
I thought it might be like super high fatalities That is a
wild story Pearl Those are somepeople committed to what they're
Pearl (32:27):
Yeah So that is the story of the the the night witches
there's several there's actuallyseveral books about them Most of
them are more recent There's onecalled the Huntress from 2019 I
don't know about any of thesebooks I'm not giving book
recommendations but it would beinteresting to read some of
these stories It's a fascinatingpicture to look at the
(32:47):
development of women in culturein the Soviet union in the
forties compared to the UnitedStates And
AJ (32:55):
yeah it's something I definitely don't know much about
Pearl (32:58):
Yeah these women were crazy and they were all really
young they're all Late teensearly twenties And they just did
some absolutely crazy stuff onairplanes
AJ (33:08):
Probably promptly got kicked out of the military
Pearl (33:12):
would imagine
AJ (33:13):
as the war was over And they just returned to their normal
lives Yeah
Pearl (33:17):
Yeah I don't
AJ (33:18):
What's some crazy stories
Pearl (33:19):
crazy stories from grandma Yeah
AJ (33:22):
Grandma tell her one again where you climbed out on the
wing and right out ran the Nazifighter planes That's wild
Thanks for sharing that That wasit That was very
Pearl (33:33):
your welcome So that's what that's all we got for this
week
AJ (33:38):
That's the pod
Pearl (33:40):
Thanks for listening.
Feel free to share the podcastwith your friends.
And let us know if you have astory idea.
We always need good stuff.
AJ (33:50):
Yeah.
Go to the stories.
We forgot.com and submit a storyidea there.
Pearl (33:55):
All right.
Thanks guys.
AJ (33:56):
Thanks.
Bye.
Pearl (33:57):
Bye.
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