Nadia of the Night Witches — Tom Townsend

Following the German invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941, the Soviet Government authorized the formation of three squadrons of female pilots. Their story has, for the most part, remained untold outside of the Soviet Union. Although this novel is a work of historical fiction, the Night Witches were very real. This is the time of Stalin and The Young Communists League and all Russians fought. The open cockpit PO-2 biplane was simple enough for peasant girls to fly, and cheap to build and repair. And training women for air battle freed up the men to fly the more important missions of the Great Patriotic War.

Nadia Of The Night Witches is dedicated to the memory of all those pioneer women, both Allied and Axis, who flew military aircraft in World War Two.

It is an enthralling story about Nadia Tarachinko, 17, just graduated from flight school. She is determined to kill Germans, and in a flashback we see why: the family farm was bombed, her family killed and a near-crazed and bloodied Nadia was rescued from two German soldiers by a female pilot, Lilly, who swept out of the air in a PO-2 and flew the girl on the dead body of her bloodied back-cockpit navigator, to the safety of the Night Witches base.

Missions, battles and the innermost thoughts of the fighting young women emanate from the pages. Although this is Nadia's story, it is also a riveting look at patriotism, and love, through the eyes of young women at war. Those in battle are afraid to care for anyone because death is so imminent. Yet, Townsend shows us love in various combinations: Lilly and Nadia (both Night Witch pilots); Shenya (Nadia's navigator) and Nicholai (a Russian flight captain); Nadia and Misha (a tank command sergeant), and the Night Witches' compassion for a surviving young German boy who they are determined to keep incognito and hand to the safety of the Allied forces as soon as they can at war's end.