GALINA BROK-BELTSOVA (1925-2024)

By 1943, so many Soviet pilots were being killed, that a few women began to be trained on the Petlyakov Pe-2 twin-engine dive bomber, the pride of the Soviet Air Force. Galina was one of just nine women selected.

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GALINA BROK-BELTSOVA WAS A SOVIET BOMBER NAVIGATOR. She was one of more than 8,00,000 women who served in the Red Army, of whom around 1,000 were aviators. Three women's air regiments had been authorised by Joseph Stalin in 1941 at the urging of the record-breaking, long-distance aviator Marina Raskova – the Soviet answer to America's Amelia Earhart. Raskova told Stalin that women could fight as well as men. Whether or not Stalin was convinced, he had no choice but to agree, because the Soviet Union was fast running out of young men who could fight. The three women's regiments that Marina Raskova founded were the 586th Fighter Regiment, the 587th Bomber Regiment and, most famously, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, nicknamed "the Night Witches". Galina belonged to the 587th Bomber Regiment.