Night Witches - Polikarpov Po-2 Flight

[@MartvandeWege]

The sound of that little Shvetsov once Kermit is airborne...It's just contentedly rattling along, doing it's job steadily and reliably, if slowly. Lovely.

[@SergLa]

Спасибо вам большое, что вы помните наших девочек, летавших на этих самолётах.

[@CyrusMathayus]

Respect👍🏻🫡

[@АндрейШеховцов-р8в]

Обидно что такая легенда летает только в небе США. А нашим пофигу на такую историю.

[@SergLa]

@@АндрейШеховцов-р8в Не совсем верно. У нас тоже есть.

[@ShurikAVG]

History of soviet aviation! It's hard to imagine that young girl-pilots often made up to 11-12(!) combat sorties per night. They were real heroes!

[@normansilver905]

And with no communications or aviation flight aids too! That took skill and real confidence in their abilities.

[@SergLa]

Им было часто по 18-19 лет.

[@hawklord25]

They conducted bombing raids at night with engine off, imagine bombs falling on your head at night and no sound of any planes, that’s must have been an intense experience for the Germans

[@ВладимирМ-з3у]

Guys, you did a great job restoring that plane! Policarpov U-2 (designated Po-2 after 1944) has a great history ) It was created as a training aircraft (U-2 means Uchebniy-2, Training Aircraft, Model 2. Policarpov's goal was to replace model one - a copy of british Avro-504, captured by the red army in 1919. U-2, with it's basic wood and fabric frame, simple and interchargable wings (upper and lower wing are actually the same part) had unique flying charachteristics (100 hp engine, cruise speed of about 100 km/h) - it was near impossible to enter spinning, and if you did - you just had to leave the controls and plane would restore it's stability. If you shut down the engine and leave controls during flight, airplane would enter a little stall but then restore it's horizontal position and descend smoothly like a sailplane. Yep, guys, in theory you can land this plane with engine shut down and without touching the stick :-) Basically, it's was the same thing for Soviet Union as a legendary Piper Cub for USA. Po-2 was one of the most produced aircraft in history. It served as a training aircraft, postmail airplane, medical, night bomber, agricultural, had mods with closed canopy and seats for 2-3 passengers, and many others. During the Korean war (!!!) the pilot (i don't know if he was a North Korean or Russian guy) was able to crash US jet airplane - because of the differences in speed and manouvers in mountains. Ironically, it was some kind of "Stealth" - due to it's wood-and-fabric construction, it was very hard to catch Po-2 on early radars. In civilian transport, especially as a bush plane (it doesn't need concrete airstrip and complicated maintainance), it was used up to the early 60-s. Yep, designed in 1927, it was still in the sky when the first man was sent to space ))))

[@sirboomsalot4902]

Владимир М It's also the only biplane credited with a jet kill

[@6Sally5]

Владимир М Fascinating! Thanks for the extra info. I would love someone to re-make this movie...preferably in English and accurately, of course!

[@iceavglobal]

@@6Sally5 I enjoyed this movie series to get a feel of their impact. The Night Swallows. www.youtube.com/watch? v=MFK9wAOatGE&list=PL0679IGx8w0hHV58bCKE8P54diOFS1kp5

[@Windtorment]

Came here after reading about the Night Witches WW2. Can't believe it. They had nerves of steel!

[@yakovkhalip9714]

My grandmother from mother's side used to fy one like that - but not in the war - in a aeroclub in the 1930's in Podolsk. So in the USSR you couldn't buy a plane but culd fly one - even in the bloody 30's )

[@drania76]

You could spot student pilots flying these things until the late 1960s in Poland. They were called Kukuruzniks.

[@ImPedofinderGeneral]

@@drania76 Kukuruznik is nickname of an-2, at least in RSFSR and nearest parts of SU. Maybe you confused it with an-2?

[@PavelAVasilevich]

Kukuruznik were AN-2

[@vladimirkasperovih5923]

In the 1930s, fewer people were imprisoned and sentenced to death in the USSR than in the United States during the Great Depression and prohibition. Stop repeating this liberal anti-communist nonsense. If everything was as you say, then why did people defend the USSR from the Nazis? Everyone would have given up, like France, for example, or other European countries. What is the point of dying for such a country as you describe it? There is some kind of dissonance. Think with your head!

[@Jibriltz]

For anyone who is interested there's a great book by Bruce Myles called "Night Witches" that tells the incredible stories of these women that included flying in -40C, navigating at night using a stopwatch and a compass and being shot down and finding their way back to friendly lines (one poor aviatrix ended up in a concentration camp). Highly recommended.

[@kennastout7621]

What brave and courageous women!

[@para1324]

Stalin authorized the all women squadrons to fly the P02. One of their favorite tactic was to gain altitude, cut the engine off and float down to drop the bombs on the German lines then restart and fly out of the area. The women after made several flights a night because of the small bomb load they could carry. The squadrons were very close to the battle lines. Depending on the ground situation and German attack plans at times the returning pilots had to be concerned their fields were still in Soviet control. You are one switched on guy Kermit. You have some super connections and knowledge to be able to obtain these war birds. Much respect for you and your fine ground staff. Well done as always. I hope to visit your field and facilities one day. I’m in Georgia and began to fly in 1973 but had to stop in 1981 because of money. When I started I paid $35.00 and hour wet in a Cessna 150 out of Macintyre air national guard just outside of Columbia SC. My flight instructor was C. V. Huffstettler. He was air national guard at the same field. Back then it was the Fort Jackson Aero Club for active duty army which I was. I’m also a history buff. My dad fought in the Pacific during WW II. Thanks for what you are doing. 👍🇺🇸

[@theblytonian3906]

Wonderful to see this in the air and first person perspective through the lens.

[@Visiorary]

Such an awesome bird. Those girls were having a blast!

[@schlusselmensch]

Going out at night to drop bombs on Germans in the middle of a Russian winter ..........I've flown open cockpit bipes at around 2 -4 C and it was unpleasant enough with the air off the top wing spilling all over you. I have to think that doing the same at -30 must have been a freezing hell from start to finish.

[@AlteredBeta]

Absolutly wonderful !!!! Thankyou for sharing that clip.

[@mjblackam]

Wow! Really beautiful old machine and nicely flown by Kermit Weeks. Love the sound of the old five-cylinder radial engine. I met Kermit once back in the 80s when he was flying at an airshow and competition in my home town in Ballarat, Australia.

[@fight2flyphoto]

I love the sound of the PO-2! Thanks for the video!

[@bwnco]

I just finished 2 books and 1 doc on Night Witches.. They did much much more then harrassment. They would fly anywhere from 8 to 15 missions a nite. 2 bombs strapped to there wings.. much more then throwing hand grenades and bombs out of there cockpits. The women always flew at nite, sometimes in Temp down to 20 below zero.. Amazing women.. Read the book Night Witches if you get a chance.. There was also all female fighter squadron flew the Yak 3 and the 3 crew bomber PE 2 squadron. All 3 were highly decorated and amazing pilots and crews... The mechanics were also all female..

[@Windtorment]

Can you share the names of those books? :) I'd like to read more on the night witches.

[@sheilabirds]

Kate Quinn's the Huntress, I'd like the titles of the other books too

[@bwnco]

@@sheilabirds the only book I read was the night witches. The other information I got were from short documentaries. There's a documentary out there on the rose of Stalingrad which is about the Russian female fighter pilot that had like 19 confirmed kills. Little excerpts from magazines I've picked up. Those are the places I got the other information. By far the best book is the night witches in the man that wrote that book actually interviewed a bunch of the female Pilots before they died he went to Russia to write that book. I believe there's a book out there on the rose of Stalingrad or the white rose of Stalingrad I can't remember exactly

[@bwnco]

@@sheilabirds I'll have to get that book that sounds good too. If you like books about early female Aviation a very very good read is called straight on till morning it's about the life of I'm going to butcher her name but Beryl Markham I believe is the name of her. She was raised in Africa created if you saw the movie with Meryl Streep about Africa called out-of-africa there's a short Sigma in that movie where her boyfriend the pilot is kind of chumming around with another female pilot in that was actually Beryl Markham. She flew and no other girls were flying she was kind of like the Amelia Earhart of Africa although she was an English citizen. Okay I'll shut up or I'll talk about this all day hahaha

[@sheilabirds]

@@bwnco The White Rose of Stalingrad: The Real-Life Adventure of Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak, the Highest Scoring Female Air Ace of All Time Book by Bill Yenne

[@789french5]

Thank you so much for keeping history alive! Beautiful plane, +1 from France!

[@АндрейДубченко-п8э]

В Радянському Союзі ПО-2 був знятий з льотної експлуатації в 1971=72 роках. А вперше цей літак піднявся у повітря в 1927 році. Дякую тим, хто зміг зберегти цей літак в такому гарному стані.

[@christopheschwartz7374]

j' Ai eu un vol Sur Polikarpov Po-2 c' est un avion vraiment extraordinaire et agréable à piloté! Merci pour cette marque de nostalgie volante...

[@ThreezeNiNja]

Thanks for sharing footage of this piece of history in action. It would be magnificent to see granddaughters of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment arm and fly one of these.

[@DefenseTechRussia]

Thank for posting this video of the legendary PO-2! Another amazing feature of the PO-2 engine is that it was also used during WWII for Russian combat snowplanes (or aerosleds), like NKL-26. I have compiled video about it and uploaded to my channel for all aviation history fans.

[@orthicon9]

Harry Turtledove wrote a series of science fiction novels, called "Worldwar", being the battle to defend Earth from invasion by reptilian aliens (from Tau Ceti), at around the middle of WWII. One of the main characters was a Russian woman who flew a Po-2.

[@mudkow5092]

Always a pleasure to watch and listen.

[@Giovanniram22]

Courageous women! You read the story, but after see how slow is that plane, only true heroes can flight it to go and throw bombs at the enemy.

[@Warbirdguy1]

One of my favorite aircraft in your collection!

[@michaelkinney6329]

What a beautiful airplane...

[@vladimirkasperovih5923]

All Russian planes are beautiful. Pay attention to this. Gliders were made in accordance with the laws of aerodynamics. Due to this, problems with engine deficiencies and imperfect materials for the construction of these gliders were partially compensated.

[@rolandalfonso6954]

What a story and airplane.

[@erzreaktionar1303]

I'm beginning to see why the Germans called it a sewing machine.

[@logoseven3365]

Doktor Junkers "Sew" did the Finns.

[@carlosteran5617]

Thanks a lot, I do love this plane as well so full of History !!!

[@laviateur6309]

beautifull piece of history

[@henriquecig]

Very Nice this respect with the history of this airplane and the woman who flew it.

[@albertogarciaarango2411]

Great! THE NIGHT WICHES PLANE

[@troymolitor3968]

Brilliant video. There is a book entitled Night Witches which I have in my collection and read cover to cover at least three times. Lovely video here. Thanks for sharing this unique and important aircraft. Cheers. Merry Christmas to all by the way. ❤love

[@zemlidrakona2915]

Wow! Way cool. I remember reading a story about Marina Raskova and the night witches. Too bad I'm not a pilot.

[@monz1978]

Dive, dive, pull, cut throttle, "Woooohoooooooooooo" at the crowd, awesome! :)

[@hachipanki8634]

Unexpected, Undetected!

[@CozmixYT]

I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@lordemed1]

Beautiful aircraft. Kudos to the brave Russian women fighters.

[@nikidesignsolutionsandgami1518]

Brave indeed as the German army never took female soldiers prisoner during WWII.

[@logoseven3365]

That Connie was beautiful. The Po is cool.

[@slowpokebr549]

They have an airworthy Connie at the old airport in KC.

[@drania76]

Very beautiful.

[@TheRockstarFreak9]

2 OP

[@Jesmed100]

The Germans also called this the "kaffeemuhle," literally "coffee grinder", which is also German slang meaning whirlybird, or helicopter. The Russians called it "kerosinka," or kerosene lantern, because it caught fire so easily when hit by tracer rounds.

[@Jesmed100]

@automanngehtandasautoran Yes, or in English, "sewing machine." Author Claus Neuber recently published a new book "Marching From Defeat," in which he gives 5 nicknames the Germans had for the Po-2: "Sewing machine," "coffee mill," "runway crow," "fog crow," and "Iron Gustav," because the bellies of the planes were armored for some protection from ground fire.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

When they used to attack, approach a few thousand feet up, put engine on idle a few miles away, and glided in to attack and drop their bombs, to avoid as much ground fire as possible, and then full throttle band away.

[@Toxic2T]

It sounds like an old school V8. Love it.

[@dragonmeddler2152]

Can you imagine the pilots who climbed into their Po-2s on cold, snowy or foggy Russian nights to make runs at the mighty German army and Luftwaffe? That they were mostly women doesn't make their feat any more remarkable than it already was.

[@rodjarrow6575]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r16YlImdn6-Nq5Y

[@silvesby]

Excuse me, but could you provide some sources on why you say that?

[@carlosygor3124]

@@nigel900 that was kind of every army in the world during the war

[@silvesby]

Nigel 900 You still haven't provided a source to back your claim.

[@vadimpm1290]

@@nigel900 of course, you don"t... you can't...It's only your vivid imagination...

[@kamilbabajanov4675]

Great, nice memory

[@xl1200r]

for the Russians,the night witches were angels!!.

[@thudor1]

Many people learned about the Night Witches from that awesome song by Sabaton.

[@wkeith96]

The Russian women pilots were brave!

[@LCMNUNES1962]

VERY GOOD VÍDEO, BRASIL OK.

[@marguskiis7711]

Bring the biplanes back!

[@MyFabian94]

I'll have my Gliders and TMG License soon, and PPL will follow shortly afterwards. The Po-2 is probably the one Aircraft in the world I would love to restore the most. I only need the basic Airframe and an engine. Would love to know how many of the 30.000 survive in pieces in some Barn somewhere. There have to be Survivors.

[@theairstig9164]

Use a modern Rotec or Venner. You don’t need to be period reproduction correct. Or by a Sopwith replica kit

[@jaceklewandowski4921]

POLISH VERSION OF PO - 2 WAS CSS 13 AND I WAS FLYING THEM FOR ABOUT 50 HOURS BEING A MEMBER OF LODZ AND WARSAW AEROCLUBS IN NAVIGATION, FORMATION FLIGHT OF 3 PLANES , TOWING GLIDERS ,SOMETIMES TWO OF THEM AND IN BASIC ACROBATICS, IT WAS GREAT AIRPLANE AND VERY DEMANDING OF PILOTING SKILS ESPECIALLY DURING LANDING. IN MY TIME I WAS NOT FLYING WITH SKY DIVERS WHEN CSS13 WAS REPLACED BY PZL 101, PZL104, AND AN 2.

[@marvinwatkins8889]

The Germans also said it sounded like a sewing machine. (More almost like a diesel-powered sounding one!) Probably a lot more in various conditions in the former Soviet Union no outsider knows about.

[@miles2378]

Does anyone get the wiles watching some one working that close to a prop driven plane with a running engine?

[@robertallen5686]

no...but I did get the "willies'...lol

[@miles2378]

It took KZbin 5 months to tell me that!

[@Dragon.7722]

The germans nicknamed it "sewing machine" in WW2 because of the sound. It actually sounds like one.

[@floydpaulos5526]

Being so slow the Russians found a combat use for them by getting a squadron of women pilots to harass the Germans by gliding silently over their positions at night to drop small bombs on their camps.Hence the term 'night witches'.I imagine this affected troop morale & nerves in the same way snipers did.

[@jblumanog4291]

Thanks to them the Germans were even afraid to light a campfire. Let alone fire their guns

[@dmitriyivanov4688]

and now try at minus 40 Celsius. My grandfather took the same plane of a wounded man from near Rzhev in 1942

[@mothmagic1]

The pucker factor for the targets when these were used for combat missions? You knew it was coming because you could hear it. Because it was so slow you just didn't know when it would arrive.

[@MrElladion]

Amazing

[@MrTkrahlin]

At 0:48 -- I like the look of the guy on the running board who seems to be saying, "Oh yeah, that's right... prop wash."

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Amazing little known true story, the Nightwitches.

[@rOEN911]

this is what i like to Russian planes,Loose panels simple design flies and do the job 100%

[@Matros.1971]

Молодцы, что чтут ПАМЯТЬ...... Но черт меня побери, как же классно звучит Швецовский М11.!!!!!!!!! песня!!!!!

[@Чапыжник]

Красавчик! Вы где его взяли? Тоже такой хочу.

[@MrRexquando]

Cool aircraft. PIC sits in front??

[@planetankman]

My great great or how ever many, actual was the chief designer of this plane

[@Manboophin]

(distant hardbass coming from the cockpit)

[@raptorcat61]

I've seen the Curtis. It has no fuselage to conceal the cables. On the PoliKarpov, there's no excuse for not running the lines inside the plane as much as possible.

[@CozmixYT]

Canvas wings of death Prepare to meet your fate Night Bomber Regiment Five Hundred Eighty Eight

[@bigmig7972]

Old,good PO 2...

[@hermiasvisser812]

Brave young women....'Nightwitches'

[@woooster17]

5 cylinder engines always sound good.. My car has a 2.5 litre 5 cylinder turbo engine, & it always sounds growly & with lots of pops & bangs!

[@TimmithyZERO]

Tractor of the sky!

[@hangarrat101]

@ Chris Fowler, It's not THAT unusual, many aircraft have that to a degree. The same was true on the Ford Trimotor, Tiger Moth and even the Piper Cub to varying and limited degrees.

[@pascalchauvet7625]

Is it easy to fly, or are stick forces high?

[@AnonymousDosimetrist]

What kind of starter is on that Po-2 ?

[@cybair9341]

Yeah ! What kind of starter ? It might be a pneumatic starter. After the engine had started, the service guy disconnected a line that looks like a compressed air line.

[@chasebh89]

crawling down there to tighten that panel while the engine is running, very ballsy man

[@fishaholiclures]

There was another guy with him to stop him backing out into the prop.

[@Bruno47602]

It is U2 (1927-1944) ,Po2 1944-1951

[@billyshears5757]

The name of the aircraft changed in 1944, after the death of the designer Polikarpov in his honor.Both names are correct

[@friedenshetzer8950]

CZ Mlada Boleslaw, Airmuseum 19.05.2023: Mit etwas Glück fliege ich morgen mit einer der 7 noch vorhandenen "Po2" ("Podwa") mit. Als ehem. (Privat-) Pilot einer PA 28 für mich im höheren Alter ein besonderes Erlebnis, welches mir meine tschechische Familie zum Jubileum geschenkt hat. Ich freue mich! Gerhard K.

[@dicemancolostrum7369]

a real Harley Davidson of the sky 😆

[@HarimauPemburuSejarah]

sounds also likes truck or lorry

[@KuDastardly]

I kinda wanted the plane glide with its engines shut off longer, just to hear the legendary rumors of them sounding like eerie witches flying through the sky in their brooms as the Nazi soldiers described, hehe.

[@ziggy2shus624]

The Po-2 was used by the North Koreans for the same purpose, harassing the US troops at night. I knew a Korean war vet, who was a mechanic at an US Army airbase. which had small helicopters and Canadian Beavers. One of these little planes would fly over at night and drop little bombs(?). The guys would take cover behind a wall and when he passed over, they would run around to the other side of the wall., and everyone would have a big laugh. But, one night the plane killed a couple of guys, so they shot him down a few nights later. The US guys named him "washing machine charlie" , because of the put-put sound the Po-2 made. In rural America in the 1940s, before electric lines were everywhere, washing machines were run by a little 2 cylinder gas engine, which made a put-put sound. (Gas engine washing machines can be seen on KZbin.)

[@eliaslindemann1884]

Undetected❤✊🏽 unexpected❤✊🏽 Wings of glory❤✊🏽 Tell their story❤✊🏽 Aviation❤✊🏽 Deviation❤✊🏽 Undetected❤✊🏽 Stealth perfected❤✊🏽 Sabaton - Night Wichtes❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Leadblast]

You and me are watching an old venerable biplane here, but the Nazis are looking A WITCH'S BROOMSTICK FROM HELL

[@edmondhochmann8299]

With this plane the Night Witches drove the germans crazy in Russia...

[@nigel900]

What you don’t hear is the hordes that were blown out of the sky by the Nazis.

[@sirboomsalot4902]

Nigel 900 But that doesn't make the night witches any less cooler

[@MollyGermek]

@@nigel900 It's actually one of the Soviet planes with the fewest casualties. It was in/famously incredibly frustrating for Nazi pilots to fight due to its very low speed baiting them into stalling.

[@nigel900]

(@Whiskey) It also made them sitting ducks for AA artillery and small arms fire.

[@sergeontheloose]

@@nigel900 they had very few losses because they operated at night and silently. Also they have the highest number of Heroes of Soviet Union by a bomber regiment.

[@Zhenya_Lukashin]

"Никто не обращает внимание на небо, пока не влюбится." (Алессандро Д’Авения- итальянский писатель и сценарист, доктор филологических наук.)

[@billhuber2964]

She may look rugged but she was a dependable o'l gal .

[@amhumanperson3592]

fun fact this is the only biplane with 1 confirmed jet kill, Apparentlly the American fighter had to slowed a lil bit to much and ended up getting manuverd killed in weird way as it stalled to the ground

[@jbx9007]

Imagina a vergonha que o cara deve ter passado se tivesse sobrevivido por ser abatido por um avião lento e frágil.

[@alfredenisz4775]

I talked with a former SS soldier and he told me about the night harassment tactics initiated by the Russians. He also told me about when they shot down an Il-2 with a direct hit. The plane blew up.

[@tereziab.1097]

It'd be interesting to hear about the Germans' perspective. Care to share any tidbits?

[@ASTER-ik4hh]

"Небесный тихоход"- машина " Ночных ведьм"!

[@thudable]

LOUD !!

[@dicemancolostrum7369]

a Hartley Davidson of the sky 😆

[@The.Drunk-Koala]

fastest plane ever built

[@voldemarivanich8475]

Кто-нибудь знает где это?🙄

[@johndoogan3712]

Hi, when there's only a few left. Someone should acquire as many drawings as possible enabling them to be redrawn in other languages with a view for future new build aircraft just like the guys in New Zealand with WW1 aircraft, rotary engines etc.

[@kj4ilk]

if that was my PO-2 id at least put a handheld aircomm radio in like a icom

[@Gvv76if]

missing Me-109

[@mehmetsaz71]

We want to fly this aircraft in Turkey. For that reason we bought all parts from russia and we will fly it in experimantal category . It is written in Russian and is not translated into English or Turkish in any way. If you have the technical books translated into English, would you send it to me?

[@johnk.7138]

Самолет-труженик войны, по результатам бомбардаровок один из самых результативных, а как связной, разведчик, санитарный, для заброски диверсантов и поддержки партизан - вообще не было замены.