objectives by taking routes that avoided the germans spotting them which decreased casualties the women in turn recognized his experience competence and flexibility by acting as professionals and changed his secret nickname from bayonet to batya dad the NUMBER_TOKENth began flying combat missions in january NUMBER_TOKEN they flew NUMBER_TOKEN missions not just inside soviet union at stalingrad but the dawn front and belarus but also in lithuania and poland and dropped a total of NUMBER_TOKEN tons of bombs on german positions batteries ammunition dumps and transportation lines the NUMBER_TOKENth earned such a great reputation that they were awarded the coveted guards designation and afterwards became known as the NUMBER_TOKENth guard bomber aviation regiment by war's end NUMBER_TOKEN pilots and crew members had died defending their country as for the night witches that number was just over NUMBER_TOKEN. in the years following the war markov has stated that he wished he recommended even more women to receive the hero of the soviet union awards instead the most acclaimed went to the night witches as NUMBER_TOKEN of the NUMBER_TOKEN women had received the hsu award during their service in world war ii two hundred thousand women were awarded medals for bravery throughout and after the war and it's estimated that around half a million women served alongside men some were excellent snipers some operated anti-aircraft artillery and as we mentioned earlier they were even tank commanders yet the women that served including the night witches have almost faded from memory and before we get into modern day recognition with the night witches let's just take a quick moment to thank today's sponsor hey so it's me just promoting some me stuff today uh if you want to connect with me live as we discuss some more current event topics or even some more laid-back stuff make sure that you check out my twitch i've started to stream more regularly over there and although i admit i'm still kind of figuring out a consistent schedule but i am trying to go live at least one to three times a week so if you want to join in on the discussion make sure you go to my twitch it's called the illuminati with a v at the beginning because i locked myself out of my first account so yeah here we are or of course you can click on the link in the description box and i'm having a lot of fun over there and i hope to see you there in a future stream soon
START_SELFPROMO_TOKEN hey so it's me just promoting some me stuff today uh if you want to connect with me live as we discuss some more current event topics or even some more laid-back stuff make sure that you check out my twitch i've started to stream more regularly over there and although i admit i'm still kind of figuring out a consistent schedule but i am trying to go live at least one to three times a week so if you want to join in on the discussion make sure you go to my twitch it's called the illuminati with a v at the beginning because i locked myself out of my first account so yeah here we are or of course you can click on the link in the description box and i'm having a lot of fun over there and i hope to see you there in a future stream soon END_SELFPROMO_TOKEN