The Soviet “Night Witches” flew the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane, which in earlier wartime paperwork and memoirs often appears under its original designation, U-2. Same basic aircraft, different name.
The Po-2 did not just carry the Night Witches to the target. It shaped everything: where they could take off, what they could carry, how they approached, and why German troops gave them a nickname that stuck.
If you want to know more about the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane that the Night Witches flew, read on. It also includes a spec table of the aircraft.
The aircraft of the Night Witches
“Night Witches” was the German nickname for the all-female crews of the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment, later redesignated the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (also known as the “Taman” Guards, after its later honour title). Their work sat in the unglamorous corner of air power: night harassment bombing, close to the front, usually with small loads, repeated many times.
It’s easy to assume they were flying some sort of “special forces” machine. They weren’t. They were given a cheap, sturdy trainer and made it do a night bomber’s job.
U-2, Po-2, and the wartime variants
The aircraft the Night Witches flew began life as the U-2, with the “U” coming from uchebnyy which translates as “training”. It was designed as a simple two-seat biplane for basic instruction, and it spread everywhere: flight schools, liaison duties, ambulance work, odd jobs.
During WW2 it gained military modifications for night bombing. You’ll sometimes see the designation U-2VS used for an armed multi-purpose light bomber form introduced during the war. In 1944, the name changed to Po-2, in line with Soviet naming practice that used the designer’s name (Polikarpov) in abbreviated form.
That naming shuffle explains a lot of online arguments. A 1942 diary might say “U-2”. A museum label for the same basic type might say “Po-2”. They’re usually talking about the same family of aircraft.
Po-2 quick specs
Below is a practical spec table for the Polikarpov Po-2. Numbers differ a bit depending on which production batch or surviving aircraft a source is using, so treat these as typical rather than absolute.
| Spec | Polikarpov U-2 / Po-2 (typical figures) |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Two-seat, open-cockpit biplane |
| Structure | Commonly described as wood and fabric/canvas construction |
| Engine | Shvetsov M-11 series, 5-cylinder air-cooled radial |
| Power | 115–125 hp (source-dependent) |
| Wingspan | ~37 ft to 37 ft 5 in (about 11.3–11.4 m) |
| Length | ~26 ft 7 in to 26 ft 11 in (about 8.1–8.2 m) |
| Max speed | ~93–94 mph (about 150–151 km/h) |
| Cruising speed | ~68 mph (about 109 km/h) |
| Range | ~390 miles (about 628 km) |
| Service ceiling | ~9,800 ft (about 3,000 m) |
| Bomb load | Often cited up to around 300 kg maximum on racks (operational loads could be lower) |
| Crew arrangement in service | Pilot + navigator (two-woman crews in the regiment) |
Two things matter for understanding the Night Witches: the Po-2 was slow, and it carried little. Both are true. But the follow-on point is what people miss: because the aircraft was simple, light, and forgiving, it could be used in ways a faster, heavier bomber could not.
Why a trainer made sense as a night bomber
The Po-2’s reputation in this role comes from a mismatch. In daylight, a wood-and-fabric biplane with open cockpits and modest speed is begging to be shot down. At night, on the Eastern Front, the same features could be turned into a kind of method.
Crews were operating with basic kit, often in cold conditions, with limited instruments compared with more modern aircraft. They also tended to carry small numbers of bombs at a time, with sorties repeated through the night. In other words: short missions, quick turnarounds, and an aircraft that could be kept serviceable on rough forward strips.
It helps to think of the Po-2 less as a “bomber” in the conventional sense and more as a night nuisance platform: cheap to run, easy to patch up, and capable of being where it was needed without much runway or infrastructure.
How the Po-2 shaped tactics of the Night Witches
The famous tactic associated with the Night Witches is the “silent” final approach. Crews would cut the engine near the target, gliding in so that the loudest warning was the rush of air, then release their bombs and head back to rearm.
You can see the logic. A gliding biplane at night is hard to time and hard to hear until the last moments. It also saves fuel and reduces the bright exhaust cues that a running piston engine can give away in darkness. The Po-2’s slow-speed handling gave the female crews time to place the aircraft where they wanted it, even if “where they wanted it” was a patch of blackness over trees, with flak flashes as the only reference.
It’s also worth pointing out the rhythm. They did not win by one pass. They won by repetition. Accounts of the regiment’s operational tempo often mention crews flying a string of sorties in a single night, landing to refuel and reload, then going straight back out. That’s the Po-2 story in practice: modest bomb load, high frequency, steady pressure.
Armament and “how much could it carry”, without pretending it was a Pe-2
You’ll find wildly different bomb-load claims online, usually because people mix “maximum possible on racks” with “what was wise tonight, from this strip, in this weather”.
Technically, the aircraft could be fitted with racks to carry a larger total load, but operational reality often forced smaller loads. A unit flying at night from improvised strips, trying to get airborne reliably and make multiple trips, is not always loading to the theoretical maximum. Wind, temperature, field conditions, and the simple need to keep the aircraft controllable at low altitude all matter.
Maximum loads existed on paper and on racks; the Night Witches’ effectiveness came from frequency, not single-pass weight.
A quick myth-buster: what the Night Witches didn’t fly
Because the Soviet Union fielded more than one female aviation unit, the name “Night Witches” sometimes gets lazily applied to any Soviet female pilot story. The nickname, though, is tied to the night-bomber regiment and its Po-2s. If you see a claim that the Night Witches were flying fast modern fighters, you’re usually reading a mash-up of different regiments and roles.
So why this plane for the Night Witches, and why does it still loom so large?
The Po-2 was not glamorous. It was a mass type, built to be flown by students and maintained with basic tools. That simplicity is exactly why it became a weapon in the hands of an organised unit with a clear task. The aircraft could fly from small clearings and rough strips, creep over the front at night, and keep coming back.
Ask “what planes did the Night Witches fly?” and you get one name. Ask “why did that work?” and you get a better answer: the Po-2’s limitations weren’t a footnote. They were the system.