Nachthexen - Night Witches

Russian female bomber regiment formed in 1941 by Colonel Marina Raskova [photo] and led by Major Yevdokia Bershanskaya.
The regiment flew harassment bombing and precision bombing missions against the German military. At its largest size, it had 40 two-person crews. It flew over 23,000 sorties and is said to have dropped 3,000 tons of bombs. It was the most highly-decorated female unit in the Soviet Air Force, each pilot having flown over 1,000 missions by the end of the war and twenty-three having been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Thirty of its members died in combat.

Sounds great, right?

Here's the thing though.

The formation of the group took while because no one wanted to recruit women. One officer is quoted as saying “Things may be bad but we’re not so desperate that we’re going to put little girls like you up in the skies. Go home and help your mother.”

But eventually they DID get that desperate and three regiments were formed and the women did 2 years' worth of training in 6 months.

When they started fighting they had hand-me-down uniforms from male pilots and flew wood and fabric made planes that lacked basic things like radio communication to ground control and navigation instruments.

They could only carry two bombs at a time so the Night Witches had to keep coming back to base for more bombs.

Even though the planes were old and slow, they very maneuverable, and the Night Witches used that to their advantage.

They developed their own tactic for avoiding German "circus of flak" (concentric rings of up to two dozen flak cannons and searchlights they used to bring down planes). "...Flying in groups of three, two planes would approach the target and wait for the searchlights to pick them up. These two would then split apart and maneuver around the target, drawing the attention of the cannons. The third plane, having waited behind, would cut their engines and glide in to deliver the bombs. This was repeated until each of the three planes had made a bombing run."

 Source and more info and also links to books about them.

Isabelle Eberhardt

17 February 1877 – 21 October 1904

Eberhardt, born in Switzerland, was an illegitimate child of an aristocratic Lutheran Baltic German Russian mother, Nathalie Moerder (née Eberhardt), and an Armenian-born father, Alexandre Trophimowsky, anarchist and ex-priest.

In Algeria she and her mother converted to Islam in 1897 and some time later she took took the side of local Muslims in violent fighting against colonial rule by the French.

Her mother and father died, and being illegitimate Isabelle was estranged from the rest of the family, so she stayed in northern Algeria.

Dressed as a man and calling herself Si Mahmoud Essadi, Eberhardt travelled in Arab society with a freedom she could not otherwise have experienced.

She forgave and successfully pleaded for the life of a man who almost cut her arm off in an assassination attempt.

During a flood the house she and her husband were in collapsed on them. Eberhardt managed to save her husband before she died.

Isabelle wrote on her travels in many books and French newspapers. She started working as a war reporter in the South of Oran in 1903.

Source - wiki (I know, sssh)

Her works are now being translated into English. From amazon - Volume 1, including journals, diary entries, and observations of life in North Africa, offers a view of the culture and people of French Algeria rarely seen by outsiders—the peasants, prostitutes, mystics, criminals, and other marginalized members of a colonized society. This translation brings to life a brilliant woman ahead of her time while also raising questions—about North African history, colonialism, gender representation, and writing—that resonate in our day.

Mahmud of Ghazni and Malik Ayaz

Mahmud of Ghazni (971 A.D.) was the founder and Sultan of Ghaznavid Empire. He was a Sunni Muslim who brought Islam to the Indian subcontinent, though he did it through destruction and conquest so he is both loved and hated by different people. He was educated and a patron of fine arts.

He was in love with Malik Ayaz, a Turkish slave and later a general in Mahmud's army.

Malik Ayaz was, it was said, not very good looking, but he was loyal and intelligent and found his way into Mahmud's heart and the top of Mahmud's government. He was given the throne of a city and under his rule it became a cultural and academic center.

Many stories were told about their love. One of them states that the Sultan asked Ayaz who the most powerful man in his kingdom was. Ayaz said it was himself. When Mahmud asked for proof, Ayaz replied "Because even though you are king, your heart rules you, and this slave is the king of your heart."
Their relationship became the epitome of idealized love in Islamic legend and Sufi literature and “slave to a slave” became a favorite trope in Persian literature.

My favorite thing about this story is this one line: It is said that in old age "Sultán Mahmúd spent his whole time in the society of Malik Ayáz, neglecting the business of the state."

Because what that means is that they grew old together.

Sources used:

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