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.