What I Have Been Watching Recently

 I have had a "binge" of Russian WWII TV Series recently, courtesy of Star Media via You Tube. 

First up was this series called "Night Swallows"

On 8th October 1941, Stalin issued a secret order forming a female aviation unit. Known later as the 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, a unit like this had never existed before. Their operational record began at the Salsk Steppes and the Don battles and ended in Nazi Germany. Flying PO-2 night bombers or 'mules', these brave female pilots flew harassment bombing and precision bombing missions, which successfully destroyed the enemy's river crossings, fortifications, machinery and manpower. The regiment flew over 23,000 sorties and is said to have dropped 3,000 tons of bombs. The most highly decorated female unit in the Soviet Air Force, each pilot had flown over 1000 missions by the end of the war with twenty-three pilots awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. Fighting with equal bravery and skill as their male counterparts earned them the name 'Nachthexen' (Night Witches) by the Germans.

This was followed up by two series of "The Attackers" :

The USSR – World War 2. Young pilots, Leonid and Boris arrive at military air training school only to find that they have been enlisted to an air regiment and will be going soon to the frontline.

Unfortunately the young pilots fail in their first mission. Instead of covering the Soviet attacker planes, Leonid gushes from his formation to attack the German Messerschmitts. This causes a breach in the defensive formation and, deprived of protection, the attacker planes come under fire from the German fighters and everyone is killed. Back on the ground Leonid and Boris are sent to the division’s headquarters where they are to be tried and executed. On their way to the place of execution, however, the commander of the attacker wing arrives at the military airfield and petitions personally for their release. Our heroes are given one last chance. Now they become attackers and will have to show responsibility and courage every moment of their service and execute the most complex of orders without hesitation or fear for their own lives.

Following on from the events of the first Attackers series, Major Bestuzhev is promoted to Lt Colonel and given command of a newly-formed fighter regiment. He is given the latest Soviet fighter, the Yak-3, but with no veterans to draw upon he has to rely on green pilots straight out of training. It's a tough assignment, made tougher by adversaries at Army headquarters, cunning German opponents and personal tragedy.

All rather dramatic, with a far greater number of the main characters being killed off throughout both seasons than would occur in your typical British or American equivalent eg the two main stars of series 1, a veteran female captain and her male second wingman, who spent the whole series in a "will they/wont they" fall in love plot, finally did, then were both killed in the last five minutes of the final episode! Something similar happened in Series 2 although the main character, who carried over from the first series to become the CO in series 2, did survive combat with an experimental ME262, which he and his mate (Hero of the Soviet Union and drinking buddy of Stalins son!) managed to defeat and knock down semi-intact, so that the Soviet Union could get hold of one of the jet engines!