Brave Russian Women

I was just listening to the story of the Russian women pilots, who formed several squadrons in the war, flew without parachutes a lot of the time in very flimsy planes nicknamed 'sewing machines' and were issued with a pistol with seven bullets - six to shoot the enemy - and the last to shoot themselves if caught by the Germans, and many did. Seems that at the end of the war they were summoned to Moscow to receive gold watches, ostensibly from the foreign ministry, but the rumour went that King George in England had been overcome by tales of their bravery, and sent the watches over for them. The War Museum were unable to confirm this, but it is a nice story. The first woman, killed during the war, was only 17 when she learned to fly and started the squadrons which were overwhelmed with volunteers. What amazing women these were.