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Transcript

The Night Witches (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Megan Nolet.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm Patrick Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Polina Gelman turns off her plane's engine. Her engine goes
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: quiet as she floats over Nazi-occupied Russia. The Nazi gunners
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: have their eyes to the sky, but Gelman's plane has
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: no power and makes no noise. A small smile crosses
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: her face as she fingers the switch that will release
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the airplane bomb. Soon, she will make another small hole
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: in the Nazi war machine. Soon, she will be back
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: for another round.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Polina Gelman was a member of Russia's 588th Night Bomber
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Aviation Regiment. They were nicknamed the Night Witches by their enemies.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: This group of pilots faced impossible odds to fight for
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: their country. In doing so, they served their country. They
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: also made history as the first all-female group of military
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: pilots in history. Today's Spotlight is on the amazing story
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: of the Night Witches.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The Night Witches would not have been possible without Marina Raskova.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: The first woman in the Soviet Union to achieve the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: position of a paid navigator, Raskova was a leader in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: air travel. But when the Soviets joined World War II,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: they made a rule. Women could fly, but they could
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: not fight.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: This rule angered Raskova. The Soviet Union was in a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: bad place. She believed that everyone, not just men, should
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: be able to fight for their country. She was famous
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: enough in her country that her opinion mattered. She even
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: asked the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, for an exception. For her,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: he made one.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: About 1,200 people were accepted into one of three airplane
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: fighting groups. About 400 women went to the Night Bomber
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Aviation Regiment. Polina Gelman and Gaila Dokutovych were college students
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: who joined the regiment. Yuba Vinogradova is a Russian historian.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: She spoke about the two best friends with the British
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Broadcasting Corporation.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: They were completely in love with danger. They wanted to fly.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: They were wild about flying. And second, they were extremely
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: loyal to their country. So they both signed up.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: However, the women of the 588th faced difficulties even before
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: they began to fly. Many of their male partners did
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: not believe they could do a good job. They were
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: given clothing designed for men, which was often too big
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: for them to wear. Worst of all, there were not
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: enough planes for the women. The night witches were given
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: old planes not built for fighting.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: These airplanes were made mostly of low-cost wood and other materials.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: These were old planes and had no instruments to help
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the women know where to go. They had to use
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: maps and other difficult-to-use tools. The airplanes had open cockpits.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: These were not covered. Pilots had to put up with
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: terrible cold weather. The planes could only fly 145 kilometers
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: per hour and had to stay close to the ground.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Pilots did not carry anything. to slow their fall if
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: their airplanes crashed. This would have made the airplanes too
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: heavy to fly.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: But the night witches turned these problems into a success.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Flying at night made their attacks unexpected. The old planes
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: did not show up on German census. These could turn
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: more quickly than modern planes and could land anywhere. This
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: made the planes perfect for surprise attacks. If the Night
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Witches turned off their engines for a short time, they
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: were very difficult to hear or see. This is why
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the Nazis called them the Night Witches. They appeared from nowhere,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: as if by magic.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Part of the reason these planes flew at night was
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to attack Nazi targets more easily. But another reason was
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to make it difficult for their enemies to sleep. The
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: night witches' work hours also meant they did not sleep much.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Larisa Litvinova-Rozanova was one of the night witches. She told
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the New York Times.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: We even had a kind of agreement between the pilot
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: and the navigator. One of us would sleep going to
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: the target and the other returning to base.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: The night witches were not always successful. On one of
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: the worst nights of the war, the Night Witches lost
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: eight women to German airplanes. Most nights they were tired, cold,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: and unhappy. But the women of the 588th continued to fight,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: if only to prove that they could.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: At home, the Night Witches championed the fact that they
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: were women, and proud of it. In their free time,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: they made clothing and danced, just as their mothers had.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Some painted their planes with flowers. They wore makeup. Like
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the men, it was their job to defend their country.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: But these women did their job in a way that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: was all their own.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: The end of the war came as a change for
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: many of the night witches. Each pilot flew about 800 times.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Thirty of their sisters had died in battles. 24 of
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: these women earned one of their country's most important awards,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the Hero of the Soviet Union. But the Night Witches
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: did not fly during the Soviet Victory Day celebration. Their
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: planes were considered to be too slow. And six months
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: after their victory, the Soviets decided that the 588th Night
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Bombing Regiment was no longer necessary.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Most of the Night Witches went back to their normal lives.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Polina Gelman returned to school to study languages. She married,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: had a child, and later worked in universities as an economist.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: It was not until recently that people noticed her efforts
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to defeat the Nazis. Her story, like many others, almost disappeared.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: She told the New York.
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: Times, Some people like to talk too much about what
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: they have done. I would not want to look like that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Gelman and the rest of the Night Witches did not
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: seem to need recognition for what they did. They acted
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: out of love for their country. They acted out of
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: love for freedom. Most saw their work as a simple service.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: But their desire to fight was more than that. It
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: was an act of bravery that went beyond the reasons
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: they fought. In that, these women deserve our respect. Gelman
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: told the British Broadcasting Corporation.
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: It was their free will. That which is done at
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: the call of the heart is always done better than
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: that which is done because you must.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of the Night Witches before? Did
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you learn anything new from this story? Have you ever
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: done something that was very difficult? What was it? Why
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: did you do it?
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: and X. You can also get Spotlight episodes delivered directly
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: to your Android or Apple device through our free official
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Spotlight English app.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: The writer of this program was Dan Chrisman. The producer
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episodes are written, voiced,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and produced by real people for real people, no matter
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: where in the world they live. This episode is called
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the Night Witches.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Spotlight episode.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Goodbye.