The Night Witches: 01

Author's Note: My spiritual mother, Colonel Marina Raskova, founder of 588th Night Bomber Regiment -- what the Germans in WW2 called "Das Nachthexen," the "Night Witches" -- once asked me, "what is the purpose of prose if not poetry?" She delighted in French Avant-garde theater, Dada art, surrealistic poetry, and so do I. If stream of consciousness bores you, dear reader, you might want to read elsewhere. It is true that erotic war literature can be problematic, I understand, especially for people who live comfortably enough where they will never have to face such moral dilemmas. My mother never had that luxury in 1941 as the Nazis were invading the Soviet Union: Operation Barbarossa. This story is dedicated to all of us who learned how to survive.

* * *

"I want you to pose naked for me."

"What, Sargent Rudenov?"

"Comrade Aleksandra, did you not just knock on my door and enter?"

The younger pilot blinked in the well lit room that served as Sargent Yevgeniya Rudenov's, flight squadron leader for the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, personal quarters.

"Yes, Sargent Rudenov."

"Comrade Aleksandra, did you not just ask me if you would be flying in tonight's sortie?"

"Yes, Sargent Rudenov."

"And when I said no, did you not say 'what can I do to fly tonight'?"

"I'm sorry, Sargent Comrade. Did you just say--"

"Yes. That I want you to pose naked for me."

Aleksandra looked at the decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of the Red Banner and Order of the Red Star sitting before her, trying to make some sense of the offer.

War had stripped Rudenov of her girlish charms, leaving her with a curious, rugged sensuality that everyone – women and men – in the regiment noticed. They say in Russia that there are only two types of females: girls and elderly babushkas. Where does one find the link between caterpillar and butterfly? Who has ever witnessed such a transformation in a world that holds motherhood so cheap? "In what mysterious pupa," one traveler asked, "do Russian women prepare for the next stage of their lives?" The answer is easy: war. War burns away all the virginal blushing embarrassments, the banal madonna-whore complex, the artificial accouterments of a bourgeois society, leaving behind only queer middle-age women who know how to survive.

"Comrade Aleksandra, you have been in camp over a month. We have lost twenty-four pilots and navigators during that time. Girls just like you who came into this very room saying they would do anything to get the chance to drop bombs on the Germans. And now here you are, their sister, obviously, standing before me saying you'll do anything to get the chance to fly in a Polikarpov," Yevgeniya smiled at the obvious confusion and discomfort this was creating in the younger girl. "You tell me that you would do anything?"

"Yes, Sargent Rudenov."

"Well then, you can convince me about that by posing naked for me, right now, yes? So you choose, the night is young, the plane do not leave for another three hours. Come day break, where would you like to be?"

Yevgeniya stood up from her desk, walked over to a small cabinet and removed a large, chrome camera. Aleksandra looked nervously at the older woman, she reminded her of a nun she once had at school. She could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest. It was a cold night. Somewhere outside a crow, the messenger from the other world, cawed in the dark.

"I'm sorry dear, I hate to rush you. Perhaps you'd like to think about this back in your barracks?" She started to door as if ushering the younger woman out.

"No! Please, Sargent Rudenov."

Yevgeniya looked at Aleksandra as if surprised she had spoken.

"Are you sure I can't just--" But here the younger girl was at a loss as to what she could offer. It was either posing for photos or being grounded for who knew how long. "Who would see these photos if I agreed?" The girl stammered, looking at the ground, blushing violently. "I've never been naked before ... anyone one else."

Closing the wooden door to her quarters and pulling the latch, Yevgeniya looked the young pilot up and down. She smiled at the girl's nervous plight. "How did you ever make it through eighteen years of life and never once have the urge to let other people see you for what you are?"

"Sargent Rudenov?" Aleksandra asked, drawing a deep breath.

"My dear girl. I have a dozen other pilots also wanting to fly tonight with far fewer hang-ups than you seem to possess. The pictures will be shown to very few, but please understand I will demand that you are to be naked. You will be posing in extremely ... titillating ways for me."

"But you're a woman!" Aleksandra blurted, then bit her lip before she said anything else moronic. Yevgeniya's omnivorous appetites weren't exactly state secrets.

"Yes, Comrade Aleksandra, I am."

Yevgeniya smiled as she returned to her desk with her camera. Aleksandra's head was a whirl of emotions, her legs felt as if the would give way under her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to run back to her barracks and throw herself into the arms of her bunk mate, Alyona, who took such good care of her. It was cold in the small room and the girl rubbed her arms.

"I'm sorry it's a bit chilly in here, Ukrainian summers are never warm -- drink?" she didn't wait for the girl to answer but poured her a shot of vodka, which she took gratefully. She immediately drained half, then coughed before putting the glass down on the table. Aleksandra watched as Yevgeniya took the camera up and felt sick with nerves at the reality of what she was about to do. She drank down the shot her commanding officer refilled her glass with.

"Nervous?" the older woman smiled at Aleksandra as she nodded. "Well don't be. You're a very lucky pilot. One day I'll tell you what I had to do to win this." She pointed to her Order of the Red Star. "And you are so very pretty, I love your uniform, it shows off your charms so well. Have you ever been an artist's model? My mother had a friend in Paris, Rene Vivian, who looked just like you."

Aleksandra shook her head, looked down at her dress, then heard the camera click as she smoothed it over her hips and blushed again. In reality it was the same standard uniform all the women were issued. But, she had to admit, at least it was a dress. On the first day of training Aleksandra, as well as all the other recruits, had been ushered into a large storeroom, where, piled on the floor in separate heaps, were bundles of enormous boots, rough woolen vests, standard male underwear – nothing to suggest that the 588th Night Bomber Regiment was an all-female unit. In other piles were ugly male tunics, wool trousers, overcoats. Aleksandra walked past the lieutenant who had brought them to the room and picked up two boots at random. They were mammoth. Later that day the sound of hysterical laughter could be heard all over the building as the recruits attempted to fashion themselves uniforms. Woolen vests dangled down below the knee, trousers were hitched up almost to the chin, and greatcoats -- the pride of the Soviet armed forces -- spilled across the floor behind them like monstrous veils for some unholy wedding ceremony.

It was nearly a month later that a package from Moscow brought the girls their dresses – drab, ugly things, true – but at least they were dresses and they could be made to fit. Aleksandra glanced nervously down at the low neckline that she suddenly felt now showed off far too much of her ample cleavage. Small metal buttons ran down the front to her waist.

Click.

"Yes, I think we can keep the boots on, they'll show your legs nicely, it's a shame there isn't a single stocking left in the entire Union. War makes beggars of us all."

Yevgeniya seemed to be thinking for a moment. Aleksandra stood waiting, shivering from cold, nerves, wondering what on earth she was supposed to do next.

"No, lets just play with what you're wearing. You really are so pretty, I love your breasts."

Aleksandra blushed again despite the chill of the room. Alyona would say the same thing, but that's what bunk mates were suppose to say, was it not? Late at night, once the candles were doused and the barracks were dark and quiet save for the occasional moan and snore and stifled low-down dirty groan during those long summer night. Her arms came up to cover her chest.

Click.

"What panties are you wearing? Lift your skirt, show me." The camera came up to Yevgeniya's eye again. Aleksandra froze.

"Show you my ...?"

"Lift your skirt, soldier. I will not send a woman into the air who refuses to follow instructions, she will kill herself and her navigator so do as you're told – that is a direct order!"

Aleksandra jumped, as if she had been slapped, pulled up her skirt, gathering it quickly around her hips.

"Slowly, Comrade, slowly."

Click, click, click.

Aleksandra felt foggy, stupefied, feeble-minded. Holding up her skirt while a commanding officer took photos of her pathetic, government-issued panties. She glanced down, looked at her unshaven legs, her feet in their ugly black boots. May that stray Nazi artillery shell everyone jokes about find its way over to this tent right now, she thought.

Click, click.

"Pull you're panties higher up your hips for me, Comrade --" She lifted her skirt a little more with her free hand, then pulled her white cotton higher up her hips, making a W where the fabric cut across her girl-lips.

"Hmm, much better."

She had Aleksandra lift her foot onto the wooden table, holding her skirt out to the side, asked her to smile, all the while the girl, still blushing, still embarrassed, did everything she was told to do.

"Turn around, yes – now, bend forward, lift your skirt high, higher, push your ass out, yes, like that."

Aleksandra sighed, there was still that girlish need to cry inside her. What was it that Lady Macbeth desired to be so that she could commit the acts that made "her kind blush at"? Ah yes, "unsexed." But if one is not born a woman, one is made a woman, why blush at all? If femininity is indeed an artifice, why not embrace Eros as deeply as we embrace Pathos? She let her skirt fall, reached for her glass. Yevgeniya poured her more vodka. Smiled at the young pilot's inner-struggle.

"Comrade, listen to me. You're in a bad situation. You want to fly but your pride stops you doing something so simple that it's even recorded in the Bible as the first trick Lilith taught Eve before God made Adam and broke the two girls up. Fighting this only making it worse. You could at least try to enjoy it."

"But--" Aleksandra stammered, drunkenly looking into the shot glass as if it contained secret answers. "What do you mean 'Lilith and Eve'?"

"Listen, let's make this easier for you shall we? You are going to pose for some naughty photos for me, if you want to fly there is no way out, you have to learn to take orders. If you don't want to pack your bag tonight and go back to your Worker in Moscow or whoever it is who pays your bills, parasite. Now, I want you to take off your top before we go any further – now, soldier!"

Aleksandra felt a tear slide down her cheek, fumbled with the tiny metal buttons of her dress shirt, then glanced up at her commanding officer, only to pull the shirt wide, revealing her bra, a luxury for the women. Finally she pulled each cup down to free her breasts. The moment they were exposed, her nipples immediately puckered and hardened in the cold air, making her embarrassment obvious.

"Push your tits out, flygirl, be proud of what you have, Comrade Aleksandra."

Doing what she was told, Aleksandra flushed, partly from the vodka and partly as she felt her exposed skin studied by lecherous eyes. She then drew in a surprised breath as Yevgeniya reached out, softly stroke each nipple, feeling the weight of each breast before drawing her blunt fingernails over the crimped skin of her aureoles, tugging softly, drawing on each nipple. When Alyona did this, that was fine, she was her bunk mate. But this? Aleksandra fought to stop herself covering her chest.

"My dear, you are beautiful."

Aleksandra watched as she brought the camera in for a close-up of each.

Click, click, click.

The girl simply stood there in the cold with her arms crossed beneath her breasts, swaying slightly.

"Ooo."

"Hohhot."

Yevgeniya bent down towards her left breast and Aleksandra felt the wet warmth of her mouth close around her so terribly erect skin.

She couldn't help it. Aleksandra glanced down, watched as the older woman did the same to the other nipple, entranced, unable to move as tiny earthquakes traveled through her. She was gasping as Yevgeniya rose in front of her, didn't resist as she bent forward, kissed the girl softly on the lips.

"Now, you will do as you're told, won't you, Comrade dear? Please, turn around, bend over."

Aleksandra did as she was told. The vodka must have gone to her head. She turned, her breasts, swinging free, felt swollen, the nipples cold, hard, as her squadron leader's spit dried upon them.

"Bend over more, dear."

She did, put her hands down on the wooden table to support herself. She felt her skirt being pulled up over her back, didn't resist as her panties were drawn down around her knees. She felt flushed and drunk as the camera clicked behind her. Yevgeniya took her free hand, brought it Aleksandra's to her ass.

"I want you to hold the cheeks of your bottom apart, Comrade."

Aleksandra glanced around at her.

"What? please -- don't make me --"

"Please, what?" Her commanding officer arched an eyebrow, smiled at the younger girl.

"Please, Sargent. Don't ask me to – ah! piz'da!"

Yevgeniya's hand had come down sharply on her naked, fleshy ass, sending a jolt stinging through her.

"I'll spank you again, flygirl, if you keep being naughty."

Aleksandra made a face and put her hands back on her ass.

"Now be a good girl, pull your cheeks apart."

Aleksandra rubbed her warm bottom, reluctantly pulling her cheeks apart, instantly feeling how her anus was exposed to the cool air, as well as how wet her pussy was suddenly getting.

"Hmm, I love blonde hair, it's almost as if you were shaved; so naked, so exposed."

Aleksandra did feel exposed, as well as the older woman's hand slide between her legs to touch her pubic hair.

"Ah, Comrade, you naughty girl. Hold your cunt open for me, push out your bum, more, yes, now keep your legs straight."

Aleksandra did as she was told, heard the camera click, inches away. It would have been more comfortable, some part of her drunken brain thought, if she could let her panties drop to the floor, take off her boots, they made her feel tomboyish, almost as she had been surprised while sitting on the loo. She started as Yevgeniya's free hand caressed the inside of her thighs, closed her eyes, bit her lip, still holding her ass cheeks apart as the other hand moved closer to her pussy, all the while she pushed her bum out further and further, inviting the camera to record all.

One slim finger gently pushed past the wet resistance of her vagina. She felt it enter her slowly, inch by inch, stifled a small groan of pleasure. "O, Alyona love," the younger woman barely whispered. If Yevgeniya noticed she said nothing as her finger slipped in further, then finally again several times before it was joined by a second.

"You have a lovely wet cunt, Comrade. Keep your lips spread for me."

Aleksandra tried to do as she asked, even though her legs were beginning to spasm, but then had to bring her left hand down to the table to support herself. She yipped as she was rewarded with a hard slap to her ass. The fingers returned to fill her, the feeling of being finger fucked hard consumed her. Yevgeniya's free hand was tickling her exposed anus. She flinched at the first touch then pushed back to welcome the intrusion, but suddenly everything stopped.

"Why is it, Comrade?" Yevgeniya asked, looking up at Aleksandra, the shadow of her labia in the lantern light throwing shapes across her wild upturned face. "That when I ask you to show me your cunt you blush and act like an English Capitalist's bordering school daughter, but the moment I lay a finger in your ass you are a pup in heat? Is this the secret to unsexing you?"

"No -- it's just--"

"You want me to fuck your ass with my finger don't you?" It was neither a question nor a command. It was simply a statement of truth. The pressure of Yevgeniya's finger returned as her other hand continued to play with the young pilot's hot aching pussy. "Don't you Comrade darling?" she insisted, a throaty whisper. "'That I may pour my spirits in your ass; and chastise you with the vulgar valor of my tongue to all that impedes me from this golden hind' -- Would you like to feel my finger in your ass?" She slowly withdrew the fingers from Aleksandra's pussy, then trailed the girl-juices over to her gaping anus. Aleksandra let out an involuntary moan. Yevgeniya's hand came around to the others' face and she forced her pussy-sticky fingers into the open mouth, smiling as Aleksandra greedily sucked on them.

"Comrade Aleksandra, would you like me to fuck your mouth as well? Now tell me why you want me to put my finger into your ass but not to see your delicious curly-q of a cunt."

The fingers returned to her pussy, Yevgeniya's thumb began to rub, to tease against her anus while her other fingers rubbed against her clitoris. "Tell me Comrade!" Her other hand came down in a stinging slap on her gaping ass.

Slap!

"Oi vey! Yes, Sargent Rudenov --" Aleksandra yipped. She felt her left breast fondled, then the nipple was pinched, cruelly, followed by several hard slaps

"Please -- do what you want with me --" Aleksandra didn't care anymore. If this was how wars were won, then she had found a role that consumed her. She was grateful she wasn't going to die ignorant that such pleasures existed. Why do they not teach these things in school?

"Tell me what you want."

"To fly a Polikarpov --"

"To fly a Polikarpov? What would you do to get a chance like that? Something like this?" At that, while the three fingers from Yevgeniya's hand continued to slip in and out of her cunt, she felt an extra finger from the older woman's other hand slide into her anus.

"Yes!" the girl managed to gasp out.

"Then ask me to put it in your ass, flygirl."

"Please, Sargent Rudenov! Ma'am, put your fingers in my ass!"

"No. Not on your first flight, little nestling, but," -- and here the fingers pushed but did not slip in -- "for tonight I'll put two fingers in for you."

Aleksandra groaned, almost collapsed but caught herself, straightened her legs, pushing her splayed-open ass out higher. Yevgeniya was a cruel mistress when she wanted, bore down with her weight, smiling as the young pilot finally screamed out, her orgasm ripping like wild-fire through her, phosphorescence in the dark, finally collapsed onto the table. The squadron leader for the 588th Night Bomber Regiment removed her fingers from Aleksandra's canvities, while the girl gazed foggily around, dimly wondering why the world was still spinning from her tail dive.

"Comrade Aleksandra, na kaleni, shalava."

Aleksandra felt her hair being pulled, forced to her knees. Yevgeniya dragged her across to her chair, sat down, pulled up her own military issue skirt. Aleksandra watched in a daze as the older woman dragged her forward, forcing her face into her own wet pussy. There was a cruel side to Yevgeniya, as anyone who must send soldiers out to die in the hundreds every month. She grew tired of Aleksandra licking softly at first but then became excited as the girl began lapping at her with enthusiasm.

She turned over, pushing out her chunky, muscular ass. "Lick my cunt, my bum, flygirl, do it properly."