Some Soviet pilots flew over our regimental airfield at zero altitude. Then we saw that something was dropped from the plane. Our commander was very strict and said, "That is forbidden, and the pilot must be punished." Well, of course it might have created an accident. Then he sent a technician to find what was dropped. What he brought back was a big teddy bear. I don't know where they procured it, but there was a notice pinned to the bear that said: "Dear young girls, we just learned we are escorting you. Don't you get frightened; we'll do everything to defend you, fight for you with the last drop of our blood. Thank you!" That was a gift from the sky. These were the fighters who escorted our bombers. Every bomber flight going out on missions is supposed to have fighter escorts. I was a sergeant and an aircrew machine gunner. At first I was the only woman machine gunner in the whole regiment. All the other gunners were men, because physically it was very difficult. I used to do gymnastics, ride horses, and row a scull, too, so I had a lot of strength. I asked Marina Raskova to let me fly. At first they wanted to make me a weapons mechanic. Then I asked her, and she liked me and I liked her, and she said, "Well, I will take you in my plane once and see what you look like." She couldn't tell very well without doing that. We flew, and it was enough for her that I didn't throw up on my first flight. Then she said I should take up the studies for two or three months, and that should be enough for me. [...] The most interesting thing that I remember since [being shot down] is that I communicated by radio with somebody in the ground forces and told them of our despair and our situation. So on the ground we were waiting for help, and then we saw some soldiers, infantry soldiers, crawling up to us. But we saw that they were our soldiers, and what do you think they came with? Big green leaves, and these leaves were full of strawberries! Probably they heard us talking and knew we were women, the gift sent to them from the sky. That was the first nice thing during this war - red strawberries, beautiful strawberries in green leaves!
Sergeant Antonina Khokhlova Dubkova, "A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II" by Anne Noggle
