Night Swallows (Season 1)

Night Swallows (2013) is a Russian war drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Mikhail Kabanov. It follows the women of the 46th Guards Taman Bomber Regiment — one of the most unusual combat units of the Second World War.

In October 1941 Stalin signed a classified order forming all-female aviation regiments. The Taman regiment flew Po-2 biplanes — slow, open-cockpit, without armor or parachutes — striking German positions in the dark. Over the course of the war the regiment logged 24,000 combat sorties. German soldiers couldn't intercept the planes and started calling the pilots "Night Witches." Twenty-five of the regiment's pilots were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. The series — with Tatyana Arntgolts, Elizaveta Nilova, and Mariya Pirogova leading the cast — layers the missions with the rivalries, romances, and loyalties inside the crews.

What makes this worth watching isn't dogfights — the Po-2 had none — but the portrait of women doing something the military had told itself only men could do. Stream Night Swallows (2013) online on iFILM.