History's Secret Heroes: Series 3: The Night Witches

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After the outbreak of World War Two, best friends Polina Gelman and Galya Dokutovich are recruited to fly bombers for the Soviet Union. Can they outsmart the Nazis?

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Lorna Reader Assistant Producer: Rachel Oakes Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why would anyone want to steal a toilet?
0:05.0	If they think they can get away with it, they'll get away with it.
0:08.0	But this isn't any old toilet.
0:11.0	This is a solid gold toilet, worth nearly five million pounds, stolen from a palace.
0:17.0	A solid gold toilet has been stolen.
0:20.0	Police are trying to flush the robbers out.
0:23.0	It's a tale of security failures, ruthless robbers and missing millions.
0:27.7	Crime next door, the golden toilet heist.
0:30.4	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:34.1	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:38.5	A spring evening in 1945, the skies northwest of Berlin, two Soviet women flew at 100 kilometres an hour through thick fog.
0:50.6	Their plane was made of little more than plywood and canvas.
0:55.2	On take-off, the plane's engine had developed a fault.
0:58.8	They were carrying bombs.
1:01.2	According to regulations, they needed to dispose of them before landing.
1:05.8	Maybe they could discard them into a lake or river.
1:09.0	But the fog made it impossible to see anything.
1:12.3	They realized that the fog was getting worse, as if the ground was covered by a layer of cotton
1:18.1	wool. So they asked each other what should they do now?
1:22.9	In the cockpit's backseat, navigator Paulinaina Gelman, knew she needed to think fast.
1:28.3	Then she noticed a long church steeple.
1:32.3	They must be close to the Soviet airfield.
	...

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