Partners Develop Project on the Night Witches of WW II

Bella Duke and Darcy Rimkunas obviously love a good challenge. The two Huntington High School sophomores developed an award winning documentary titled “The Night Witches: Female Bombers of World War II.” It garnered third place in the local National History Day contest.

“Through topic research and helpful guidance from our history teacher, Lauren Desiderio, we were able to choose to do our topic on the Soviet Union Night Witches,” according to the process party submitted with the project. “The Night Witches were an all-female Soviet Union aviation unit during World War II. We were interested in how this regiment challenged traditional gender roles in the military and society. The Night Witches connects the National History Day theme because the Night Witches service reshaped the perspectives of women which caused reactions and eventually caused changes and a revolution in gender norms which caused reform.”

This year’s National History Day contest showcased students spread across grades 6-12, who submitted exceptional projects in a variety of categories consistent with the 2026 national theme of “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.”

“Our research began with researching academic secondary sources to get historical background,” states the process party. “We used Google Scholar, Britanica and resources our teacher recommended to us. We also read books and read a lot about the Night Witches. We compared lots of sources to find common information and read from different interpretations. Throughout our research process we updated our thesis and got a clearer understanding of the Night Witches impact.”

The research partners created the project after choosing to develop a Group Documentary category entry. “We chose a documentary because it combined historical images and we were able to narrate the whole documentary,” according to the process party. “Visuals help demonstrate the conditions women were put in during this time and also helps explain our topic better. At first we researched and gathered pictures from our research and eventually put the pictures together and then narrated the documentary. We had to use a lot of time management as there were a lot of deadlines we had to meet.”

Teams of teachers served as judges for each category and spent hours evaluating the projects, many of which were displayed prior to the announcement of this year’s award winners.

“Our historical argument is that the Night Witches significantly transformed women's roles in the military,” the process paper states. “The Night Witches proved that women were capable of serving in the army which challenged stereotypes that women should stay as housewives. Their success confirmed that women could do much more than stay at home and care for children and demonstrated how a woman could flourish in a male-dominated field.”

The annual National History Day initiative seeks to make history more relevant for students and requires them to use a variety of practical and creative skills during the development of their projects.

“Historically, the Night Witches are significant because their service contributed to the shifting perspective of women in society's eyes,” concludes the process paper. “The Night Witches proved that women's abilities go far beyond the household. In the short term, the Night Witches altered the Soviet Union's military policies by proving that women could conquer in male-dominated fields like aviation. In the long term, the Night Witches influenced more discussion of women's capabilities, rights and expanded the opportunities that women could have in both the military and civil life. The Night Witches legacy lives on and illustrates how during times of crisis, like World War II, social change can be shifted and permanently changed for the better.”