Polina Makagon

Polina Aleksandrovna Makogon (; ; 1919 1943) was a squadron commander in an all-female Soviet air unit, the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Witches.

Biography Makogon was born in 1919 in the village of Balky, located in what it now the Zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine.

Career In 1941, she joined the Civil Air Fleet and in May 1942 she graduated from the Engels Military School. During her time in service she participated in the Battle of the Caucasus, the Liberation of Kuban and bombed enemy facilities. On the night of the 31 March/1 April 1943, Makogon was piloting a bomber back to base when it collided with another aircraft. Of the four people in the aircraft involved in the crash, only Khiuaz Dospanova (from the other plane) survived. Later Zhigulenko suggested that the inexperience of the new navigator, Lydia Svistunova, may have had an effect. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class.

Legacy In 1965 a memorial obelisk was erected in Pashkovskaya to remember Makogon and other pilots.