TOM    TOWNSEND

award  WINNING  AUTHOR

                                             email:   Tom@tomtownsend-toyland.com    

 Phone:   713-502-4377                                3123  CR  2407            Rusk, TX    75785

NADIA OF THE NIGHT WITCHES
By
Tom Townsend

Nadia Of The Night Witches

Read the excerpt below

 HISTORICAL FICTION; Her home destroyed and family killed by the advancing German Army, Nadia escapes to become combat pilot in Russia's Nightwitches, and a hero of the Soviet Union. Her story is one of the most exciting of World War II.
Reading Level 6th grade and up.

The screen play, written by Townsend, won second place in "Films for Women"

Published by Royal Fireworks Press
ISBN 0-88092-273-7
$7.99 paperback USA


     An hour later, Nadia sat in the cockpit of her plane and listened to the engine. It sounded strong, the oil pressure
was up, and the temperature gauge had settled down at about the right place. She glanced ahead where Lilly's plane                                                       sat as a dark silhouette in the night. It started rolling down the runway and disappeared into the darkness.
     "Two minutes," Shenya said calmly over the intercom.
     "Right." Nadia was to follow two minutes behind Lilly and climb to six hundred meters by the time they were over
the target. The whole plan suddenly seemed crazy and hopeless as Nadia repeated it all in her mind. Lilly would
make a low, fast pass over the bridge with her engine screaming at full throttle. That would draw the searchlights
and anti-aircraft fire. Nadia would then switch off her engine, dive silently on the bridge, and release her bombs
at one hundred meters. Then she must pull out of the dive, turn toward the Russian lines, and she hoped, restart her
engine. Meanwhile, in the confusion, Lilly would climb high enough to cut her engine and repeat the silent attack.
     "Go!" Shenya called and Nadia pushed the throttle forward.
     She held down on her brakes. The little plane vibrated around her. The engine screamed. Once more she checked
the magneto, saw that it was charging, and released the brakes. The plane shot forward in the darkness. The dim,
shielded runway lights were vague orange shapes as they flashed by. The tail lifted, the plane bounced, and they were
off.
     As they climbed above the trees, Nadia realized that she had been holding her breath since they started rolling. At
lust, at long, last, she thought, the wailing is over. She was in the air, and this was no practice exercise with a bonfire
or a paper target to bomb. Tonight her bombs were real. Ahead in the night real Germans waited, the real enemy.
Oh. she thought, / have waited so long /or this.

     "Come left ten degrees." Shenya said.
     Nadia applied pressure to her control stick and watched the compass needle swing slightly. "Two-four-zero."
     "You should see the river any second now."
     Nadia glanced down over the forward edge of her lower wing. "Yes. I see it."
     "Ten kilometers from target...now."
     The moon remained behind a bank of clouds in the east, hut here and there stars peeked through breaks in the                                                             clouds overhead. Far to the south, artillery dueled. Heavy red and orange explosions flashed soundlessly against the                                                        night sky. The river lay like a black snake slithering through the hills below. Now and then a little light reflected off                                                            the surface, giving it the appearance of dull, tarnished metal.
     Shenya asked. "Can you see the bridge?"
     "Not yet."
     "It is at the next bend." She had barely spoken when the searchlights came on. Sharp slashing beams of light
swept the sky a couple of kilometers ahead.
     "I see it." Nadia said. "Let's go!" Her hand was shaking just a little as she turned the ignition switch. The engine
sputtered and went silent. Only the sound of wind rushing past the wings sang in the night. She saw the guns open
up several seconds before the sound of their firing reached her. '"Dive," Shenya called. "Lilly's started in."
     They started down. Long streams of red tracer bullets arced out from both banks of the river. She could not see
Lilly's plane, but it was there, somewhere, she prayed, just ahead of the tracers and the searchlights.
     The increasing pressure of the dive forced her against her scat back. She clenched her teeth, but wind still forced
its way into her mouth, distorting her lips into a monster-like grin. Wind screamed through the struts and the plane began                                                  to vibrate. Behind her goggles, Nadia squinted her eyes and fought to keep the bridge straight in front of her.
     "Two hundred meters!" Shenya called.
      The bridge was a dark, vague shape dancing in her sights. With one hand she gripped the bomb release handle.
     "One hundred fifty meters!"
     She saw the trucks. An endless line of them stretched across the bridge, crawling slowly along. Rifle fire flashed
from their beds.
     "One hundred meters, drop! Drop!"
      Still, another half-second passed before the bridge settled perfectly in her sights. Nadia released her bombs and                                                        felt the plane become lighter as they parted.
     "Pull out, pull out. You're too low!"
     Nadia was already forcing the stick back into her lap. The river rushed up at her. Behind her the bombs exploded,
sending reflections of orange and white bouncing off the river, so close she could see the ripples. The nose came up
slowly. Trees were in front of her now. Red glowing tracer bullets zipped through the left wing. At last there was sky
beyond her windscreen. She fumbled for the ignition switch and then the starter button. The engine turned, but did not
fire.
     "Fifty meters." Shenya called out the altitude. "You have a possible landing sight, two kilometers, due west."
     "It will start," Nadia answered, and tried again. The engine sputtered, ground over a few more turns, and then
burst to life. The trees were close. She forced the throttle open and climbed another few meters.
     Over the intercom, she heard Shenya sigh, and then say. "Course home is zero-five-zero, ten kilometers to field."
     "Did we hit it?" Nadia asked.
     "One short and one hit. I saw it go right into the cab of a truck."
     Behind them more bombs exploded and tracers filled the sky again as Lilly's bombs also found the target. Nadia
laughed, a witch's laugh, and turned the plane for home.