1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment

The 1077th Anti-aircraft Regiment under Colonel Raiynin, was a unit of the Stalingrad Corps Region of the Soviet Air Defence Forces which fought during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. The Stalingrad Corps Region was part of the Stalingrad Military District and later subordinated to the Stalingrad Front during the battle for the city. The regiment, like many of the anti-aircraft units, was made up almost entirely of young women volunteers, barely out of high school. They are mostly known for their bravery in the defense of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), when they engaged an advancing Panzer unit by setting their guns to the lowest elevation and firing them directly at the advancing tanks.

English-language sources about this unit are sparse and contradictory. What seems clear is that, like most of the anti-aircraft units, they were poorly trained and under-supplied with ammunition. They probably did not have armour piercing rounds, but rather fragmentation 'flak' rounds, and it is questionable how effective these would have been against armour. Their guns were M1939 guns which were 37mm copies of Bofors.

In the documentary "The Stalingrad Apocalypse" (which interviewed many survivors) a surviving German trooper, in old age, recalls that he had been part of the advance unit of Germans and said that they had "over-run" the female gunners without any effective resistance. He said it was his first ever engagement with female soldiers.

On August 23, 1942, the German 6th Army launched its offensive on Stalingrad. After extensive bombing which turned much of the city into an inferno, the 16th Panzer Division advanced unresisted until it reached Gumrak airport, 15 km northwest of the city, where the tanks came under fire from anti-aircraft guns.

The 16th Panzer Division recorded that "right until afternoon we had to fight 'shot for shot' against 37 anti-aircraft positions manned by tenacious fighting women, until all were destroyed".

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