[3] Popova, whose brother Leonid had been killed at the front in 1941 and whose home had been taken by invading German troops,[3] was sent by Marina Raskova to Engels to join other women being trained to become military pilots.

The regiment flew combat sorties exclusively at night; their planes, which were not equipped with guns, radios, radar, or parachutes, would catch fire easily if hit by tracer-bullets (though they were usually actually better protected against splinters then more modern variants).

[3] On 10 March 1942, during a training mission, Popova was leading a formation when two aircraft got lost in a heavy blizzard and crashed, killing their crews.

Trying to return to her unit, she joined a motorized column, and among the wounded met her future husband, fighter pilot Semyon Kharlamov, who was reading And Quiet Flows the Don.

[6] She later flew a relief mission through enemy fire over Novorossiysk, dropping food, water and medical supplies to the forces trapped in Malaya Zemlya, nearly not making it.

[2] The 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment was dissolved in October 1945, and Popova returned to her town to a hero's welcome, complete with marching band and flowers thrown over her car.