This post came from the X-Plane listserver. Thought it might be of interest:
Concerning the "Night Witches" thread, for a coincident I found an
article published this month in a Brazilian aviation histoy magazine.
I translated parts of the article and if follows below. I'm sorry for
any English mistakes on the translation and I hope it
is "understandable".
Vicente Vazquez
São Paulo - Brasil
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Lidiya "Lilya" Litvyiak - The White Rose of Stalingrado
Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyiak, nicknamed "Lilya" (Lilly), was born in
Moskow on August 18th 1921 and her first solo flight happened when
she was only 15. In 1940 she graduated on the Kherson Military Flight
School, turning into an instructor at the Kanalinin Aeroclub and
later at the Osoaviakhim (Defense and Aviation Support Society). She
was about to turn 20 when Germany attacked Russia and she immediately
volunteered for combat. At first, Russian offcers were reluctanto to
send women aviators to the front, but thanks to Marina Raskova and
her influence over Stalin that was changed and the first "women-only"
Fighter Regiment, the "586.IAP", was created in April 1942. Training
of the future women aviators had started, though, in october 1941 at
Engels Air Force Base, under the command of Marina Raskova.
Under the rigid russian military discipline, Lydiya's strong temper
soon started to surface. Her mechanic, Senior Sargent Inna
Pasportnikova remembers: "She once cut the upper part of her boots,
which were made of fur, and sew on the coat, around the collar.
Marina Raskova, our commander, asked her when had she done that and
she replied - 'At night'. Raskova order her that she should stay
awaken the following night and sow the fur back in her boots. She was
then arrested. I thought - 'What kind of pilot does she think she is?
She gives more importance to her looks'. I then started to observe
her and I realized she was one of the best pilots, completing the
training program with perfection."
On January 1942 training was completed and Lidyia's Yak-1 unit was
sent to the Saratov region, where one of its missions was to defend
the only remainig bridge over the Volga. In September, however,
pilots from the 586.IAP were sent "on loan" to the 437.IAP, one of
the numerous fighter units in action aroud Stalingrad. It didn't take
long for sexism to arise and to male pilots curse their command for
not sending "real fighter pilots". Together with Lidiya were her
friends Yekaterina Budanova and her comrades Mariya Kuznetsova and
Raya Belyaeva. They'd soon change her male counterpart's opinions
about women fighter pilots.
On her second mission over Stalingrad, on September 13th, Lidiya was
flying on a four-plane formation when they attacked a group of Ju-88
and their ecort fighter. On that day Lidiya downed her first Bf-109,
saving the life of her friend Belyaeva who wsa being persuited by the
Germand fighter. Many of Lidiya's missions were to escort attack
planes, which were wiping German troops off Stalingrad. On October
10th she flew five missions on the same day. On that day she was
already an ace, with four air victories in twenty missions. Soon
after she was transfered to the 296.IAP and, on Feb. 19th 1943, she
was promoted to the rank of "Junior Lieutenant". At this point,
russian victory was already assured and the 6th German Army
surrendered on Feb 2nd 1943. On March 1st 1943, while flying in a
formation of four Yak-1 fighters, Litvyiak intercepted a group of 12
Fw-190's, downing one of them herself before the remaining 190's ran
away. Hours later she downed another Ju-88.
Thought combats were fiercy, Lidiya found time for her vanity. She
used to dye her hair until it became almost white (though it was
naturally blonde) and used to cut out pieces of parachute and dye
them in different colors to make scarves. She loved flowers and,
according to her friend and mechanic Pasportnikova, she used to wake
up early and scatter flowers over the wings of her fighter and
usually carried some inside her cockpit. Therefore her nickname and,
conscious of that, she painted a big white lilly on the fuselage of
her Yak-1. And this white lilly, mistakenly interpreted by German
pilots, was what made her enemies nickname her, somewhat
poetically, "The White Rose of Stalingrad".
On March 22nd, Lidiya took off with five other fighters from her
squadron to intercept a group of Ju-88, on their way to attack
Rostov, and downed one of them. No less that Bf-109 engaged her and
she crash landed on German occupied territory. Before she was made
priisoner, she was rescued by an Ilyushin Il-2/3m Shturmovik and, due
to her wounds, she would only get back to action in May, downing
another Bf-109 on May 5th while escorting a group of Pe-2 bombers.
During the time she flew with the 296.IAP she met Squadron Commander
Alexei Salomatin. They fell in love and got engaged in the front.
War, though, was not kind to romances and Salomatin was killed in an
training accident. After that, again according to friend
pasportnikova, Lidiya couldn't stand being grounded, desperately
trying to fly and fight as much as she could. And that was what she
made til her end.
On june 16th she downed a german bomber and got half the credit for a
Bf-109. Though she was injured during combat, she ignored medical
advices and kept on flying, downing another Bf-109 soon after. During
this combat, she again crash-landed behind enemy lines, but managed
to escape by running back to the russian lines. On July 18th Lidiya
lost her friend Budanova, shot down and killed by German fighters.
On August 1st 1943, after taking part on the downing of a Bf-109,
Lidiya took off for her fourth mission on that day and the last
mission of her life. Her group of five Yak-1's attacked a group of 30
Ju-88 bombers escorted by 12 Bf-109's. No less that eight Bf's
engaged her and she managed to down two of them before being mortally
wounded. She managed to crash land close to Marinovks, in the Donetsk
region, but did not survive the wounds.
Lidyia died two weeks before her 2nd birthday. Her body was buried
under the wing of her Yak-1 and later, when the remains of the
aircraft were removed from the site, her grave's location was lost
and so it remained for 46 years. Russian government classified her as
MIA, what made it impossible to give her any posthumous
condecorations. Only in the beginning of the 90's her body was
recovered and, finally, Mihail Gorbatchev condecorated and declared
her a Russian Heroin.
Source:
Revista "Asas" ("Wings" Magazine)
Issue # 4, Dec/00 - Jan/01
Pages 62 - 65
Brasil
