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When the term “Ace” comes up in regards to fighter pilots, male images of World War One’s Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron), American’s Edward Rickenbacker, World War Two’s Pappy Boyington or Chuck Yeager come to mind but the truth is, there were women who also ranked among the “Best of the Best” when it came to airborne dogfights.
Often compared to the stories of knights of the medieval times when knights or warriors fought a one on one battle against another knight, dogfights were comprised of one fighter pilot pitting his or her wits and skill against another pilot. These types of dogfights can be traced back as early as 1915. It was during April 1915 that French pilot Roland Garros became the first Ace in history.
An “Ace” is defined as a fighter pilot who has downed or destroyed a minimum of five aircraft during their flying career; it doesn’t necessarily mean they “killed” the pilots of those aircrafts. It was during World War II that rumors began filtering through the German lines outside of Stalingrad of a Russian pilot with a white rose painted on the side of the plane that reportedly was a woman. Nicknaming her “The White Rose Of Stalingrad,” the German pilots soon found they had a formidable female equal even though they had the wrong type of flower in mind.
During the early days of the war, the idea of women in combat areas was scoffed at but after Germany’s invasion of Russia and the subsequent losses of able-bodied men, the Soviet’s Supreme High Command began looking seriously at the possibility.
Initially the women pilots were placed into three all-women units. They were the 586th IAP, the 587th BAP and the 588 NBAP. The 500 designations were originally meant to signify defense reserves. These units were originally made up women who were flight instructors or members of pre-war flying clubs and their military training was held at a base near the city of Engels
As the Battle of Stalingrad raged on, replacement male combat pilots were becoming hard to come by and the 586th under the command of Major Tamara Kazarinova saw its first combat action in the spring of 1942. Seeing the skill of these women, the Soviet High Command began dispersing the several female pilots to existing male units.
Three of the original 586th fighter pilots, Lilya Litvak, her best friend Yekaterina Budanova and Olga Yamshchikova became “aces.” The White Rose of Stalingrad was actually Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvak. Her nickname to fellow Soviet pilots was “Lilya” (Lily) and it was because of this nickname she painted not a rose but a white lily on her aircrafts.
The exact number of victories these two women had is not known. Lilya Litvak is credited with twelve confirmed but is said to have had as high as twenty. Olga Yamshchkova is rumored to have had seventeen and Yekaterina Budanova totaled eleven confirmed victories.
Little is known of Olga Yamshchkova or Yekaterina Budanova although Soviet reports say that on July 18, 1943 Budanova was flying a mission when she was attacked by two German Messerschmitts and killed. She supposedly took one of them with her during the dogfight. Lilya Litvak on the other hand became a national heroine and there is considerably more known concerning her life before and during her military career.
Born on August 18, 1921 in Moscow, she lost her father early in life during one of Stalin’s ongoing purges. Even through the stigma of having a father who was declared and executed as an enemy of the people, Litvak was able to learn to fly early on in life and made her first “solo” at the age of fifteen having learned at the Chkalov Aeroclub and eventually became a flight instructor.
Lilya Litvak’s first air victories were made during her second combat mission while flying with the (male) 296th IAP. This mission was flown on September 13, 1943 and Litvak is credited with downing two German planes that day. She received her “ace” status on March 1, 1944 and was promoted to lieutenant shortly afterwards.
On March 15, 1943 she was badly wounded after downing a pair of German planes but was still able to land her plane. Within two months Lilya Litvak was back in the air and won her ninth victory on May 5, 1943. Legend has it that in the following few weeks, Litvak was shot down behind German lines twice. Once she escaped capture on foot, the other time an unknown pilot set his or her plane down and rescued her.
During this time Litvak was engaged to fellow Soviet ace Alexei Salomatin but the romance turned to tragedy when Salomatin was killed on May 21, 1943. Litvak continued flying until her 168th mission in which she was part of the escort of a bomber group. Soviet reports say a minimum of eight Messerschmitts singled out her plane and Litvak was shot down and killed near the town of Dmitriyevka. Her final two confirmed victories were tallied before she died though, all before her twenty-second birthday. The remains of her aircraft marked not only her death but also her grave.
It wasn’t until May 5, 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged her heroism and awarded her the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the highest Soviet decoration. It was Boris Yeltsin who officially declared Lilya Litvak a “Hero of Russia.”
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