WOMEN IN AVIATION I LIDIYA LITVYAK
MANY WOMEN FILLED THE FRONTLINE RANKS OF SOVIET ARMED FORCES DURING WORLD WAR TWO. ONE SUCH COMBATANT WAS FEMALE FIGHTER PILOT LIDIYA LITVYAK, AS MALCOLM V LOWE DETAILS
The conflict on the Eastern Front became known to the Soviet Union’s people as the Great Patriotic War and it is still seen in that way by modernday Russians. It was a grim, total conflict, with little mercy being given by either side. Within this cauldron of death and destruction, which lasted from June 1941 until May 1945, a tough and very specific breed of combatants came to the fore on the Soviet side.
UNIQUE AVIATORS
The Soviet Union was the only major participant during World War Two to allow women to regularly serve as frontline troops and aircrew. And it was no publicity stunt. The contribution of the ‘fairer sex’ to the Soviet war effort was significant and was tragically marked with much hardship and sadness. In the air war over the Eastern Front, female aviators were in the thick of the fighting and one remarkable young woman was to gain lasting fame due to her exploits at the controls of an iconic aircraft from that theatre, the Yakovlev Yak-1.
COLLECTION
Born on August 18, 1921 in Moscow, Li…
