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Litvyak was one of the bravest and efficient women-destroyers during Great Patriotic War. This girl was not only a fighter pilot, but a commander of the air flight. The title of the Soviet Union Hero was given to her posthumously. At the age of incomplete 22 years Lidiya Vladimirovna had died in the battle over Mius-front. On 13th September during her second operational flight over Stalingrad she wrecked U-88 bomber and Me-109 jet fighter, the pilot of which was a German baron who had gained 30 air victories, the cavalier of Knight's Cross. At this time there was drawn a white lily on a cowl panel of Lidiya's plane upon her request, and Litvyak was given a nickname “White Lily of Stalingrad”, and “Lily” became her radio call sign. On 23rd February 1943 she got her first battle award — the Red Star. At the end of July- beginning of August of 1943 the heavy breakthrough battles with German defense were going on at the boundary of the Mius river, that was blocking the way to Donbass. The battles on the ground were accompanied by the stubborn fighting for air superiority. On the 1st of August 1943 Lidiya Litvyak accomplished 4 operational flights, during which she wrecked 2 enemy planes personally and 1 in group. She didn't come back from the fourth flight.
During the afterwar years her brother-soldiers were actively searching for the missing pilot. She had been found by accident in the common grave in Donetsk region. Her remains had been discovered by local boys near the Kozhevnya farm and buried on 29th July 1969 in the common grave under the name “an unknown woman-pilot”. In 1971 during the search works of a search party of the 1st school of town Krasnyi Luch, there was established the name that was memorized at the burial place in July 1988. |
