Biography
It is believed that the defense of the Fatherland is a male business. But the Great Patriotic War remembers the feats of Matrena Wolkaya, Faith Andrianova, Zinaida Portorova ... These fragile and gentle women saved people from the occupation, went to intelligence and endured the wounded battlefields. He contributed to the Great Victory and the fighter pilot Lydia Litvak, White Lilia Stalingrad. She won the biggest number of victories in air battles in the history of combat aviation. The title of the Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded the title courage.Childhood and youth
Lydia Vladimirovna Litvaka was born on August 18, 1921 in Moscow, the capital of the RSFSR. By nationality, the pilot is considered to be Russian, but there are assumptions that in fact she is a hereditary Jewish.
In the 1920s and the 1930s, everyone dreamed of the sky. The inspired by the feats of Alexander Tashkin, Valery Chkalov and George Baidukova, the young men and girls rushed into the aeroclubs. Lydia Litvaka did not exception. Already at 15, she first sat down at the steering wheel.
Litvian piloting skills in the Kherson aviation school instructors. To leave Moscow forced circumstances - in 1937, her father, Vladimir Leontievich, was repressed and shot. According to historians, denunciations were false. But the pilot, probably hesitated the suspicious past.
Lydia rushed to the front to the Great Patriotic War. But she was told: "War is a male case." The situation has changed in October 1941, when one of the first heroes of the Soviet Union, the flyer-navigator Marina Svalova, formed 3 women's airlock. Litvyak had to caress 100 hours of flying to rows of one of them.
From this, the heroic, but unfairly short stage of the biography of White Lilija Stalingrad began.
Personal life
In February 1943, Lydia Lydia plane was beaten. Land accounted for on enemy territory. The fascists tried to take the pilot, but she shot himself and deepened in the field. White Lilia Stalingrad said goodbye to life and focused cartridges to leave one for himself.Alexey Frolovich Solomatin came to the rescue. The fighter pilot opened fire on the fascists, forcing them to hide, and put his plane on the "belly" to pick up the Lydia. Your led and beloved.
Lidia Lidia Lithuania and Alexey Solomatina turned out to be touching and tragic. But young people managed to get married before the aircraft crash happened. On May 21, 1943, the Hero of the Soviet Union died in front of the beloved and combat comrades. He was 22 years old.
Feat
For 1942 Lydia Litvakon hit over Stalingrad 6 fascist aircraft. For courage, manifested in battles, the pilot was awarded the right to apply distinctive signs on board the fighter.
Since childhood, the girl did not like his own name. She asked her to call her lily or just lily. From here and its radiosal - "Lilia-44" (according to other information, "White Lilia"). On the hood of the aircraft flyer "bloomed" flower, and soon the girl got a gentle, but the heroic nickname is a white Lilia Stalingrad.
On February 23, 1943, Litvakov handed the first combat award - the Order of the Red Star.
It seemed that no difficulties could bring white Lily Stalingrad from battles. On May 22, 1943, it was hardly injured in unequal battle. Despite this, the pilot brought the fused fighter to the base. She was sent to the hospital, then - home, recover. But only 2 weeks later, Lydia again soared into the air.
July 18, 1943, 2 months after the death of Alexei Solomatina, Litvyak lost the best girlfriend Catherine Budanov in battle. Girls fought with fascist fighters in a pair, and White Lilia Stalingrad managed to escape. From these, the flyer was fiercely in battle. She did not just defend Fatherland. She revenge for loved ones and loved ones.
The last feats of Lydia Litvaka made over the Mius Front. On August 1, 1943, she flew four times to fight the enemy. Solved 2 aircraft, one more - in the group. In the 4th time she did not return to the base.
Once a year and a half of the Great Patriotic War, Litvyak made 168 combat departures to the sky. At its account, 12 personal victories and 4 more - as part of the group. White Lilia Stalingrad is considered the most productive fighter woman.
Death
According to the memories of contemporaries, the most of all the Lydia was afraid of the abyss. But just that happened. On August 1, 1943 during the 4th and last battle flight over the Mius Front, the plane of the White Lilija Stalingrad was disappeared in the clouds and did not return anymore. It remained 17 days before her on the 22nd Birthday.Commanders of the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment petitioned on the representation of Lydia Litvak to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. But the decision was postponed. Historians give this a few interpretations.
Some refers to the testimony, according to which Litvyak jumped up with a parachute from the incident aircraft and captured the fascists. Others argue that by the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union could not be presented missing. One way or another, White Lilia Stalingrad posthumously awarded the Honored Golden Star on May 5, 1990.
Lydia Litvakov discovered 26 years after the crash of the Kozhevny farm with the Donetsk region. On July 29, 1969, her remains burned in a fraternal grave. In his last flight, White Liliya Stalingrad went without identifying signs, so it was perpetuated as "an unknown flyer."
Only in 1971, the search engines from the Luhansk region found that Lydia was legid into the fraternal grave. The remains were reburied. In July 1988, there was a memorable plate with the regalia of a fighter pilot and photography on the background of the clouds.
In November 1988, Lydia Litvak made the cause of death: "Died when performing a combat task on August 1, 1943."
Memory
- From birth and before leaving the front of the Great Patriotic War, Lydia lived in the house number 14/19 on the street. Novoslobodskaya in Moscow. In March 2019, a memorial plaque with a bronze portrait of the flyer was installed on the facade.
- The monuments of the Hero of the Soviet Union are also erected in the Red Ray before Gymnasium No. 1, the students in 1971 established the belonging of the remains of a fighter woman, and in the Volgograd region (on the territory of the Aviation Regiment of the Southern Military District).
- The exploits of the White Lilia Stalingrad are immortalized in documentary and artistic films: "Memory Roads" (1979), "Fighters" (2013), "Lily" (2014).