Lidya Vladimirovna Litvyak, always known by her nickname of Lilya, or Lily,was born in Moscow on August 18th 1921. Her mother was a shop worker and her father was employed on the state railway system. At the time of her death in August 1943, just short ofher 22nd birthday, she had become one of the great figures of Soviet military aviation. Litvyak started attending the Chkalov Aeroclub in Moscow, without telling her parents,whilst she was still at school. She was possibly as young as fourteen, and had flownsolo by the age of sixteen. After studying geology, she returned to flying, continuing her training at the Kherson Flight Academy on Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes. She achieved aninstructing qualification and then became a flying instructor, at the age of nineteen, with the Chkalov Aeroclub where she had learned to fly. Following the German invasion, the great Russian woman pioneer aviator of the thirties, Marina Raskova received permission to form three Air Regiments (one day bomber, one night bomberand one fighter) from female volunteers, many of whom were trained pilots. Lilya Litvyak had over one hundred solo flying hours experience when she was selected to join the Fighter Regiment, 586 IAP, and commenced military training at Engels on October 14th 1941. 586 IAP was well equipped with the latest, and at that time the best, of the Russian fighters, the Yakovlev Yak 1. In January, the regiment commenced operations from Saratov 200 miles north of Stalingrad. The regiment was tasked with purely defensive missions and encounters with the Luftwaffe were relatively infrequent during this period. There was reported hostility between the best pilots in the regiment (including Litvyak) and the regimental C.O. Major Tamara Kazarinova, ultimately leading to the transfer of these pilots to male fighter regiments. This transfer proved a blessing (for the Russian war effort) as the male regiments pursued a more aggressive policy allowing Litvyak, and her fellow future ace Katya Budanova, to develop their skills. Initially, however, they led a somewhat nomadic existence, first with 286 IAD, followed by 437 IAP and then 9v (Guards) IAP, an elite unit in which they were not made to feel welcome, before settling with 296 IAP at Stalingrad, commanded by the more sympathetic Major Nikolai Baranov. Despite this unsettled period it was during this time that Litvyak scored her first victories, shooting down a Bf 109 and a Ju 88 on the same day (September 13th 1942) whilst flying a Lavochkin LA-5 with 437 IAP. She joined 296 IAP at the end of January 1943 and by the middle of February her score had reached five, she had been awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted from Sergeant to Junior Lieutenant (she achieved Senior Lieutenant shortly afterwards). Even allowing for propaganda hyperbole, Litvyak seems to have been a remarkable and individualistic character from the beginning of her flying career. She was only five feet tall but pretty and concerned about her looks in a way not immediately associated with Soviet heroines. Whilst in training she had initially refused to accept a military haircut, only grudgingly acceding. She was subsequently confined to the guard-house for cannibalising her fur lined flying boots to produce a fur collar for her flying suit. Once on the front-line she used dyed parachute silk to produce brightly coloured scarves and bleached her naturally blonde hair with hydrogen peroxide from the regimental medicine chest. She was also a skilful and flamboyant pilot, performing hair-raising low-level aerobatics over her airfield following each of her victories to the despair of her C.O. Despite this she was popular with fellow pilots and worshipped by her aircraft mechanic, Inna Pasportnikova, who had followed her from regiment to regiment. She was known to the propaganda machine as The White Rose of Stalingrad due to what was, in fact, a white lily supposedly painted on the cowling of her aircraft (although there is no photographic evidence of this marking). Her extrovert behaviour is more remarkable when it is considered that her father had been arrested and executed during the Stalin purges in 1937 as a result of which, her younger brother had adopted their mother's maiden name for greater anonymity. On the 22nd March she was wounded in the leg during a dog-fight and, whilst she was able to land back at base, she was hospitalised and only returned to the regiment in early May 1943. During her absence, the performance of her regiment had been recognised by its promotion to a Guards Regiment (renumbered 73v IAP). Litvyak had flown as wing-man to both her regimental commander, Baranov and also her squadron leader, Senior Lieutenant Alexei Solomatin, but by this time she was a flight commander herself. The pressure was mounting, however. Shortly after her return, on 6th May, her C.O. Major Nikolai Baranov was shot down and killed. On 21st May Solomatin, with whom she may, or may not depending on the source, have been in love, was killed in an airfield crash which she witnessed. She was shot down and crash-landed twice in July, being wounded on one of these occasions (and possibly both). At this time her friend and fellow ace, Katya Budanova was also shot down and killed. Lilya Litvyak was finally shot down on 1st August, flying an escort mission, on a day when she had already shot down two German aircraft, bringing her final score to twelve. She crash-landed behind German lines near the village of Dmitrievka and her body was buried by local people. It is not known whether she was killed in the crash or by German troops afterwards. She was recommended by her regiment for the award of Hero of the Soviet Union but it was not awarded because her body could not be found. Stalin's orders were that any soldier falling into enemy hands was a traitor. It was only after a long, irregular post-war search, prompted to a large part by her aircraft mechanic, Inna Pasportnikova, that her body was discovered in 1979. It wasn't until 1986 that the Defence Ministry confirmed that the body was in fact that of Litvyak and her records were changed from Missing to Killed in Action. In May 1990, Lilya Litvyak was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union by President Mikhail Gorbachev.