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.”
Some interesting info on her, and some issues about her death: Lydia Litvyak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And some other female pilots Female Soviet Pilots of WW2 Haven't visited this site for quite a while but it had some good info on female Soviet pilots Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War
