The Lilia Litvyak Story Lilia Litvyak, a fighter pilot who managed to shoot down lots of German aircrafts. Source: ITAR-TASS One of these little-known stories is that of Lilia (or Lydia) Litvyak. She became known as the one of the fiercest Soviet women pilots, although she faced enormous challenges during her heroic tour of duty. According to Myles, Litvyak joined a flying club at the age of 15, and devoured every book on aviation. She was such a fast learner that she flew solo on the PO-2 biplane after four hours of instruction. Her colleagues recalled that she faced a great deal of chauvinism. Like most of the women fighter pilots, Litvyak needed a cushion on the plane seat to see out the windshield. Yet her sorties against the German have become the stuff of legend and she was ultimately a poster warrior – the Soviet inundated the Germans with leaflets of her exploits from the skies. Her plane was shot down in 1943 in Ukraine, over Krasny Luch. She was 21 when she died. M. G. Crisci, an American businessman and writer, has recently made Litvyak his life’s work. He collaborated with Yelena Sivolap and Valentina Vaschenko, founder of the Lilia Litvyak museum, on a book called “Call Sign, White Lily.” The self-published book offers a romantic journey through Litvyak’s life, romance, rebellion, heroism and death. He has created the Lilia Litvyak Fund to help maintain the corner-store museum Vaschenko has nurtured.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:58:50 +0000
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