subject: Lilia Litviak: White Rose, Fierce Fighter [print this page] Lilia Litviak stands out amongst female fighter pilots for her spirited and courageous nature as well as her highly decorated career. There were not too many female Russian fighter pilots to begin with, but Lilia regularly put to shame even the most well-decorated men that she opposed. Legend has it that one Iron Cross Luftwaffe pilot whose plane she took down demanded to see the pilot who had bested him and thought that the Russians were playing a cruel joke on him when Lilia stepped forward. It was only after she described their dogfight in exact detail to him that he realized that he had indeed been bested by this young woman. Lilia was one of only two female fighter aces, a title she earned on her very first mission. This first mission in which she scored her first victory was the first time a woman had a solo kill, and she followed that up with a second within that first flight.
Overall, Lydia had somewhere between a dozen and fourteen solo victories and another handful of assists or shared gains. She was a heavily decorated fighter pilot, having been bestowed the honors of Order of the Patriotic War First Class, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin. The most prestigious award bestowed on her occurred years after her death due to the manner in which she may have died. The circumstances around her disappearance and presumed death involved a fellow pilot catching sight of her plane billowing smoke and under pursuit by as many as eight German crafts. Because of cloud cover and the nature of combat flight it was some time before anyone was able to drop down to look for her - no explosion was seen and nor was a parachute. Lilia never returned from the mission and was presumed dead by most. However, it was also possible that she had been taken prisoner by Germans on the ground. After an exhaustive search years later, one crash site and grave amongst the ninety explored was said to belong to a female fighter pilot who had crashed in the area. It was concluded that this was the grave of Lilia Litviak and the award Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded to her for her service.
A spirited young woman who took her first solo flight at the age of fifteen, Lilia was known for her antics, such as leaving flowers in the cockpit and buzzing the aerodome when returning from victories missions. She is credited with taking down a German observation balloon that was causing her comrades on the ground grievous trouble.
