Women are heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
Smuglyanka - Soviet song with lyricsYakov Zakharovich Shvedovand musicAnatoly Grigorievich Novikov.
The song was part of a suite written by composer A. Novikov and poet Yakov Shvedov in
For the first time the ensemble sang a song in the Concert Hall named after Tchaikovsky in 1944 . It was sung by the soloist of the Red Banner Ensemble Nikolay Ustinov , to whom this song largely owes its success. The concert was broadcast on the radio. “Darkie” was thus heard by a lot of people. It was picked up in the rear and at the front. The song, which spoke about the events of the civil war, was perceived as a song about those who heroically fought for the liberation of the long-suffering Moldovan land in Great Patriotic WarThe song was also played in the film "Only “old men” go into battle"1973.
Morning May 2 1945 turned out to be a gentle year. Corporal Shalneva regulated the movement of our military equipment one and a half kilometers from the Reichstag. Suddenly, one Emka pulled off to the side of the road, and the poet Evgeny Dolmatovsky and front-line correspondent Evgeny Khaldei got out of the car. The experienced eye of the TASS photojournalist immediately “snatched the type.” Khaldei did not get out of the car calmly as he did. Dolmatovsky, he jumped out of it as if he had been scalded with boiling water, almost knocking his comrade off his feet. Whirling around the girl like a bumblebee, he rattled off with a smile from ear to ear:
- Tell me, beauty, where are you from?!
“I’m a Siberian, from a village whose name won’t tell you anything,” the traffic controller smiled in response.
The shutter of the watering can clicked, and Maria Shalneva made history... Maria Timofeevna Shalneva, corporal of the 87th separate road maintenance battalion, regulates the movement of military equipment near the Reichstag in Berlin.
Oath. IN During the war, women served in the Red Army not only in auxiliary positions, such as signalmen and nurses. There were even rifle units: the 1st separate women's reserve rifle regiment, the 1st separate women's volunteer rifle brigade (OZhDSBr) of 7 battalions with a total number of 7 thousand people. These were mostly 19-20 year old girls
Girls of the 487th Fighter Wing. In the photo, Sergeant O. Dobrova is sitting on the left. Inscriptions on the back of the photo:
“Masha, Valya, Nadya, Olya, Tanya are the girls of our unit 23234-a”
"July 29, 1943"
Local residents erect barricades on one of the streets of Odessa. 1941
Northern Fleet nurses.
Knight of the Order of Glory, 3rd degree, sniper Maria Kuvshinova, who destroyed several dozen German soldiers and officers.
December 1942
Location: Active duty army
Female officers of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 325th Night Bomber Aviation Division of the 4th Air Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front: Evdokia Bershanskaya (left), Maria Smirnova (standing) and Polina Gelman.
Evdokia Davydovna Bershanskaya (1913-1982) - commander of the women's 588th night light bomber aviation regiment (NLBAP, since 1943 - 46th Guards Taman night bomber regiment). She is the only woman awarded the military orders of Suvorov (III degree) and Alexander Nevsky.
Maria Vasilievna Smirnova (1920-2002) - squadron commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. By August 1944, she had flown 805 night combat missions. On October 26, 1944 she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Polina Vladimirovna Gelman (1919-2005) - chief of communications of the aviation squadron of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. By May 1945, as a navigator of the Po-2 aircraft, she had flown 860 combat missions. On May 15, 1946 she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Valentina Milyunas, medical instructor of the 125th Infantry Regiment of the 43rd Latvian Guards Division.
From the book by Andrey Eremenko “Years of Retribution. 1943-1945":
“Subsequently, the 43rd Guards Latvian Division, advancing slightly north of Daugavpils, occupied the Vishki railway station; The battle here was very stubborn, since, having entrenched themselves in strong station buildings, the Nazis fired destructive fire at the attackers. The arrows are stuck. It was at that moment that Valya Milyunas stood up and shouted: “Forward, for our native Latvia!” - rushed towards the enemy. Dozens of other warriors followed her, but an enemy bullet struck the heroine. Everyone thought she was killed. With the thought of revenge for the death of a young patriot
New units quickly moved in. Suddenly Valya stood up and, waving a red flag, again began to call the soldiers forward to the enemy. The Nazis were driven out of the station. The wounded heroine was picked up by her friends, the nurses. The red flag turned out to be a scarf soaked in her blood. Valya was accepted into the party and awarded a high award.”
Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper of the 25th Chapaev Division Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (1916-1974). Destroyed over 300 fascist soldiers and officers.
Women dig anti-tank ditches near Moscow in the fall of 1941.
Sniper of the 54th Infantry Regiment of the 25th rifle division Coastal Army of the North Caucasus Front, junior lieutenant L.M. Pavlichenko. The photo was taken during her trip to England, the USA and Canada with a delegation Soviet youth in the fall of 1942.
Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna was born in 1916, a participant in the Great Patriotic War since June 1941 - a volunteer. Participant in defensive battles in Moldova and southern Ukraine. For good shooting training assigned to a sniper platoon. Since August 1941, she took part in the heroic defense of the city of Odessa and destroyed 187 Nazis. Since October 1941, he took part in the heroic defense of the city of Sevastopol. In June 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was wounded and recalled from the front line. At this point from sniper rifle Lyudmila Pavlichenko destroyed 309 Nazis, including 36 enemy snipers. She was not only an excellent sniper, but also an excellent teacher. During the period of defensive battles, she trained dozens of good snipers.
In October 1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 1218).
A female medical instructor from the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps.
Soviet girl volunteers go to the front. 
Soviet soldiers in Prague are resting in trucks.
Soviet soldiers who took part in the assault on Koenigsberg before being sent home.
A nurse at an American field hospital in France. Normandy, 1944.
Over the four years of war, the country's highest award was awarded to nine dozen women who defended the Motherland with arms in hand.
Women - heroes of the Second World War: who are they? To answer this question, you don't need to guess for a long time. There is no such kind and type of troops in which they would not fight soviet women. And on land, and at sea, and in the air - everywhere one could find female warriors who took up arms to defend their Motherland. Names such as Tatyana Markus, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Marina Raskova, Lyudmila Pavlichenko are known, perhaps, to everyone in our country and the former Soviet republics.
Girls snipers before being sent to the front
Official statistics say that 490 thousand women were drafted into the army and navy. Three aviation regiments were formed entirely from women - the 46th Guards Night Bomber, the 125th Guards Bomber and the 586th Air Defense Fighter Regiment, as well as a separate women's company of sailors, a separate women's volunteer rifle brigade, a central women's sniper school and a separate women's reserve rifle regiment
But in reality, the number of women who fought was, of course, much larger. After all, many of them defended their country in hospitals and evacuation centers, in partisan detachments and underground.
And the Motherland fully appreciated their merits. 90 women earned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for their exploits during the Second World War, and four more became full holders of the Order of Glory. And there are hundreds of thousands of women who are holders of other orders and medals.
Heroine pilots
Most of the women who earned the country's highest rank on the WWII fronts were among female pilots. This is easily explained: after all, in aviation there were as many as three all-female regiments, while in other branches and types of troops such units were almost never found. In addition, women pilots had one of the most difficult tasks: night bombing on the “heavenly slow-moving vehicle” - the U-2 plywood biplane.
Is it any wonder that out of 32 female pilots who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 23 are “night witches”: this is what the German warriors called the heroines, who suffered serious losses from their night raids. In addition, it was female pilots who were the first to receive the highest rank even before the war. In 1938, the crew of the Rodina plane - Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova - received the highest award for the non-stop flight Moscow - Far East.
Pilots of the women's air regiment
Of the more than three dozen women holders of the highest rank, seven received it posthumously. And among them is the first pilot to ram a German plane, Su-2 bomber pilot Ekaterina Zelenko. By the way, she was awarded this title many years after the end of the war - in 1990. One of the four women who were full holders of the Order of Glory also served in aviation: air gunner of the reconnaissance air regiment Nadezhda Zhurkina.
Underground heroines
There are slightly fewer female underground fighters and partisans among the Heroes of the Soviet Union - 28. But here, unfortunately, where larger number heroines who received the title posthumously: 23 underground fighters and partisans accomplished feats at the cost of their lives. Among them are the first woman, Hero of the Soviet Union during the war, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and pioneer hero Zina Portnova, and members of the Young Guard Lyubov Shevtsova and Ulyana Gromova...
Three Soviet women partisans, 1943
Alas, the “quiet war,” as the German occupiers called it, was almost always waged until complete destruction, and few managed to survive by actively operating underground.
Medical heroines
Of the nearly 700 thousand doctors in active army about 300 thousand were women. And among the 2 million nursing staff, this ratio was even higher: almost 1.3 million! At the same time, many female medical instructors were constantly at the forefront, sharing all the hardships of war with male soldiers.
A nurse bandages a wounded man
Therefore, it is natural that in terms of the number of Heroes of the Soviet Union, women doctors are in third place: 15 people. And one of the full holders of the Order of Glory is also a doctor. But the ratio among them who are alive and those who were awarded the highest title posthumously is also indicative: 7 out of 15 heroines did not live to see their moment of glory.
Like, for example, the medical instructor of the 355th separate battalion Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet sailor Maria Tsukanova. One of the “twenty-five thousand” girls who responded to the order to draft 25,000 female volunteers into the navy, she served in the coastal artillery and became a medical instructor shortly before the landing attack on the coast occupied by the Japanese army. Medical instructor Maria Tsukanova managed to save the lives of 52 sailors, but she herself died - this happened on August 15, 1945...
Foot Soldier Heroines
It would seem that even during the war years it was difficult for women and infantry to be compatible. Pilots or medics are one thing, but infantrymen, the workhorses of war, people who, in fact, always and everywhere begin and finish any battle and at the same time endure all the hardships of military life...
Nevertheless, women also served in the infantry, risking not only to share with men the difficulties of infantry life, but also to master hand weapon, which required considerable courage and skill from them.
Oath
Among the female infantrymen there are six Heroes of the Soviet Union, five of them received this title posthumously. However, for male infantrymen the ratio will be the same. One of the full holders of the Order of Glory also served in the infantry. What is noteworthy is that among the infantry heroines there is the first woman from Kazakhstan to deserve such high rank: machine gunner Manshuk Mametova. During the liberation of Nevel, she alone held the commanding heights with her machine gun and died without letting the Germans through.
Heroine snipers
When they say “female sniper,” the first name that comes to mind is Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko. And deservedly so: after all, she received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, being the most successful female sniper in history! But besides Pavlichenko, the highest award for the art of marksmanship was awarded to five more of her combat friends, and three of them posthumously.
One of the full holders of the Order of Glory is Sergeant Major Nina Petrova. Her story is unique not only because she killed 122 enemies, but also because of the sniper’s age: she fought when she was already 52 years old! Rarely did any man achieve the right to go to the front at that age, and the instructor of the sniper school, behind whom was Winter War 1939–1940, this was achieved. But, alas, she did not live to see the Victory: Nina Petrova died in a car accident a week before, on May 1, 1945.
Tank heroines
You can imagine a woman at the controls of an airplane, but it’s not easy behind the controls of a tank. And, nevertheless, there were women tankers, and they not only existed, but achieved great success at the front, receiving high awards. Two female tank crews received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and one of them - Maria Oktyabrskaya - posthumously. Moreover, she died while repairing her own tank under enemy fire.
Soviet tanker
Own in the literal sense of the word: the “Fighting Friend” tank, on which Maria fought as a driver, was built with money collected by her and her sister after the woman learned of the death of her husband, regimental commissar Ilya Oktyabrsky. To gain the right to take a place behind the levers of her tank, Maria Oktyabrskaya had to personally turn to Stalin, who helped her get to the front. And the woman tanker fully justified her high trust.
Heroine signalmen
One of the most traditional book and film characters associated with the war is signal girls. Indeed, for delicate work that required perseverance, attentiveness, accuracy and good hearing, they were willingly hired, sending them to the troops as telephone operators, radio operators and other communications specialists.
Female signalmen
In Moscow, on the basis of one of the oldest units of the signal troops, during the war there was a special school in which female signalmen were trained. And it is quite natural that among the signalmen there were their own Heroes of the Soviet Union. Moreover, both girls who deserved such a high rank received it posthumously - like Elena Stempkovskaya, who, during the battle of her battalion, was surrounded by artillery fire and died during the breakthrough to her own.
Soviet women who stood up to defend their Motherland made an invaluable contribution to the victory over the Nazi invaders. This photo collection is dedicated to them.
1. A Soviet nurse assists a wounded Red Army soldier under enemy fire.
2. Soviet nurses are leading a wounded Red Army soldier who was transported to the rear on an S-3 aircraft (a modification of the U-2 aircraft for transporting the wounded).
3. Pe-2 bomber pilots from the 587th Air Regiment discuss the upcoming flight in 1943.
4. The crew of the Pe-2 bomber from the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment tells the aircraft mechanics about the past flight.
5. A girl and a boy from Leningradskoye people's militia on the banks of the Neva. 1941
6. Orderly Klavdiya Olomskaya provides assistance to the crew of a damaged T-34 tank. Belgorod region. 9-10.07.1943
7. Residents of Leningrad are digging an anti-tank ditch. July 1941
8. Women transport stones on the Moskovskoe highway in besieged Leningrad. November 1941
9. Female doctors bandage the wounded in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Zhitomir-Chelyabinsk flight. June 1944
10. Applying plaster bandages to a wounded person in the carriage of the military-Soviet ambulance train No. 72 during the flight Zhitomir - Chelyabinsk. June 1944
11. Subcutaneous infusion to a wounded person in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 234 at Nezhin station. February 1944
12. Dressing a wounded person in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 318 during the Nezhin-Kirov flight. January 1944
13. Female doctors of the Soviet military ambulance train No. 204 give an intravenous infusion to a wounded man during the Sapogovo-Guriev flight. December 1943
14. Female doctors bandage a wounded man in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 111 during the Zhitomir-Chelyabinsk flight. December 1943
15. The wounded are waiting for a dressing in the carriage of the Soviet military hospital train No. 72 during the Smorodino-Yerevan flight. December 1943
16. Group portrait of military personnel of the 329th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in the city of Komarno, Czechoslovakia. 1945
17. Group portrait of servicemen of the 585th medical battalion of the 75th Guards Rifle Division. 1944
18. Yugoslav partisans on the street of the town of Požega (Požega, territory of modern Croatia). 09/17/1944
19. Group photo of female fighters of the 1st battalion of the 17th shock brigade of the 28th shock division of the NOAU on the street of the liberated town of Djurdjevac (the territory of modern Croatia). January 1944
20. A medical instructor bandages the head of a wounded Red Army soldier on a village street.
21. Lepa Radić before execution. Hanged by the Germans in the city of Bosanska Krupa, 17-year-old Yugoslav partisan Lepa Radić (12/19/1925—February 1943).
22. Girl fighters air defense are on combat duty on the roof of house No. 4 on Khalturina Street (currently Millionnaya Street) in Leningrad. 05/01/1942
23. Girls - fighters of the 1st Krainsky Proletarian Shock Brigade of the NOAU. Arandjelovac, Yugoslavia. September 1944
24. A female soldier among a group of wounded captured Red Army soldiers on the outskirts of the village. 1941
25. Lieutenant 26th infantry division US Army communicates with Soviet female medical officers. Czechoslovakia. 1945
26. Attack pilot of the 805th assault aviation regiment, Lieutenant Anna Aleksandrovna Egorova (09/23/1918 - 10/29/2009).
27. Captured Soviet female soldiers near a German Krupp Protze tractor somewhere in Ukraine. 08/19/1941
28. Two captured Soviet girls at the assembly point. 1941
29. Two elderly residents of Kharkov at the entrance to the basement of a destroyed house. February-March 1943
30. A captured Soviet soldier sits at a desk on the street of an occupied village. 1941
31. A Soviet soldier shakes hands with an American soldier during a meeting in Germany. 1945
32. Air barrage balloon on Stalin Avenue in Murmansk. 1943
33. Women from the Murmansk militia unit during military training. July 1943
34. Soviet refugees on the outskirts of a village in the vicinity of Kharkov. February-March 1943
35. Signalman-observer of the anti-aircraft battery Maria Travkina. Rybachy Peninsula, Murmansk region. 1943
36. One of best snipers Leningrad Front N.P. Petrova with her students. June 1943
37. Formation of personnel of the 125th Guards Bomber Regiment on the occasion of the presentation of the Guards banner. Leonidovo airfield, Smolensk region. October 1943
38. Guard captain, deputy squadron commander of the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 4th Guards Bomber Aviation Division Maria Dolina at the Pe-2 aircraft. 1944
39. Captured Soviet women soldiers in Nevel. Pskov region. 07/26/1941
40. German soldiers lead arrested Soviet female partisans out of the forest.
41. Girl soldier from the composition Soviet troops-liberators of Czechoslovakia in the cab of a truck. Prague. May 1945
42. Medical instructor of the 369th separate marine battalion of the Danube Military Flotilla, chief petty officer Ekaterina Illarionovna Mikhailova (Demina) (b. 1925). In the Red Army since June 1941 (added two years to her 15 years).
43. Radio operator of the air defense unit K.K. Barysheva (Baranova). Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945
44. Private, treated for wounds in an Arkhangelsk hospital.
45. Soviet female anti-aircraft gunners. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945
46. Soviet girls rangefinders from the air defense forces. Vilnius, Lithuania. 1945
47. Sniper of the 184th Infantry Division, holder of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina. 1944
48. Commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues. May 1945
49. Operating nurses of the 250th medical battalion of the 88th rifle division. 1941
50. Driver of the 171st separate anti-aircraft artillery battalion, Private S.I. Telegina (Kireeva). 1945
51. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory, III degree, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Merzlyaki. Vitebsk region, Belarus. 1944
52. The crew of the minesweeper boat T-611 of the Volga military flotilla. From left to right: Red Navy men Agniya Shabalina (motor operator), Vera Chapova (machine gunner), petty officer 2nd class Tatyana Kupriyanova (ship commander), Red Navy men Vera Ukhlova (sailor) and Anna Tarasova miner). June-August 1943
53. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina in the village of Stolyarishki, Lithuania. 1944
54. Soviet sniper corporal Rosa Shanina at the Krynki state farm. Vitebsk region, Belarusian SSR. June 1944
55. Former nurse and translator partisan detachment“Polar explorer” medical service sergeant Anna Vasilyevna Vasilyeva (Mokraya). 1945
56. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, holder of the Order of Glory II and III degrees, senior sergeant Roza Georgievna Shanina, at the celebration of the New Year 1945 in the editorial office of the newspaper “Let's Destroy the Enemy!”
57. Soviet sniper future hero Soviet Union senior sergeant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (07/01/1916-10/27/1974). 1942
58. Soldiers of the Polarnik partisan detachment at a rest stop during a campaign behind enemy lines. From left to right: nurse, intelligence officer Maria Mikhailovna Shilkova, nurse, communications courier Klavdiya Stepanovna Krasnolobova (Listova), fighter, political instructor Klavdiya Danilovna Vtyurina (Golitskaya). 1943
59. Soldiers of the Polarnik partisan detachment: nurse, demolition worker Zoya Ilyinichna Derevnina (Klimova), nurse Maria Stepanovna Volova, nurse Alexandra Ivanovna Ropotova (Nevzorova).
60. Soldiers of the 2nd platoon of the Polarnik partisan detachment before going on a mission. Guerrilla base Shumi-gorodok. Karelo-Finnish SSR. 1943
61. Soldiers of the Polarnik partisan detachment before going on a mission. Guerrilla base Shumi-gorodok. Karelo-Finnish SSR. 1943
62. Female pilots of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Regiment discuss a past combat mission near a Yak-1 aircraft. Airfield "Anisovka" Saratov region. September 1942
63. Pilot of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, junior lieutenant R.V. Yushina. 1945
64. Soviet cameraman Maria Ivanovna Sukhova (1905-1944) in a partisan detachment.
65. Pilot of the 175th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Maria Tolstova, in the cockpit of an Il-2 attack aircraft. 1945
66. Women dig anti-tank ditches near Moscow in the fall of 1941.
67. Soviet traffic policewoman against the backdrop of a burning building on a Berlin street. May 1945
68. Deputy commander of the 125th (female) Guards Borisov Bomber Regiment named after Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Raskova, Major Elena Dmitrievna Timofeeva.
69. Fighter pilot of the 586th Air Defense Fighter Regiment, Lieutenant Raisa Nefedovna Surnachevskaya. 1943
70. Sniper of the 3rd Belorussian Front, senior sergeant Roza Shanina. 1944
71. Soldiers of the Polarnik partisan detachment on their first military campaign. July 1943
72. Marines of the Pacific Fleet on the way to Port Arthur. In the foreground is a participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Pacific Fleet paratrooper Anna Yurchenko. August 1945
73. Soviet partisan girl. 1942
74. Officers of the 246th Rifle Division, including women, on the street of a Soviet village. 1942
75. A private girl from the Soviet troops who liberated Czechoslovakia smiles from the cab of a truck. 1945
76. Three captured Soviet women soldiers.
77. Pilot of the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, junior lieutenant Lydia Litvyak (1921-1943) after a combat flight on the wing of her Yak-1B fighter.
78. Scout Valentina Oleshko (left) with a friend before being deployed to the German rear in the Gatchina area. 1942
79. Column of captured Red Army soldiers in the vicinity of Kremenchug, Ukraine. September 1941.
80. Gunsmiths load cassettes of an Il-2 attack aircraft with PTAB anti-tank bombs.
81. Girls medical instructors 6th Guards Army. 03/08/1944
82. Red Army soldiers of the Leningrad Front on the march. 1944
83. Signal operator Lidiya Nikolaevna Blokova. Central front. 08/08/1943
84. Military doctor 3rd rank (captain of the medical service) Elena Ivanovna Grebeneva (1909-1974), resident doctor of the surgical dressing platoon of the 316th medical battalion of the 276th rifle division. 02/14/1942
85. Maria Dementyevna Kucheryavaya, born in 1918, lieutenant of the medical service. Sevlievo, Bulgaria. September 1944
These fragile, gentle girls fought on an equal basis with men during the Great Patriotic War. They flew planes, carried out the wounded under shells, and went on reconnaissance missions. It was scary, but they did it.
Lydia Litvyak - “the white lily of Stalingrad”
She died at 21!
Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak
At the front: from April 1942 to August 1943. She served in the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment - the famous women's air regiment of Marina Raskova. She died on August 1, 1943 in Donbass.
Military rank: guard junior lieutenant.
Military specialty: fighter pilot.
Awarded: Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
The most successful female fighter pilot of World War II, Lida Litvyak was first and foremost charming girl, who, despite the war conditions, tried to bring a sweet, girlish look into her appearance. How she cried when the order came to cut off her braids. She always kept a bouquet of wildflowers in the cockpit of her plane, and on the cockpit of her combat vehicle, at her request, a white lily was painted, which served as the beginning of her combat call sign - “White Lily of Stalingrad.” And once Lydia sewed fur from her high boots onto the collar of her flight suit and then because of this she was punished and had to sew the fur back.
She gained fame, turning into fear among the Germans, after she shot down two planes at once in September 1942 on her second combat mission as part of the 437th Fighter Aviation Regiment near Stalingrad. And at the wheel of one of them was a colonel from an elite squadron, a holder of three Iron Crosses. The German ace asked to show him who defeated him. And he was shocked to learn that she was a young, fragile blonde.
In the battles near Stalingrad, Lydia Litvyak made 89 combat missions and shot down 7 enemy aircraft. In one of the battles, her Yak was shot down. Lydia made an emergency landing in enemy territory. Jumping out of the cabin, she, firing back, rushed to run from the approaching German soldiers. But the distance was shrinking, and it seemed that death was inevitable. Suddenly our attack aircraft flew over the heads of the enemy, stunning the Germans with torrential fire. He abruptly released the landing gear, sitting down next to Lida. The girl was not at a loss and jumped into the cabin - so unexpectedly she was saved.
The war tempered Lida; it seemed that she was invulnerable. But the deaths of her relatives undermined her persistent character. In May, her husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexei Solomatin, died, in July - best friend, also ace pilot Katya Budanova.
On August 1, 1943, in the battles for Donbass, the flight commander of the 3rd squadron, Lydia Litvyak, left for the last battle. That day she flew three combat missions and did not return from the last one. The “White Lily of Stalingrad” was only 21 years old. For a long time she was considered missing. And only in the summer of 1969, search engines near a farm in the Donetsk region discovered her remains, which were then reburied in a mass grave.
In 1943, Lydia Litvyak appeared on the cover of Ogonyok magazine.
A white lily was painted on the cockpit of her plane.
Withdrew more than 3,000 children from the occupied territory
At the front: from September to November 1941, a liaison officer of the Batya partisan detachment, and from November 1941, a reconnaissance officer of the Batya detachment, participated in battles.
Awarded: Order of the Red Banner of Battle; posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
August 14, 1942. An unusual train approached the platform of the Moscow railway station in the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod): children had difficulty getting out of the cars, or even crawling out completely. There were more than 3 thousand of them! Exhausted, poorly dressed and almost barefoot, they did not cry. They're on Mainland, which means we are alive and all the horrors of war are left behind! They were taken out of the occupied Smolensk region by three young women led by 24-year-old intelligence officer Matryona Volskaya. It was she who was instructed by the leadership of the partisan detachment to collect and lead children along the “partisan corridor” to the Toropets railway station, which is 200 kilometers through forests, swamps, and through villages burned by the Nazis. The summer of 1942 was very hot, exhausted children were constantly thirsty, but drinking water there were no: corpses were floating in the rivers, and on the wells there were signs “The water is poisoned.” In addition to the heat, thirst and fatigue, constant air raids plagued us. The forest saved us from raids and starvation. For the first time, they received a small piece of bread only in Bologoye, and their first lunch - in Ivanovo. For Maria Volskaya, this road of life was doubly difficult. Having declared another halt, she set out to reconnaissance 25 kilometers ahead. After which she returned, raised the guys - and forward again! And this despite the fact that she was carrying a child under her heart. Upon arrival in Gorky, the children were assigned to vocational schools, orphanages and collective farms. Maria Volskaya herself remained to live in the village of Smolki, Gorky Region, where she worked as a teacher for many years.
Behind enemy lines, a Kaluga woman jumped from a plane without a parachute
Photo: family archive Natalia Alexandrushkina
Vera Sergeevna Andrianova
At the front: from January to June 1942.
Military rank: private
Military specialty: reconnaissance radio operator.
Awarded: Medal "For Courage" (posthumously).
On December 30, 1941, units of the Red Army liberated Kaluga from the Nazis, and on New Year’s Eve, primary school teacher Vera Andrianova came to the city committee of the Komsomol and submitted an application with a request to send her to the front.
“My relative’s request was granted and sent in a truck to the outskirts of the city of Yukhnova for reconnaissance radio operator courses,” says Natalya Aleksandrushkina, cousin-great-granddaughter of Vera Andrianova. - After short-term raids behind German troops, Vera was ordered to reconnoiter the location of enemy forces in the area of Yukhnov and Zaitsevaya Gora. The pilot of the U-2 aircraft was tasked with finding a suitable landing site, landing the reconnaissance aircraft and returning back. But there was no site. Andrianova moved from the cockpit to the wing of the plane. During a low-level flight without a parachute, she jumped into a ravine covered with snow. The pilot circled over the ravine and noticed that the girl was giving him a sign: “Everything is fine!” That time Vera suffered frostbite on her face and hands, but she completed the command’s instructions exactly. The commanders loved Andrianova for her modesty, courage and bravery.
Later, the intelligence officer infiltrated the location of Army Group Center and carried out a number of successful acts of sabotage, leading Red Army soldiers to Nazi ammunition warehouses and a communications center near Spas-Demensk. In June 1942, Vera was captured by the Gestapo: on the way to a safe house, they stopped her, searched her and found a walkie-talkie. In the Stodolishchenskaya prison, the Nazis tried to lure her to their side, but all their efforts were in vain. During the execution, Vera refused to obey the Gestapo order to stand with her back to them. At the last moment, she threw angry words into the faces of the executioners. The soldiers discharged their pistols into the face of the Kaluga woman. In May 1966, Anastasia Ipatievna Andrianova, Vera’s mother, received an invitation to come to the Kaluga City Executive Committee to receive the medal “For Courage,” which was awarded to her daughter posthumously. Two years later, one of the Kaluga streets began to bear the name of a fearless primary school teacher.”
17-year-old girl raised the battalion to attack
Photo: Svetlana Bellendir, archive of Z.A. Shipanova
At the front: from November 1943 to March 1945. She served in the 933rd Infantry Regiment of the 254th Division of the 52nd Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front. She traveled military roads through Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Poland, and Germany. Having been seriously wounded in the German city of Görlitz, she celebrated Victory Day in the hospital.
Military rank: senior sergeant
Military specialty: medical instructor.
Awarded: Order of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals.
“I’ve been desperate since childhood,” smiles Ufa resident Zinaida Shipanova. “I climbed trees with the boys, and was not inferior in any way.” She also loved reading books about heroes and dreamed of accomplishing a feat.”
In 1941, the song “Get up, huge country!” came from the loudspeakers, but the parents did not allow the child to go to the front. Two years later, she falsified the date of birth in the documents (“let them think that I’m not 16, but 18 years old!”) and went to the military registration and enlistment office. She left a note for her family: “Don’t worry about me, I’ve gone to the front.”
Zina was appointed as a cook, but she did not serve as a cook for long - she begged the commander to send her as a medical instructor to a rifle battalion. Young girl she carried the wounded out from under fire, bandaged them, and calmed down adult, experienced fighters. And one day she had the opportunity to raise a battalion to attack. This happened in August 1944 in Romania.
Here’s how Zinaida Shipanova herself wrote about it in the essay “Zinkin’s Order, or How They Raised It to the Attack”: “There was tense silence. Suddenly there was some movement in the sunny haze, and soon the naked heads of Germans appeared above the tall stalks of corn. The battalion commander with binoculars on his chest came out of cover and commanded in a young falsetto: “Follow me, comrades, hurray!” He took a few steps forward and looked back. There was no one behind him. The company did not obey the order. It took my breath away. Without reasoning, but only obeying a feeling of pity for the battalion commander, I rushed to his aid. She looked back at the men hiding under the vines and saw how slowly the fighters crawled deeper into the bushes. Fury took over me. And suddenly the words came out of my lips: “Where are you going?.. Your mother!” And a moment later, in complete detachment, I was running down a steep green slope, clearly aware that it was last minutes life. For the first time I saw how beautiful the land was, how clean and fragrant the air was... I heard the patter of feet behind me - a rifle company rose to attack. Overtaking me, soldiers with machine guns in their hands crashed into a corn field, and the crackling of dry stalks mixed with machine gun fire. It never occurred to me that I would ever have the opportunity to raise these strong, but for some reason confused men to attack.”
The command took a long time to decide what award Shipanova deserved: the Order of the Patriotic War or the medal “For Courage”. But in the end they gave nothing. She received the Order of the Red Star for another feat - in the vicinity of the German city of Görlitz, where the battalion was ambushed, she gathered the soldiers under machine-gun fire and brought them to the captain. Zinochka flew into empty, dilapidated houses where soldiers were shooting back, and shouted, “By order of Captain Gubarev, follow me!” And they obeyed the young girl.
“When I was running under fire, I thought, what a feat! - says Zinaida Alexandrovna. “I did it after all!”
A few days later, Zinaida Shipanova was seriously wounded (the fingers on her hand were torn off by shell fragments) and concussed. The girl was worried that she did not reach Berlin, but was glad that she was alive.
After the war, Zinaida Alexandrovna went to Sakhalin, got married there and gave birth to a son. The family moved to Belarus, and Zinaida Shipanova returned to her native Bashkiria only in 1975. Working as a personnel inspector at one of the large Ufa enterprises, she found time for creativity. The war participant still writes heartfelt books and essays today, and collaborates with the editors of newspapers and magazines. She often meets with schoolchildren and tells children about the war.
Vera Voloshina, intelligence officer and saboteur executed by the Nazis
Voloshina Vera Danilovna
At the front: immediately after the start of the war, she was mobilized to dig trenches on the outskirts of Moscow. In October 1941, she went to the front as a volunteer. She was enlisted in special military unit No. 9903 of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front to work behind enemy lines. On November 29, 1941, she went on her last combat mission and died in the village of Golovkovo, Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow region.
Military specialty: reconnaissance saboteur.
Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree and title of Hero Russian Federation posthumously.
For Vera Voloshina, the real war lasted only a month - in October 1941 she became a partisan, and in November she was executed by the Germans. But during this time, the intelligence officer managed to complete seven combat missions and forever entered the history of the Great Patriotic War.
Vera was born in Kemerovo, studied at school No. 12, where she met her first, but never realized love - Yuri Dvuzhilny. After graduating from school, the young people dispersed to different cities: Yura - to Leningrad, to the Institute of Civil Air Fleet, Vera - to Moscow, to the Institute of Physical Education. They wrote letters to each other and were planning to get married in the summer of 1942. The girlfriends bought it for the girl white dress. But the war ruined everything. Yura and Vera never met again. But the white dress never became a wedding dress...
On November 22, 1941, a group of scouts, which included Vera Voloshina and her friend Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, was dropped behind enemy lines in the Naro-Fominsk region. The detachment carried out several successful acts of sabotage, and on the way back came under fire. The Germans took the seriously wounded Vera prisoner. She was tortured and interrogated in the building all night former school, and on the morning of November 29 they hanged him from a roadside willow. Vera was 22 years old.
Captain Yuri Dvuzhilny died a heroic death in the battle for the liberation of Belarus in 1944. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In Kemerovo, two intersecting streets are named after Vera Voloshina and Yuri Dvuzhilny.
Vera Voloshina is sitting in the first row, Yura Dvuzhilny is standing nearby (2nd row)
Raisa Aronova saved the regiment's banner
Raisa Ermolaevna Aronova
At the front: from May 1942 to May 1945.
Military rank: Guard senior lieutenant.
Military specialty: senior pilot of the 46th Guards Regiment.
Awarded: Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, Order of the Red Star, medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus,” medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
Raisa Ermolaevna was born in Saratov. She studied at the Institute of Mechanization. Then she transferred to the Moscow Aviation Institute. She fought from May 1942 until the Victory as part of the 4th Air Army. In 1943 she was wounded, but nevertheless continued her service.
In the summer of 1944, Aronova had to save the regiment's banner. In Belarus, not far from the regiment's base, scattered groups of German troops appeared. While carrying out combat missions, information was conveyed to headquarters that these groups could join the regiment. The unit on duty was Raya Aronova. She took the banner from the staff, rolled it up, put it in a canvas bag and wrapped it around her body - under her tunic, and tightened the belt. Aronova knew that the loss of the banner was a disgrace for the military unit and would lead to the disbandment of the regiment. But everything ended well.
After the war, Aronova graduated from college foreign languages. She had many government awards. In May 1946, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for 941 combat missions.
Lydia Tselovalnikova flew 590 combat missions during the war years
Lida in the photo on the right
Photo: Saratovsky state museum battle glory
Lidia Mikhailovna Tselovalnikova
At the front: from December 1941 to May 1945.
Military rank: Guard Lieutenant.
Military specialty: flight navigator of the first aviation squadron.
Awarded: medals “For Military Merit”, “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”, “For Defense of the Caucasus”, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War II degree.
Lida Tselovalnikova was born in Saratov. She joined the regiment in 1941 through the Komsomol recruitment. When she was asked at the commission: “What can you do?”, she answered: “Nothing.” And to the question: “What will you do if you see a German?”, Lida, after thinking, said: “And I’ll run away.” Everyone laughed, but the girl was still enrolled in the regiment.
At the front, Lydia worked as an armed soldier, but dreamed of becoming a navigator. Her dream came true on September 13, 1943.
After the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the liberation of Crimea began. In November 1943, a marine landing force landed in the area of the village of Eltigen, but failed to gain a secure foothold. The sailors needed help. The 46th Night Bomber Regiment delivered ammunition, food and medicine. The pilots had to approach the target from enemy territory with the engine turned off, drop the cargo and go to sea at low level. During one of the flights, Tselovalnikova’s plane was hit by a machine gun burst. It was impossible to fly over the Kerch Strait. Then Lida's partner Raya Aronova decided to land the plane on a sandy beach over which sea waves rolled. Our anti-aircraft gunners helped the young pilots get out of the cockpit and took them to command post, from where the girls connected with their superiors and reported that the task had been completed.
Nadezhda Georgievna Rudenko (Safonova)
Served in the Baltic Fleet in the 7th assault aviation regiment. I celebrated Victory Day in Germany.
Military rank: sergeant.
Military specialty: aircraft radio equipment master.
Awarded: Order of the Patriotic War, medals “For the Defense of Leningrad”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Capture of Koenigsberg”, “For Victory in Germany”, badges “Defender of the Krondstadt Fortress”, “Defender of the Oranienbaum Bridgehead”.
18-year-old Nadya was a real beauty
Nadezhda Georgievna is now 92 years old. She was born in Irkutsk in 1923 into a large family (five children). On June 21, 1945, she danced at the school prom, dreamed of studying, but the war began, and 17-year-old Nadya went to work at an aircraft factory - she made parts for airplanes on a machine.
In the spring of 1942, she volunteered for the front. In five months, the girl completed a two-year training program under the “aircraft equipment master” program and went to serve in the Baltic Fleet.
In December 1942, my girlfriend Marina and I were transported along the Road of Life in the back of a car across Lake Ladoga, first to Leningrad, then to the 7th Assault Aviation Regiment. And so Marinka and I served throughout the war as aircraft radio equipment technicians: during breaks between combat missions, we repaired and restored faulty wiring and communication devices. I had to work day and night, under bombing and artillery shelling. It was very scary, but we defended the Road of Life, destroyed German trains that were bringing food, equipment and ammunition to the invaders, so we tried not to give in to this fear. Some couldn't stand the stress and went crazy. A lot of pilots died. But we, the technical personnel, also suffered, as the airfields were shelled from morning to evening. There were many different wounds: the girl’s leg was cut off by a shrapnel while she was running, so she ran in boots, so one leg in the boot was left lying on the field; the equipment was covered with earth so that when they dug it out, it was all blue. But God had mercy on me - I went through the whole war without a single scratch.
Pilot Nikolai Bakulin, Nadezhda Georgievna’s first love
“I fell in love for the first time during the war,” says Lyubov Grigorievna. - He was a newcomer to our regiment, which at that time was stationed in Oranienbaum. This new guy seemed like a dude to me: he was dressed in clean overalls, a headset and a white balaclava, and I was angry with him. And after some time I began to notice that no matter where I went, he would definitely come across my path. Then he began to come to our dugout, either leaving a berry or a gingerbread on the pillow, or writing a note. And at the age of 19 I fell madly in love with him. It was my first love, my first kiss, my first man - everything was the first time with him. He was a very sensitive and sincere person.
And on January 14, 1944, the day the operation to break the blockade began, he flew off on a mission and did not return. His name was Nikolai Bakulin, he was from Baku. He was 25 years old. He was a healthy and handsome young man...
Ekaterina Vasilievna Budanova
At the front: from August 1942 to July 1943. She served in the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, 73rd GvIAP.
Military rank: Guard senior lieutenant.
Military specialty: fighter pilot.
Awarded: Hero of the Russian Federation, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Ekaterina Budanova, legendary pilot, brave among the brave. These popular titles were assigned to her after the battles of Stalingrad, Rostov-on-Don and the liberation of Donbass. During the war, she made 266 combat missions, personally destroyed 6 enemy aircraft and 5 in a group with her comrades.
Katya Budanova was immediately accepted into Marina Raskova’s famous women’s fighter aviation regiment as an experienced pilot who had many flights at the flying school. The experienced aces initially greeted the thin girl with a boy's haircut with distrust. Very soon their opinion changed.
Catherine found herself at Stalingrad on September 10, 1042, when the fiercest non-stop fighting took place here. From the first day, Budanova’s plane went on combat missions several times a day; it seemed that she did not sleep, did not eat. She could not be stopped, because Katya lived with a strong desire to avenge the death of her mother and sister during the occupation. Even experienced aces were surprised at her courage. Here are the battles in her flight biography: in a pair - against twelve, one - against thirteen, as part of a four - against nineteen enemy aircraft.
From the memoirs of the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel A.V. Gridnev: “Once, returning from a combat mission, Budanova saw 12 German bombers walking below her. Despite the fact that she was running out of ammunition and there was very little fuel in the aircraft tanks, she decides to attack the enemy. The first target - the leader of the group - began to smoke. But the pilot spent last cartridge. Then, simulating an attack, it comes in a second time and, without firing, goes towards the bomber. The Nazis lost their nerve. Breaking formation, they dropped bombs without reaching the target. And Ekaterina Budanova, wounded, lands on a riddled plane..."
Tall and thin, Katya wore a man's haircut and looked like a guy in uniform. And in the regiment they called her Volodka.
On the last day of her life, Katya, as part of a group of fighters, covered our Il-2s. Having successfully completed the attack, the “humpbacks” went home. Our Yaks, covering their retreat, walked behind. Budanova was at the back of the cover group and suddenly saw three Me-109s very close by. There was no time to warn her comrades about the danger, and the pilot took on an unequal battle alone... On July 19, 1943, Ekaterina Budanova was mortally wounded in air combat. Despite the injury, she was able to land the plane on her territory. The pilot's heart stopped with the last revolution of the propeller. In this fight she won her last, 11th victory. She was only 26 years old.
Together with his friend Lydia Litvyak
Military rank: guard sergeant
Military specialty: tank driver mechanic.
Awarded: Order of Lenin, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medal and title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
A native of Crimea was evacuated to Tomsk in 1941. Having lost her husband in the war, Maria asks to be sent to the front line. “I know how to drive a car, shoot a machine gun, throw a grenade, provide medical assistance and have a specialty as a telephone operator,” admits Oktyabrskaya. - Why am I sitting in the rear? After all, I am a trained warrior!”
But attempts to get into the line of fire were in vain. Then, having sold all her things, Maria donates money (50,000 rubles) for the construction of a tank, but with one condition - to name the car “Battle Friend” and allow her to become a member of the crew of this tank.
Photo: archive of the Tomsk Regional Museum of Local Lore
And here she is - a driver-mechanic of a combat vehicle as part of a group of junior lieutenant Pyotr Chebotko, sergeant Gennady Yasko and sergeant Mikhail Galkin. This whole team will have to go through a lot...
The front was moving west when the "Battle Friend"'s track was torn off. We need to go upstairs. Her boys (as she called them) always protected Maria and took on dangerous work themselves. But Oktyabrskaya, without waiting for an order, climbed out through the hatch. Together with Misha Galkin, we fixed the breakdown and returned back. But then, in one of the heavy battles, Oktyabrskaya was wounded by a mine fragment.
All her crew members were waiting good news about the recovery of his “mother”. But... there was no recovery.
On March 15, 1944, Maria Oktyabrskaya died in one of the hospitals in Smolensk. They buried her there. Following the coffin were the military garrison, the hospital staff and her military friends Petya Chebotko, Gena Yasko and Misha Galkin.
This text is compiled on the basis of the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin, about whom we have already told our readers more than once. This information is unique in that it is transmitted first-hand, from a tanker who rode a tank throughout the war.
Before the Great Patriotic War, women did not serve in units of the Red Army. But they often “served” at border outposts together with their border guard husbands.
The fate of these women with the advent of the war was tragic: most of them died, only a few managed to survive in those terrible days. But I’ll tell you about this separately later...
By August 1941, it became obvious that there was no way to do without women.
Women medical workers were the first to serve in the Red Army: medical battalions (medical battalions), MPG (field mobile hospitals), EG (evacuation hospitals) and sanitary echelons, in which young nurses, doctors and orderlies served, were deployed. Then military commissars began to recruit signalmen, telephone operators, and radio operators into the Red Army. It got to the point that almost all anti-aircraft units were staffed by girls and young unmarried women aged 18 to 25 years. Women's aviation regiments began to form. By 1943, they served in the Red Army different times from 2 to 2.5 million girls and women.
Military commissars drafted into the army the healthiest, most educated, most beautiful girls and young women. All of them showed themselves very well: they were brave, very persistent, resilient, reliable fighters and commanders, and were awarded military orders and medals for the bravery and bravery shown in battle.
For example, Colonel Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, Hero of the Soviet Union, commanded a long-range aviation bomber division (LAD). It was her 250 IL4 bombers that forced her to capitulate in July-August 1944 Finland.
About girls anti-aircraft gunners
Under any bombing, under any shelling, they remained at their guns. When the troops of the Don, Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts closed the encirclement ring around enemy groups in Stalingrad, the Germans tried to organize an air bridge from the territory of Ukraine they occupied to Stalingrad. For this purpose, the entire military transport air fleet Germany was transferred to Stalingrad. Our Russian female anti-aircraft gunners organized an anti-aircraft screen. In two months they shot down 500 three-engine German Junkers 52 aircraft.
In addition, they shot down another 500 aircraft of other types. The German invaders had never known such a defeat anywhere in Europe.
Night witches
The women's night bomber regiment of Guard Lieutenant Colonel Evdokia Bershanskaya, flying single-engine U-2 aircraft, bombed German troops on the Kerch Peninsula in 1943 and 1944. And later in 1944-45. fought on the first Belorussian front, supporting the troops of Marshal Zhukov and the troops of the 1st Army of the Polish Army.
The U-2 aircraft (from 1944 - Po-2, in honor of the designer N. Polikarpov) flew at night. They were based 8-10 km from the front line. They needed a small runway, only 200 meters. During the night in the battles for the Kerch Peninsula, they made 10-12 sorties. The U2 carried up to 200 kg of bombs at a distance of up to 100 km to the German rear. . During the night, they each dropped up to 2 tons of bombs and incendiary ampoules on German positions and fortifications. They approached the target with the engine turned off, silently: the plane had good aerodynamic properties: the U-2 could glide from a height of 1 kilometer to a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers. It was difficult for the Germans to shoot them down. I myself saw many times how German anti-aircraft gunners drove heavy machine guns across the sky, trying to find the silent U2.
Now the Polish gentlemen do not remember how Russian beautiful pilots in the winter of 1944 dropped weapons, ammunition, food, medicine to the citizens of Poland who rebelled in Warsaw against the German fascists...
A Russian girl pilot named White Lily fought on the Southern Front near Melitopol and in the men’s fighter regiment. It was impossible to shoot it down in an air battle. A flower was painted on board her fighter - a white lily.
One day the regiment was returning from a combat mission, White Lily was flying at the rear - only the most experienced pilots are given such an honor.
German fighter The Me-109 was guarding her, hiding in a cloud. He fired a burst at White Lily and disappeared into the cloud again. Wounded, she turned the plane around and rushed after the German. She never returned back... After the war, her remains were accidentally discovered by local boys when they were catching grass snakes in a mass grave in the village of Dmitrievka, Shakhtarsky district, Donetsk region.
Miss Pavlichenko
In the Primorsky Army, one of the men - sailors - fought - a girl - a sniper. Lyudmila Pavlichenko. By July 1942, Lyudmila had already killed 309 German soldiers and officers (including 36 enemy snipers).
Also in 1942, she was sent with a delegation to Canada and the United States 
States. During the trip, she received a reception from the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila Pavlichenko on a trip around the country. American singer in country style, Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her “Miss Pavlichenko”.
In 1943, Pavlichenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
“For Zina Tusnolobova!”
Regimental medical instructor ( nurse) Zina Tusnolobova fought in a rifle regiment on the Kalinin Front near Velikiye Luki.
She walked in the first chain with the soldiers, bandaged the wounded. In February 1943, in the battle for the Gorshechnoye station in the Kursk region, trying to help a wounded platoon commander, she herself was seriously wounded: her legs were broken. At this time, the Germans launched a counterattack. Tusnolobova tried to pretend to be dead, but one of the Germans noticed her and tried to finish off the nurse with blows from her boots and butt.
At night, a nurse showing signs of life was discovered by a reconnaissance group, transferred to the location of Soviet troops, and on the third day taken to a field hospital. Her hands and lower legs were frostbitten and had to be amputated. She left the hospital wearing prosthetics and with prosthetic arms. But she didn’t lose heart.
I've recovered. Got married. She gave birth to three children and raised them. True, her mother helped her raise her children. She died in 1980 at the age of 59.
Zinaida’s letter was read to the soldiers in the units before the storming of Polotsk:
Avenge me! Avenge my native Polotsk!
May this letter reach the hearts of each of you. This is written by a man whom the Nazis deprived of everything - happiness, health, youth. I am 23 years old. For 15 months now I have been confined to a hospital bed. I now have neither arms nor legs. The Nazis did this.
I was a chemical laboratory assistant. When the war broke out, she voluntarily went to the front along with other Komsomol members. Here I took part in battles, carried out the wounded. For the removal of 40 soldiers along with their weapons, the government awarded me the Order of the Red Star. In total, I carried 123 wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield.
In the last battle, when I rushed to help the wounded platoon commander, I was also wounded, both legs were broken. The Nazis launched a counterattack. There was no one to pick me up. I pretended to be dead. A fascist approached me. He kicked me in the stomach, then began hitting me on the head and face with the rifle butt...
And now I am disabled. I recently learned to write. I am writing this letter with the stump of my right arm, which was cut off above the elbow. They made me prosthetics, and maybe I will learn to walk. If only I could pick up a machine gun just one more time to get even with the Nazis for their blood. For the torment, for my distorted life!
Russian people! Soldiers! I was your comrade, I walked with you in the same row. Now I can't fight anymore. And I ask you: take revenge! Remember and do not spare the damned fascists. Exterminate them like mad dogs. Avenge them for me, for hundreds of thousands of Russian slaves driven into German slavery. And let every girl’s burning tear, like a drop of molten lead, incinerate one more German.
My friends! When I was in a hospital in Sverdlovsk, Komsomol members of a Ural plant, who took patronage over me, built five tanks at an inopportune time and named them after me. The knowledge that these tanks are now beating the Nazis gives great relief to my torment...
It's very difficult for me. At twenty-three years old, to find myself in the position in which I found myself... Eh! Not even a tenth of what I dreamed of, what I strived for has been done... But I don’t lose heart. I believe in myself, I believe in my strength, I believe in you, my dears! I believe that the Motherland will not leave me. I live in hope that my grief will not remain unavenged, that the Germans will pay dearly for my torment, for the suffering of my loved ones.
And I ask you, dear ones: when you go on the assault, remember me!
Remember - and let each of you kill at least one fascist!
Zina Tusnolobova, Guard Sergeant Major of the Medical Service.
Moscow, 71, 2nd Donskoy proezd, 4-a, Institute of Prosthetics, ward 52.
Newspaper “Forward to the Enemy”, May 13, 1944.
Tankers
A tank driver has a very hard job: loading shells, collecting and repairing broken tracks, working with a shovel, crowbar, sledgehammer, carrying logs. And most often under enemy fire.
In the 220th T-34 Tank Brigade we had Lieutenant Valya Krikalyova as a mechanic-driver on the Leningrad Front. In the battle, a German anti-tank gun smashed the track of her tank. Valya jumped out of the tank and began to repair the caterpillar. The German machine gunner stitched it diagonally across the chest. Her comrades did not have time to cover her. Thus, a wonderful tank girl passed away into eternity. We, tankers from the Leningrad Front, still remember it.
On the Western Front in 1941, the tank company commander, Captain Oktyabrsky, fought in a T-34. He died the death of the brave in August 1941. The young wife Maria Oktyabrskaya, who remained behind the lines, decided to take revenge on the Germans for the death of her husband.
She sold her house, all her property and sent a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich with a request to allow her to use the proceeds to buy a T-34 tank and take revenge on the Germans for the tankman husband they killed:
Moscow, Kremlin To the Chairman State Committee defense Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Dear Joseph Vissarionovich!
My husband, regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky, died in the battles for the Motherland. For his death, for the death of all Soviet people tortured by fascist barbarians, I want to take revenge on the fascist dogs, for which I deposited all my personal savings - 50,000 rubles - into the state bank to build a tank. I ask you to name the tank “Battle Friend” and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. I have a specialty as a driver, I have excellent command of a machine gun, and I am a Voroshilov marksman.
I send you warm greetings and wish you long health, for many years for the fear of enemies and for the glory of our Motherland.
OKTYABRSKAYA Maria Vasilievna.
Tomsk, Belinskogo, 31
Stalin ordered Maria Oktyabrskaya to be accepted into the Ulyanovsk Tank School, trained, and given a T-34 tank. After graduating from college, Maria was awarded military rank Technician-Lieutenant Mechanic-Driver.
She was sent to that section of the Kalinin Front where her husband fought.
On January 17, 1944, near the Krynki station in the Vitebsk region, the left sloth of the “Battle Girlfriend” tank was destroyed by a shell. Mechanic Oktyabrskaya tried to repair the damage under enemy fire, but a fragment of a mine that exploded nearby seriously wounded her in the eye.
She underwent surgery in a field hospital, and then was taken by plane to a front-line hospital, but the wound turned out to be too severe, and she died in March 1944.
Katya Petlyuk is one of nineteen women whose gentle hands drove tanks towards the enemy. Katya was the commander of the T-60 light tank on the Southwestern Front west of Stalingrad.
Katya Petlyuk received the T-60 light tank. For convenience in battle, each vehicle had its own name. The names of the tanks were all impressive: “Eagle”, “Falcon”, “Grozny”, “Slava”, and on the turret of the tank that Katya Petlyuk received there was an unusual inscription – “Malyutka”.
The tankers chuckled: “We’ve already hit the nail on the head – the little one in the Malyutka.”
Her tank was connected. She walked behind the T-34, and if one of them was hit, then she approached the knocked-out tank in her T-60 and helped the tankers, delivered spare parts, and acted as a liaison. The fact is that not all T-34s had radio stations.
Only many years after the war, a senior sergeant from the 56th tank brigade Katya Petlyuk learned the story of the birth of her tank: it turns out that it was built with money from Omsk preschool children, who, wanting to help the Red Army, donated their savings for toys and dolls to the construction of the combat vehicle. In a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, they asked to name the tank “Malyutka”. Omsk preschoolers collected 160,886 rubles...
A couple of years later, Katya was already leading the T-70 tank into battle (I still had to part with the Malyutka). She took part in the battle for Stalingrad, and then as part of the Don Front in the encirclement and defeat of Nazi troops. Participated in the battle on Kursk Bulge, liberated left-bank Ukraine. She was seriously wounded - at the age of 25 she became a disabled person of the 2nd group.
After the war, she lived in Odessa. Taking off officer's shoulder straps, studied to be a lawyer and worked as the head of the registry office.
She was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, and medals.
Many years later, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. I. Yakubovsky, the former commander of the 91st separate tank brigade, would write in the book “Earth on Fire”: “... in general, it is difficult to measure how much the heroism of a person elevates. They say about him that this is courage of a special order. The participant certainly possessed it Battle of Stalingrad Ekaterina Petlyuk."
Based on materials from the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin and the Internet.
Related articles
The best amulets against the evil eye and damage Amulet against the evil eye with hands for children
How to read the Psalter correctly
Delicious dishes with sausages
A glimpse of Bella. Romantic chronicle. A glimpse of genius. Messerer about Akhmadulina Boris Messerer glimpse of Bella romantic chronicle
I dreamed that I was sailing on a boat on the river
How to cook beef entrecote in a frying pan
About the company Foreign language courses at Moscow State University
Which city and why became the main one in Ancient Mesopotamia?
Why Bukhsoft Online is better than a regular accounting program!
Which year is a leap year and how to calculate it