Key facts
- Native name
- Лидия Владимировна Литвяк
- Nicknames
- Lilya "White Lily of Stalingrad" "White Rose of Stalingrad"
- Born
- ( 1921-08-18 ) 18 August 1921, Moscow, Russian SFSR
- Died
- 1 August 1943 (1943-08-01) (aged 21), near Kozhevnia , Ukrainian SSR , Soviet Union
- Allegiance
- Soviet Union
- Branch
- Soviet Air Force
- Service years
- 1941–1943
- Rank
- Senior lieutenant
- Unit
- 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment 73rd Guards Fighter Regiment
- Conflicts
- World War II Eastern Front †
- Awards
- Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumous)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- Soviet Union
- Place of birth
- Moscow
- Place of death
- Mius-Front
- Spouse
- Aleksey Solomatin
- Occupation
- airman
- Languages spoken
- Russian
- Native language
- Russian
- Award
- Gold Star medal
- Conflict
- Eastern Front
- Military branch
- Soviet Air Forces
- Military rank
- senior lieutenant
- Image
- Russia stamp 2021 № 2761.jpg
- Significant event
- flight
Show 11 more facts
- date of birth
- 1921-08-18
- date of death
- 1943-08-01
- name in native language
- Лидия Владимировна Литвяк
- place of burial
- Dmytrivka
- Commons category
- Lydia Litvyak
- allegiance
- Soviet Union
- military casualty classification
- killed in action
- start of work period
- 1942-00-00
- nickname
- Белая Лилия
- end of work period
- 1943-08-01
Sources (9)
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak (Russian: Лидия Владимировна Литвяк; 18 August 1921 – 1 August 1943), also known as Lilya, was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. Historians' estimates for her total victories range from thirteen to fourteen solo victories and four to five shared kills in her 66 combat sorties. In about two years of operations, she was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first of two female fighter pilots who have earned the title of fighter ace and the holder of the record for the greatest number of kills by a female fighter pilot. She was shot down near Orel during the Battle of Kursk as she attacked a formation of German aircraft.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lydia Litvyak” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.