Much has been written over the years about famous WWII aces. Whether it is Hartmann, Bong, Bader, Sakai, Kodzedub and others, you can often find many different books on these men. And why not. They were high scoring aces whose abilities were expanded upon by the propaganda machines of the various nations. This followed post war where the 'true story' of these men were repeated, much to the delight of publicists and the reading public. I know that I read quite a lot about these men when I was young. Over the years, actual research has been done to try to remove some of the hype that surrounded these figures, yet even with that removed, their accomplishments are still exceptional.

These pilots all have several things in common. They had determination, an inborn ability to fight in the sky and they all were skillful or lucky enough to survive the war. They also had one other thing in common; they were all men.

Not all WWII combat pilots were men; at least, not in the Soviet Union. In other nations, women were relegated to non-combat jobs and if fliers, were not allowed to fly in combat. As much that was wrong with communism, they were egalitarian enough to allow women to fight. Many fought on the ground with sniping being a particularly successful role, though one that was quite dangerous. Equally dangerous was piloting a bomber or a fighter. Enemy bullets do not care about the gender of the pilot.

This book is the story of not only one of best Soviet female pilots, but also a look at what it was like to grow up in Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union started off with grand aspirations of equality. Down with the aristocracy and power to the people. For peasants, this turned out to be a pretty good thing. No longer were they serfs for land owners. Now, everyone was equal. They could do something else. Well, this worked fairly well for some, while others were back to the old grind, but this time on a collective farm.

The heads of the Soviet government believed all were equal, but some more equal than other. I am sure this is a story many have heard before. Lidiya Litvyak was born during the Russian Revolution to parents who were peasants. They later moved to Moscow where her father worked for the state railroad. This was an improvement. They had a small apartment and Lidiya was educated in the communist way of life. Among that was a reverence for Stalin, who had rather brutally taken over the head of the government and got rid of all his opponents. Stalin was quite paranoid in this respect. However, Soviet propaganda made him seem almost a god and the people believed it.

So Lidiya grew up joining all the appropriate communist organizations and as a young lady started to learn to fly. However Lidiya's family got hit by Stalin's purge of the government in 1937 when every second government employee was either sent to concentration camps or killed. The family was then considered a traitor to communism. Her father met his death at the hands of the state police. This very much changed Lidiya's look on life. She did all she could to erase the spectre of 'traitor' from the family name. One way was to concentrate on flying and she became exceptional.

It is not my intention to tell the whole story here in a review. There is more to it than just Lidiya's story. It is the story of famous Soviet women pilots and how one in particular got the ear of Stalin and talked him into allowing for an all female fighter group. This included fighter, night bomber and attack units. Eventually, these units added men to the roster and several women, including Lidiya went to other units.

The author weaves a fascinating tale of the events of the time and the efforts of women pilots, with Lidiya's experiences being the centerpiece of the tale. It is very much a page turner and one that will put the reader through a wide range of emotions while reading it. It is superbly researched and where there are differences of opinion on things, these are provided. Lidya was shot down in August of 1943. Her remains were never full found nor identified. In 1979 a wreck was unearthed by a farmer in Ukraine approximately where her plane might have crashed and so it was decided those remains were her. There are also other thoughts on how she was captured, and since captured military people were either shot or sent to the gulags upon return, she stayed in Europe after released.

All I can say is buy this book. You will be so very glad you did. It is one of those rare gems one finds from time to time.

April 2013

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