Best WW2 female ace-fighter

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#61

Thanks bwing.

More than 1,000 women served as pilots associated with the US Air Force in the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) but were considered civil service workers, and weren’t recognized for their military service until the 1970s. Britain and the Soviet Union also used significant numbers of women pilots to support their air forces.

It s interesting- did the WASP piloted onlt the transport aviation?
I/ve read some of them carriaged of B-17 to the Britain - is it true?
And what about British woman pilots?

#62

I have some recollection of women pilots ferrying multi-engine aircraft from America to England, via Greenland (I seem to remember the bit about Greenland), but I can’t find my source.

Some women pilots in the US flew just about everything, more than just about any man did, and were actually used to encourage men to fly planes that had a poor reputation.

Nancy was the first woman to fly virtually all the Army Air Force’s complex, high performance combat aircraft, such as the new P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning fighters, the four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber, and various multi-engine attack aircraft, medium bombers, and transports. Her example led the way for her original WAFS to also ferry combat aircraft and they, in turn, blazed the trail for a significant number of later women pilots to follow in their footsteps.

http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=1135791958&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1

Many, in addition to towing targets, became test pilots, instructors, weather pilots, utility and cargo pilots, and trainers. In 1944 Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, the pilot who later flew the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, chose Strother and Dorothea Johnson Moorman to learn to fly the B-29 bomber and convince men pilots that the huge aircraft, which had a reputation for unpredictability, was reliable. Neither Strother nor Moorman had ever flown a four-engine plane, which was why they were given the task. Tibbets needed to prove that the B-29 could be flown by anyone — even women.

Strother and Moorman only received three days of training. On one occasion Strother was in the air with Tibbets when an engine started smoking. Reacting with aplomb, “She did everything just like the book said to do it,” Tibbets said in “Fly Girls.”

After gaining familiarity with the plane, Strother and Moorman flew it from Birmingham, Ala., to Clovis, N.M., where they took male crews on flights to show what the B-29 could do.

http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/northwestern/spring2002/features/flygirl/index.htm

Some more links
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/peopleevents/pandeAMEX01.html

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/Women/AP31.htm

#63

Yea George thanks again;)
Sorry i’ve left out this great infor of Lancer.
The other side of “model family” was a devil’s behaviour of Goebbels.“I’ve turned the choicest statements over to the Fuhrer.”
What’s a bast…:wink:

#64

Well had the B-17/29 also a poor reputiation?
If the WASP pitots flew over Greenland - this possibly could the B-17/24.
So they were the very bold girls .

#65

You are most welcome Chevan :slight_smile:

Indeed she was a beautiful young lady, as were many of her squadron mates and fellow female pilots. Her romance and marriage to Soviet ace Aleksey Solomatin and their subsequent deaths was such a tragic wartime love story.

Photo gallery:
http://wio.ru/aces/gal-f.htm

Here is the first story that I read about her. I scanned it from the book, Best Little Stories From World War II, by C. Brian Kelly, Montpelier Publishing, 1989, pp 121-123. The article itself was written by Truman R. Strobridge in Military History Magazine, December 1986.

Footnotes:

W.W.II Aces: Lilya Litvak
http://www.musketeers.org/Lilya.htm
Despite an intensive search by ground forces, her body was lost for several decades. Finally, in 1979, she was found, buried beneath the wing of her aircraft. During her official state funeral in May 1990, President Mikhail Gorbachev awarded her the Hero of the Soviet Union and a Gold Star. Though she fought in obscurity and died alone, Lilya Litvak left a shining legacy of courage, tenacity, and daring as an example to all of us.

Lilya Litvak - The “White Rose” of Stalingrad
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/litvak/litvak.htm
Her remains were found at last in 1979, buried under her fallen YaK-1’s wing, near the village of Dmitriyevka. Ten years later her body was recovered for an official burial; and in May 5, 1990 she was posthumously conferred the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by then Premier Mikhail Gorbachov.

Lydia Litvyak
(wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Litvyak
On August 1, 1943, Lydia’s Yak-1b fighter was shot down during combat, and she went missing. She was 21 years old. The authorities suspected that she might have been captured, so they decided not to award her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Only in 1979 was it determined that her aircraft had come down near Dmitrovka, a village in Shakhterski district and that she had been killed in action. After further verification, on May 6, 1990, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously awarded her Hero of the Soviet Union and promoted her to full lieutenant. It’s unclear if reported circumstances of her death are accurate.

The Search for Lilya Litvyak
http://users.pandora.be/stalingrad/russianpart/ruslitvyak.html
Reina Pennington is an American author who has long been intrigued with the
story of Lilya Litvyak and the role of the woman fighter pilot. In 1994 she
wrote an article entitled Wings, Woman & War for the NASM’s Air & Space
Magazine on these subjects. During her research she found that Litvyak’s
mechanic, Inna Pasportnikova, was long tormented by the question of how to
prove that Lilya was killed heroically and not taken into captivity. Her
quest lasted nearly 50 years. From the above article the following time line
is taken:

Mid August 1943:
Litvyak’s regiment, the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment nominates her
for the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, but the award was refused as her
body has never been found.

Summer 1946:
People search for Litvyak’s aircraft near the spot where she disappeared. It
is not found.

1946 - 1968:
Through correspondence and media Inna Pasportnikova establishes contact with
several groups of school children Pioneers who live in the Dombass region.
These groups offer to help search for unmarked graves, aircraft wreckage,
and other war relics that they dig by hand.

1968:
A newspaper wants to revive the appeal to award Litvyak with the Hero of the
Soviet Union medal. Request denied, body was still not found.

1971:
Inna Pasportnikova and Lilyas’ family search with the pioneers. In all, more
than 90 aircraft are found as well as the remains of many unidentified
pilots.

1979:
The pioneers find a crash site on a farm near Dmitrievka and are told that a
woman pilot had been buried there but then moved in July 1969 to a common
grave. The body is exhumed. The doctors can tell only that the pilot had
been a short woman and had sustained a head injury.

March 31, 1986:
Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense confirms that the woman pilot
who crashed near Dmitrievka had to be Litvyak.

1988:
Litvyak’s name is placed on the common grave. Her records are changed from
missing without trace to killed in action, 1 August 1943.

May 5, 1990:
Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev signs a document conferring the title of Hero of
the Soviet Union on Lilya Litvyak.

#66

Oh tnanks George very much for the infor.
I was wnated to firnd any infor about their love strory with Aleksej Solomatin but i could not.
This is qute amazing story if frienship and love.
This could be a great movie scenario.
Unfortinatelly our russians sinema directors/produsers unable to shoot nothing more better then the ugly parody for the second-sort holliwood scrap “the Nights watch” or quite unpatriotic “9 company” about afganistan war.
Bstards…:wink:

#67

My pleasure Chevan :wink:

Maybe Russian cinema directors/producers could form a joint venture with our American counterparts…perhaps someone like Clint Eastwood “Million Dollar Baby”, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”. It’s a thought :slight_smile:

Here are some more links on Soviet women pilots in WWII.

Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War
http://pratt.edu/~rsilva/sovwomen.htm

Marina Raskova and Soviet Female Pilots
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/raskov/raskov.htm

#68

Oh George - this is the ill theme
Nobody do not even wish to make a real cimena ( the level of thre Flag of fathers of Saving Raiyn).
Honestly speaking the few try to make a something - for instanse the film 'Star" about soviet special unit in the germans rear.Or last film “Peregon” about the american female pilots ( !!! that’s fun) who drive the lend lise Aircobra P-39 to the USSR through Suberia.Here the some of photos:
http://webtorg.narod.ru/wallpaper/film/peregon/photo-3.htm
BTW if it true and the buatifull american woman fly to the USSR - were they from WASP?:wink:

Here are more links on Soviet women pilots in WWII.

Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War
http://pratt.edu/~rsilva/sovwomen.htm

Marina Raskova and Soviet Female Pilots
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/raskov/raskov.htm

That’s great George

Here is small episode from the combat efforts of Lilya Litvyak. On 22 March 1943, Litvyak was attacked by four Messerschmitt Bf 109s over Khar’kov area. Litvyak managed to shoot down two of the German fighters, while driving off the rest. This aerial engagement coincided exactly with the only two German Bf 109s lost in the same area on this date. The two German fighter pilots shot down were Leutnant Franz Müller (Bf 109G-4, coded “BH + XB”) and Unteroffizier Karl-Otto Harloff (Bf 109G-2, coded “yellow 2”) of the 9th squadron, fighter wing 3 (9./JG 3). German records have each of these men, who both survived, being reported shot down by Russian fighters.

That good details of her combat biougaphy.
BTW there were the one mistake in you previous post in the scanned book - the Lilij never fly on the Yak-9. The 73 Regiment was re-armed of it ONLY in the 1944.
Lilij fought in the Yak-1b till the death.

Cheers.

#69

Some details of the death of Lidia in 1 august of 1943.
This infor i/ve foud in other forum
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=4242&highlight=Litvak

Was it real and Lilij rammed the FW of Hans-Jörg Merklebefor her death.
What’s amazing girl?!!!

#70

Chevan, thanks for the link to the Russian film “Peregon”. Great pics, too :slight_smile:

I found some information about WASP involvement in ferrying lend-lease aircraft to USSR. From what I’ve been able to gather, it looks like WASP’s did fly planes from the Bell factory at Niagara Falls, New York, and flew them to Great Falls, Montana. From there male pilots flew them through Canada to Alaska. Russian ferry pilots, many of them women, would take delivery of the aircraft in Alaska and fly them to the Soviet Union over the Bering Strait.

I thought that seemed strange in the story I scanned about Lilya Litvak. The Yak-9 did not match with any of the charts showing her kills and the aircraft that she flew (Yak-1 and Yak-1b).

Thanks also for your post with additional details surrounding her death on 1 Aug 1943 while flying her fourth sortie of the day. Interesting speculation… if she did ram Fw. Hans-Jörg Merkle’s (30-victory ace) plane after being hit. She was a fighter to the end.

Here is more on the WASP’s concerning your earlier question:

P-63 Kingcobra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-63_Kingcobra
Air Transport Command ferry pilots, including US women pilots of the WASP program, picked up the planes at the Bell factory at Niagara Falls, New York, and flew them to Great Falls, Montana and then onward via the Alaska-Siberia Route (ALSIB), through Canada, over Alaska where Russian ferry pilots, many of them women, would take delivery of the aircraft at Nome and fly them to the Soviet Union over the Bering Strait. 2,397 such aircraft were delivered, out of the total 3,303 production aircraft (72.6%).

ALSIB Alaskan/Siberian Ferry Route
http://books.google.com/books?id=A9QXxo-MeUEC&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq="air+transport+command"+women+ferry+pilots+siberia&source=web&ots=V_Bn4De-Dc&sig=whBlAjPh1VkmJpN4baUQMKs08_s

Ladd Field
ALSIB Lend-Lease and the Air Transport Command
http://www.usarak.army.mil/conservation/WWII_LaddField/Ch5.pdf

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:U_EeCLVDONMJ:www.usarak.army.mil/conservation

From 1942 to 1945, Ladd Field had a special mission. The airfield served as the official transfer point where American aircraft were turned over to the Soviet military on a back-door air route to the Russian war front known as the Alaska-Siberia (ALSIB) route. This complex transfer operation soon transformed Ladd Field into a busy bilingual air traffic hub with new personnel, facilities, and command structure. The Air Transport Command eventually took command of the field to support the Lend-Lease deliveries and other ATC responsibilities in the Alaska Theater.

From the footnotes:

The route began in Great Falls, and had landing fields in Alberta at Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton, and Grande Prairie; in British Columbia at Dawson Creek, Ft. St. John, and Ft. Nelson; in the Yukon Territory at Watson Lake and Whitehorse; and in Alaska at Northway, Tanacross, Big Delta, and Fairbanks. The ALSIB route combined the Northwest Staging Route, flown by U.S. pilots, with western Alaskan and Siberian segments flown by Soviet pilots. Soviet flyers took the route from Fairbanks, Galena, Moses Point, and Nome on to Uel’kal, Markovo, Siemchan, Yakutsk, Kirensk, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk.

The ATC was originally known as the Ferry Command. Women pilots in the WASP corps did not ferry aircraft along the northwest route during the war but did participate in ferrying aircraft from the factories to the departure point at Great Falls.

Precise figures of aircraft vary slightly according to source. Figures given at Ladd Field were 7,926 total ferried aircraft departures, broken down as: 2,618 P-39; 48 P-40; 3 P-47; 2,397 P-63; 1,363 A-20; 732 B-25; 710 C-47; 54 AT-6; 1 C-46. Monthly Historical Report, 1466thAAF Base Unit, September 1945. Microfilm AO177, Elmendorf AFB History Office. Also see Daniel L. Haulman, “The Northwest Ferry Route,” in Fern Chandonnet, ed. Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered (Anchorage: Alaska at War Committee, 1995), 324.

Further Reading:

Blitzkrieg Baby
http://www.blitzkriegbaby.de/

This page is dedicated to all women who served during WWII and helped to win the war against the enemies of freedom and democracy.

http://www.blitzkriegbaby.de/homepage.htm
http://www.blitzkriegbaby.de/wasp/wasp.htm

Close-up of WASP mascot Fifinella, the
“good” little gremlin (design by Disney)

Women Airforce Service Pilots
Killed in Service (Part 1)
(Part 1 - March 7, 1943 to April 25, 1944)
http://wwii-women-pilots.org/WASP_KIA/38KIA.html

Women Airforce Service Pilots
Killed in Service (Part 2)
(Part 2 - June 11, 1944 to December 9, 1944)
http://wwii-women-pilots.org/WASP_KIA/38KIA2.html

WASP on the Web
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
Remembered by those who knew them
http://wwii-women-pilots.org/

Women Airforce Service Pilots
http://www.twu.edu/wasp/
http://www.twu.edu/wasp/history.htm
http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/fifi.htm
Photo Galleries:
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/avenger_field.htm
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/flying_training.htm
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/ground_school.htm
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/graduation.htm
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/leaders.htm
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/photo/assignments.htm
1944 Records:
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/records.htm
Paper Doll
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/paperdoll/paperdoll1.html

More WASP Links:
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/wasp/links/index.htm

#71

Oh thanks George again, really good stuff abiut theme.
So our bold girls from WASP participated in ferrying of the P-39 to the Suberia.
Good new. However they fly only untill the Montana.
And this is the news for me that the soviet pilots ferryed the P-39 through the Bering Strait. I thought the Americans did it ttill the Suberia;)

Soviet flyers took the route from Fairbanks, Galena, Moses Point, and Nome on to Uel’kal, Markovo, Siemchan, Yakutsk, Kirensk, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk.

So as i supposed the film “Peregon” lie about girls - the WASP pilots never fly till the Syberia and lie about american pilots in Syberia at all.
Or am i wrong?

#72

Sad to say Chevan, but that appears to be the case. Unless I have missed something.

It looks like historical accuracy has been sacrificed for the sake of “entertainment” in typical Hollywood fashion. The scenario for the movie might have been more plausible if the setting had been reversed - American men stationed in Alaska make romantic advances on beautiful Soviet women arriving to fly lend-lease aircraft back to Siberia. :wink:

#73

Yea George , seems you right.
The real scenario should been reversed - the Americans should make the romantic advances with the soviet pilots-girls.
As i said yoy - those idiots-directors-produsers even do not try to shoot the REAL movie ( that could be seriouse-wathing)