Guest Post: Genossin Erin/My Little Sister's Heroine

Hello all.

As you may know, I am the proud sibling of a rather remarkable young woman of only ten years of age, who is a sweet, caring, often macabre, musical, and all around interesting little swimming ace, who is beginning to learn how wonderful it can be when someone stands up for what they believe in.  (She's not quite a Socialist yet but I'm working on that part).  I'd like to offer you her account of Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak, first woman fighter ace and Soviet War heroine in the Great Patriotic War.  Remember, this came from a ten-year-old's pen, so be impressed.

Genossinnen und Genossen- my little sister, Erin Lamping!

   Lidiya Litvyak

                                       By: Erin Kehle Lamping

The first thing I want you to do is to think. Think about this: have you ever thought about how pilots, fighter pilots, or even women fighter pilots have made a difference? I ask you this because I am about to tell you about an outstanding woman fighter pilot, who goes on outstanding adventures, does outstanding things, and is outstandingly beautiful.  Her name is Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak. One reason this person is probably unfamiliar to you is because she is from Moscow, Russia. Lidiya Litvyak was born on August 18, 1921. Her parents were Vladimir and Anna. When Lily was only considered the “little girl in the window with the big red bow in her hair,” her wide imagination would grow every time she listened to her mother’s songs and stories.  Lily became the first and highest scoring female air-ace of all time.

I guess you could say that Lily had a fairly interesting childhood. I encourage you to read more to find out about Lily.  When she was very young, her brother Yuriy came into the world. Her family was Jewish and lived in Russia which was under the horrible leadership of Joseph Stalin. I hate to mention this horrible man, but he did play a role in Liliya’s life. (Liliya is Lidiya’s well-known nick-name.) When Lily was a child, her father was arrested and killed by the police. Why the police?  You may ask. This is why; since Stalin was such a horrible person, he sent out the police to arrest and kill random people and Liliya’s father just happened to be one of the many unlucky people arrested and killed by Stalin’s police. I find this crazy, and you may to, but since Stalin was the leader of “Stalingrad”, he was considered the father of Russia. To add to that, he is not even Russian!  Stalin invented the 5 year plan for transition. This included a summer camp that had different age levels. One group was called the Little Oktoberists for ages 7-9. It was called Little Oktoberists to commemorate the Russian Revolution. Liliya joined in 1928 when she was 7. She later joined the Young Pioneer group which was for older children in the 5 year plan. When she was 13 years old and still in the Young Pioneer group, the Moscow Metro was built. The Young Pioneers were in the parade for the new train. Liliya was one of the lucky pioneers that got to be in the parade. Having never seen anything like this train in her life, Liliya paid 50 kopecks to take one ride on the new form of transportation.  Lily had a very interesting childhood…hence, I must write more.

I promise you that part two of her childhood will be just as exciting as the first…just not as long. One of Liliya’s good friends was by the name of Nina. Nina was a bright young journalist who wrote about practically EVERYTHING in her journal. Lidiya’s beloved family lived on Novaslobodskaya Street in an apartment that contained only 2 rooms. As a child, this young-at-heart girl LOVED to watch plane shows. She would stare up at the sky in awe as the skilled pilots zipped overhead. Moscow had several flying clubs for the young ones that were eager to learn to fly. When Liliya was 14, she tried to get into a flying club, but was not let in. I do not know for sure why, but it very well could have been because of her age.  I do know that when she was 15, she was accepted. Once she got in a plane, it seemed like she had been flying her whole life. While still 15, she started teaching others to fly planes. So I guess you could say that Lily’s love of flying was the tip of the huge iceberg.

             Since I have merged Lily’s childhood and her young adult life, I will now tell you about her career which took up the rest of her life. This young lady took flight in a beautiful Yak-1 during the raging battles of World War II, in which she was known as the “White Rose of Stalingrad.” Yak-1s at that time were slower and less maneuverable than the German planes. Now I do assume that most of you know that men who joined one of the armed forces had to cut their hair to the appropriate length, right? Well, so did all of the brave young women that dared to join. Yep. Short as the men, and I do speak the truth. Did Lily cut her hair? Oh no, not this young lady. She was far too passionate about her hair to cut one inch off. No siree. Luckily, the army people let her have her way. If they had not, they would have had a very unhappy fighter pilot on their hands. This young, long-haired fighter pilot was one of the brave women that joined the all-woman fighter pilot group called, The Red Falcons. The Red Falcons were led by the fighter pilot, Marina Raskova, a wonderful person that in fact, had had her picture carried in the backpack of a bright young girl named Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak. Operation Barbarossa was the code name of the Nazis’ Invasion of the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of Stalingrad. Lily fought in this battle. Now let me tell you that she had quite a busy Soviet Air-Force career…hence I continue to write…

Now even though we all want to think that Lily never had any close calls and was never shot down; she did and she was. She had quite a few close calls, and was shot down at least two times. Since you are probably dying to hear one of her close calls, I will gladly tell you. One day, Lily was flying on one of her fighting missions, when one of those blasted Nazis came into the picture…no, there were six. Yes, you heard me, six planes were following the legendary White Rose of Stalingrad. So I bet you cannot guess what this young fighter did. Well, she stood her plane on its tail, and shot straight up into the clear blue sky. As the six planes in pursuit of the White Rose of Stalingrad stared dumbstruck at the sky, Lily dove straight down and shot at one of the planes. She managed to take it down, and possibly another, but we are not sure. After seeing one of their mischievous comrades get shot, the other five bailed themselves out and managed to avoid getting shot. Lily had taken one shot in the leg, yet she had managed to pull off a miraculous accomplishment. And even though you have probably just heard one of the most thrilling adventure stories, every hero has their failures, too. One time Lily was looking for another one of her prey, when, out of the blue, she was shot. Again, shot in the leg. This time she was shot down and due to her unfortunate injury, she could not move. So she was stuck in an open field until someone came to get her. At one point, she could actually hear the Nazi soldiers coming for her! Eventually her kind-hearted mechanic, Inna, swooped in and picked Lily up. Now you are hearing just the good and the bad about her. But this girl had some pretty funny habits. For example, after a successful mission, she would fly really close to the ground, swoop up, and do acrobatics. As you can imagine, this completely enraged her commander, but Lily did not care. Also, if she had just flown an aircraft that a man fighter pilot would fly next, she would leave a fresh bouquet of flowers in the cockpit. So as you can see, Lily did have a very interesting career.

In case you have not noticed, Lily had  many accomplishments. For instance; the first plane she shot down was a Junkers Ju 88. She scored this on September 13, 1942. In total, she scored 14 planes by herself and 6 more with the help of another human being. She earned 2 patriotic war medals - each one is for shooting down 6 planes, the highest award for valor, 1 HSU award - for scoring 10 planes, and the red star - for being a hero of the Soviet Union. You must admit that she was quite a hero…correct? Now, I think we all know that if you are not immortal, you will eventually die. Yes, Lily was a mortal, and yes, she did sadly die.  I tell you that she died for a very good purpose. On August 1, 1943, this Lily of a fighter died. She and a few comrades were surrounded by quite a few planes when she decided that no matter what, she would not make it out alive. She used all of the horse-power in her yak-1 and rammed her plane into the closest opposing plane, and managed to take it down, but she was killed herself while completing this task. Her friends were able to get away. Lily was not.  She sacrificed herself for her friends.

As you probably noticed, Lily made a HUGE DIFFERENCE. For example; she was the first woman fighter ace, which means that a pilot has shot down 5 planes. She sacrificed herself for her friends. In Russia, Lily remains a well-revered heroine. In conclusion, Lily is one of those people who made a difference, but whom we don’t hear about. I hope you now know a little about Lily.

 -END-

I was very proud to have Erin as my sister when I saw how well she's beginning to develop as a writer, and even more so to watch her growing interest in women's history.  Hope you all see why

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.