When
I visited Ukraine in October 2002, I
had two goals. One was to meet a couple of female Heroines of the
Soviet Union, and the other was to see the memorial
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AT
TOP OF PAGE: A closeup of the Litvyak monument. ABOVE: Author
Henry Sakaida poses in front of the monument for Lydia Litvyak
in Krasny Luch, Ukraine. |
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dedicated
to the female Soviet fighter ace Lydia Litvyak.
I wanted to meet the Heroines because I was working on a book for
Osprey Publications (now to be published in May of this year under
the title Heroines of the Soviet Union) and needed additional
information. As for the Litvyak Memorial, I once saw a photo of
it over 20 years ago and vowed that someday, I would go and see
it.
On October 20th, I had the pleasure of meeting Guards Maj Mariya
Dolina, the Heroine who flew the Pe-2 bomber, at her apartment in
Kiev. When she asked about my plans for the rest of my stay in Ukraine,
I told her that I was on my way to Krasny Luch in Eastern Ukraine.
She asked me why I was going there, and I answered: "There
is a statue of the famous female fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak there
"
And with that, she exclaimed "Lydia! We were best friends!"
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early
image of Lydia Litvyak in winter flying gear. |
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The
good major, scheduled for a surgical operation in a few days, made
my friend Sergey Tumasyan and I promise to place a bouquet of flowers
at the base of the memorial. She told us that it had to be a certain
white daisy, which the female pilots just loved (continued)
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