Rokossovsky considered that Sokov and the others would soon launch an attack on the Germans, and the work of replenishing their air power went very smoothly.
That night, Colonel Nemtsevich, commander of the Fighter Aviation Division, reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I have good news for you. The two fighter squadrons assigned to us by our superiors have all arrived at the field airport.
"
"What, the additional fighter squadron has arrived." After hearing Nemtsevich's report, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed: "This way you don't have to worry about a shortage of aircraft when fighting enemy planes."
"Comrade Commander, you and I think you are too optimistic." Colonel Nemtsevich said somewhat gloomily: "I think the two new squadrons may not have much combat effectiveness?"
"No fighting capacity?" Henry asked in surprise: "Comrade Colonel, why do you say that?"
"When I learned that my superiors had sent us two fighter squadrons, I was very happy, but what I didn't expect was a group of women."
"A group of women?" Sokov heard Nemtsevich say this and couldn't help but curiously asked: "What is the name of their commander?"
"The leader of the first squadron is Captain Raisa, and the leader of the second squadron is Lieutenant Lilia."
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov almost jumped with excitement when he heard Nemtsevich's order. He warned the other party: "I tell you, these female pilots have rich combat experience.
In the battle to defend Stalingrad, they established immortal merits. Your superiors transferred them to you because they believed in their abilities. I remind you that you must not discriminate against them, otherwise I will recommend that your superiors revoke your position as division commander. Understand.
?"
Although Sokov's tone was stern, Nemtsevich said unconvinced: "Comrade Commander, I have never heard of any female pilots, so I still doubt their level.
.”
"Colonel Nemtsevich, Captain Raisa and Lieutenant Lilia have fought alongside me. I know their abilities very well." Sokov said to Nemtsevich: "
Especially Lieutenant Lilia, she participated in the first battle and shot down one Messerschmitt-109 fighter and one Junkers-88 bomber, becoming the first woman in the world to shoot down an enemy aircraft.
She also shot down a Messerschmitt-109 fighter piloted by a German ace pilot. The pilot of the fighter was a lieutenant of the 3rd German Fighter Wing and had a record of 35 air combat victories. After being captured, he proposed
He wanted to see the opponent who shot him down. When he saw a petite, young and beautiful girl standing in front of him, he refused to believe that this was the person who shot him down.
Because her name has a similar pronunciation to the Russian word lily, her comrades affectionately call her Lily. She painted a lily on each side of the fuselage of the plane she was flying. The Germans mistakenly thought lilies were roses, so
They all call her the 'White Rose of Stalingrad'."
"What? Comrade Commander, what did you just say?" Hearing what Sokov said, Nechepolenko couldn't help being stunned: "She is actually the legendary 'White Rose over Stalingrad'. It's simply
It’s incredible.”
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov reminded him, thinking that Lilia seemed to have been injured once during this period, "Lieutenant Lilia is a precious asset of your air force. I order you to take care of her as you would your own eyes."
We must not let her be in any danger. Do you understand?"
"Comrade Commander, it's hard to say." Nechepolenko heard Sokov's order and said with some embarrassment: "You also know that whether you can survive in an air battle depends entirely on your personal skills.
Tactical proficiency and air combat ability. If she is unlucky, no matter how many planes I send to protect her, it may not help."
Nechepolenko's words made Sokov realize that he was a bit too whimsical. Air combat is no better than land combat, and there are too many uncertain factors. If Lilia's plane is destined to be shot down, no matter how many planes are sent to protect her,
, I’m afraid it won’t have any effect, everything depends on her luck.
After Sokov put down the phone, he heard Vitkov on the side asking excitedly: "Comrade Commander, are we Lily here?"
"Yes." Sokov knew that it was the Germans who called Lilia White Rose, but the Soviet commanders still liked to call her Lily. And Witkov had dealt with Lilia before, and now he knew that his old friend was here again.
Fighting side by side with him, he couldn't help but feel a little happy: "Lieutenant Lilia has now become a squadron leader."
Runev was not familiar with Lilia. Seeing that Sokov and Vitkov were talking happily about a female pilot, he asked curiously: "Who are you talking about?"
"A young female pilot." Seeing that Runev didn't know about Lilia, Sokov told Runev in detail the results Lilia had achieved in the battle to defend Stalingrad, and finally said:
"Although she is young, she has achieved a lot of achievements. If she can live to the day of victory, I think she might become a general."
After hearing what Sokov said, Vitkov said weakly: "But our army has never had a female general."
"It didn't happen before, but it doesn't mean there won't happen in the future." Sokov said with a smile: "Maybe Lilia can become the first female general of our army."
"Comrade Commander, how do you plan to arrange them?" Lunev asked, "Are you going to let them fight German pilots like male pilots?"
"Needless to say, Comrade Military Commissar." Sokov asked in surprise: "In war, there is only the difference between soldiers and civilians. From the day they put on military uniforms, they are no longer simple
A woman is a soldier, a soldier who can sacrifice his life at any time to defend the motherland."
After hearing this, Lunev nodded and said: "Comrade Commander, you are right. After hearing what you said, I can't wait to see this amazing female pilot."
"Comrade Military Commissar, the field airport is not far from us anyway." Sokov said to Lunev: "If you have time, you can always go over and take a look at this amazing female pilot."
Besides, after Lilia led the fighter squadron to the field airport, she only rested for two or three hours before taking off and rushed to the traffic line to fight with the enemy fighter group.
There were three German fighter jets. After they shot down one Soviet bomber, they were attacking the remaining three. When four Soviet fighter jets were discovered, two fighter jets immediately left the Soviet bombers and headed towards the new area.
The incoming fighter squadron pounced.
Even though Lilia was a woman, she became the ace pilot of the Soviet Army because of her repeated military exploits. Looking at the two enemy planes coming towards her, she ignored them at all and let the other three deal with them.
She rushed directly towards the enemy plane that was chasing the bomber.
The enemy planes that were chasing the bombers never expected that Lilia would ignore the enemy planes that were attacking them, and instead pounced directly on them. The German pilots had just locked onto a bomber in front of them, and before he could pull the trigger,
He pulled the trigger and suddenly felt the fuselage shake. Based on his experience, he knew that his plane had been hit. He quickly turned around to see where the plane that attacked him came from.
At this moment, Lilia aimed at the cockpit and pulled the trigger again. A series of bullets hit the cockpit accurately, beating the pilot in the cockpit into pieces. At the last moment of his life, the German pilot saw clearly
There were lilies painted on the side of Lilia's plane, and he murmured: "White roses..."
Before he finished shouting, his vision went dark, and then the plane lost control and dived towards the ground. After dozens of seconds, the plane plunged into the ground, the fuselage quickly caught fire, and not long after, something earth-shattering happened.
explode.
The two enemy planes in the sky were quite puzzled when they saw their companions being shot down. They knew very well how good the opponent was. Even if they wanted to win two against one, they would have to go through a lot of troubles. How could it be possible?
Why did the plane crash in such a short period of time? Could it be that the Russians sent their ace pilot here?
After Lilia shot down the enemy plane, she made a big circle in the air and rushed towards the two surviving enemy planes. A German pilot who was fighting with the Soviet fighter suddenly saw Lily on the fuselage.
, suddenly shouted as if he had seen a ghost: "Damn it, it's the White Rose of Stalingrad, it's the White Rose of Stalingrad..."
After uttering a series of wails, the German pilots dared not continue fighting. They quickly left their companions behind and turned the plane's nose to fly towards the west.
The pilot of the remaining enemy plane did not hear clearly what his companion was shouting, but when he saw him turning around and running away towards the airport as if he had seen a ghost, he immediately realized that something was wrong. Just before he
When he was about to turn around and escape, Lilia's wingman, Second Lieutenant Katya, had already fired a series of bullets at him, hitting the right wing and causing the fuselage to shake violently several times.
Fortunately, this pilot had rich experience. Although the fuselage was shot, he quickly stabilized the plane, turned around and got rid of Katya who rushed towards him, and prepared to retreat towards the airport like his companions.
But he soon discovered that the Soviet plane that shot down his companion was heading towards him. He saw the lilies on the fuselage clearly at a glance, and he immediately understood that he had met the legendary "Stalin"
"White Rose of Gullah", no wonder a companion with such good skills was shot down after a single encounter.
He tried to pull up the plane, but the oncoming plane had already opened fire first. The bullet hit the mailbox of the plane, causing the German plane to explode in the air. The pilot did not even have a chance to parachute, and the flaming plane fragments followed.
, scattered like a goddess scattering flowers.
When Lilia's fighter squadron returned to the field airport, Colonel Nemtsevich was surprised. He thought something had happened. Otherwise, how could the fighter squadron that had just launched return to the airport so quickly?
He got into the open jeep next to the runway, and after Lilia's plane landed and stopped, he immediately ordered the driver to drive over. He came to Lilia's plane, stood up straight, raised his head and asked Lili who had just opened the hatch.
Ya: "Comrade Lieutenant, what happened? Why did your plane come back so soon?"
Lilia and the others were thrown into battle not long after they arrived. Naturally, they did not have the contact code of the airport, so they could not report the battle report to Colonel Nemtsevich in time. When they heard the other party asked, they quickly straightened up and answered: "
Reporting to comrade the division commander, two of the three enemy fighter jets were shot down by our squadron, and the remaining one fled back to their airport in a hurry."
"What, you shot down two enemy planes and the remaining one escaped?" Hearing Lilia say this, Colonel Nemtsevich felt a little dizzy. Fortunately, he held on to the windshield in front of him in time.
The glass prevented him from falling into the car. He asked tentatively: "Since you shot down the enemy plane, why didn't you report it to me in time?"
"Comrade Colonel," Lilia said with a bit of laughter and tears upon hearing Nemtsevich's question: "Our squadron just transferred here today, and we didn't even know the contact code of the field airport, so we hurriedly took off for combat. How can we report to the enemy?"
Do you want to report the battle?"
After resolving the misunderstanding, Colonel Nemtsevich quickly ordered Lilia and her men to be sent to a nearby shelter to rest. After doing all this, he ran back to the headquarters and called Sokov: "Commander
Comrade Communist Party member, you are absolutely right."
"What did I say that was too true?" Sokov asked with a confused look on his face.
"You told me not long ago that Lieutenant Lilia had made immortal achievements in the defense of Stalingrad." Colonel Nemtsevich apologized to Sokov: "I thought you were exaggerating at the time.
No matter how capable a group of women are, how effective can they be on a battlefield dominated by men? But now I realize that I was wrong, and very wrong. You are absolutely right."
Sokov was confused by Nemtsevich's words. He asked in confusion: "Comrade Colonel, please explain clearly, what happened? You talked so nonsense for a long time, but I said
I didn’t even understand.”
"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was so excited that I was a little incoherent." After Nemtsevich apologized to Sokov, he got back to the subject: "You also know that in order to cover the bomber squadrons that bombed the transportation lines, we often
We need to send out a fighter squadron to deal with the German fighter jets. Not long ago, our bomber formation was attacked by enemy bombers. I immediately ordered Lieutenant Lilia's second squadron to attack to drive away the enemy fighter jets."
"Then what?"
"Then Lieutenant Lilia took her squadron to attack. But not long after, they suddenly returned." Nemtsevich said: "I thought they were not familiar with the terrain and returned because they got lost, so I personally
I went over to inquire and found out that they had shot down two enemy planes and drove away the remaining one. Oh my God, you know, it only took less than half an hour from the time they launched the attack to the time they returned.