On This Date, Aug 1, 1943

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Exactly 76 years ago, on August 1, 1943, Lidya Litvyak disappeared. She was the greatest (by number of victories) of the two only female fighter pilots "ace" of history. I used the verb "disappear" not by chance. In fact - even if Wikipedia and several books gives her for dead on that day - in reality there is no certainty about her desappearance. Indeed, something is certain, and it is that Litvyak did not return to the base that day, after being attacked by the Messerschmitt Bf 109s of the Luftwaffe, on the Mius River, in the south-eastern Ukraine, where a bloody battle was underway on the German defensive line that ran along that river. The official Soviet (first) version and Russian later, is that she was killed in combat (an indispensable condition for recognizing her as Hero of the USSR), but there is strong evidence that she survived. Having explored her last battlefield for years around Dmitryevka and questioned the locals, I can say - with reasonable certainty - that Litvyak survived, was imprisoned and, once freed, rebuilt a new life in the West. A film story or - at least - for a song...

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