Within the cockpit of her Yakovlev Yak-1, it’s possible that most of Lydia Litvyak’s enemies had little idea that it was a woman that would be their downfall. In a men-dominated field, Lydia Litvyak was as deadly a fighter pilot as any. 

Her career was short but bright, and even after her death, she would go down in history as one of the most influential Russian pilots of all time. 

Lydia was the first woman to shoot down an enemy aircraft, but she was more than just the records she held. Before the war, Lydia was an accomplished flight instructor in her own right, and once she took to the skies as an aerial ace for Russia, her talent was swiftly recognized. 

Let’s look a little deeper into the life of Lydia Litvyak–not just her life as a pilot, but as a woman, too. 

Lydia Litvyak’s Early Life

Born in Moscow, Lydia lost her father early in her life to the Great Purge orchestrated by Joseph Stalin. He was arrested and considered an enemy of the people, and this might have been the catalyst for his daughter Lydia to become desperate to clear her family name. 

At the age of 14, Lydia discovered her interest in aviation and joined a flying club. It wasn’t long until she was embarking on her first solo flight at just 15 years of age.

After her first solo flight, Lydia attended and graduated from the Kherson military flying school, and became a flight instructor. World War II was close on the horizon, and by the time Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Lydia had already trained dozens of pilots on her own. 

This made her ideal to volunteer for the Russian military’s first female aviation regiment, the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Air Defense Force, which had been formed by another influential female Soviet pilot, Marina Raskova.

Her passion for flying and her intense patriotism that had spawned from her father’s reputation as an enemy of the people should have made her an easy choice, but at first, she was rejected for lack of experience. 

Frustrated, Lydia applied a second time, this time fudging the numbers and adding another 100 hours to her flight time. With the extra hours, she was accepted into the all-female regiment in 1941. 

Lydia Litvyak in World War II

Once a part of the women’s regiment, Lydia trained to fly on the Yakovlev Yak-1, a quick and deadly fighter plane. Lydia would fly this sort of fighter plane for the rest of her time in the war. 

In 1941, she flew her first combat missions. These missions were mainly for defense, and her success in them led her and a few of the other women in her regiment to be transferred to a male regiment near Stalingrad. 

This regiment, known as the 437th Fighter Aviation Regiment, needed help, and Lydia was more than happy to offer her expertise. Strong-willed and brash, Lydia Litvyak showed little fear in battle, and this led to her gaining her first two kills on the 13th of September, only 3 days after she had first arrived. 

The story goes that Litvyak first shot down a Junker Ju 88, which fell from the sky, burning all the way down. Her second kill was a Messerschmitt Bf 109G, one of the most dangerous fighter planes being flown at the time, which was piloted by a decorated German pilot.

The pilot managed to parachute from the falling Bf 109G and was captured by Soviet soldiers once he landed. 

He asked to see the “Russian ace” who managed to take him down, and when Lydia was brought before him, the German pilot first thought he was being made fun of. Lydia quickly changed his mind, though, recounting step by step how their aerial battle had gone

She and the other women who had joined her in the men’s regiment stayed for a short time more, but eventually, Lydia would take on another position–that of a free hunter.