Raisa Belyayeva

Raisa Vasilyevna Belyayeva
Native name Раиса Васильевна Беляева
Nickname(s) Raya
Born 25 December 1912
Kirov, Kirov Oblast
Died 19 July 1943
Allegiance Soviet Union Soviet Union
Service/branch Soviet Air Forces
Years of service 1941–1943
Unit 586th Fighter Regiment
437th Fighter regiment
Battles/wars World War II

Raisa Vasil'evna Beliaeva was one of the first Russian female fighter pilots. She fought alongside Lydia Litvyak and was credited with three aerial victories. She died in combat, from causes unknown, in 1943.[1]

Early life

Belyayeva attended a technical institute for tanners in Kirov. After graduation she asked her old friend Olga Yamshchikova, a Leningrad flight instructor, to teach her to fly. Belyayeva soon proved herself an enthusiastic and indefatigable alumna. Before the war, she accumulated more than a 1,000 hours flight time and a hundred parachute jumps, instructing hundreds of parachutists.[2] She also took part in many airshows over Tushino airfield, near Moscow.[2]

Military career

She took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and flew as an escort pilot for Khrushchev.[3]

Belyayeya died in a crash on July 19, 1943.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Milanetti 2011, pp. 105-106.
  2. 1 2 Milanetti 2011, p. 106.
  3. 1 2 Pennington, Reina (2003). Amazons to Fighter Pilots - A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (Volume Two). Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 522–523. ISBN 0-313-32708-4.

Bibliography

  • Cottam, Kazimiera Janina. Women in War and Resistance – Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers. Newburyport MA, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. 1998. ISBN 1-58510-160-5.
  • Milanetti, Gian Piero (2013). Soviet Airwomen of the Great Patriotic War - A pictorial history. Istituto Bibliografico Napoleone, Rome, Italy. ISBN 9788875651466.
  • Milanetti, Gian Piero (2011). Le Streghe della Notte: La storia non detta delle eroiche ragazze-pilota dell'Unione Sovietica nella Grande Guerra Patriottica (in Italian). Istituto Bibliografico Napoleone, Roma, Italia. ISBN 88-7565-100-0.
  • Pennington, Reina (1997). Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1554-7.
  • Sakaida, Henry (2003). Heroines of the Soviet Union: 1941-45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-598-3.
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