Defending the Homeland: Women Pilots of the Great Patriotic War

In the air unit created by Marina Raskova, men did not serve. Everyone in the crew—including the fliers, navigators, and technicians—was a woman: former students, workers from factories and plants, as well as graduates of aeroclubs who went through the entire path of the war to victory. Lyubov Vinogradova, studying archives and memoirs and communicating with participants of the events and their relatives, created a unique historical and documentary work. The book tells in detail and with feeling about extraordinary women for whom the war became the main event in their lives. Many of them faced a short and tragic fate, yet they gave their lives to save their beloved Motherland.