Anna Yegorova

Anna Yegorova
Anna Yegorova
	Senior Lieutenant
Unit	130th Air Liaison Squadron (1941–1942); 805th Attack Aviation Regiment (1943–1944)
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union

Anna Alexandrovna Timofeyeva-Yegorova (

Second World War. She flew a total of 277 sorties that included liaison, reconnaissance and ground-attack missions before she became a prisoner-of-war when her Il-2 was shot down. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union

in 1965.

Early years

Post of Russia

, 2016.

Anna Yegorova was born into a

First World War as well as the Russian Civil War as a Bolshevist. Combat stress and other hardships deteriorated his health, and in 1925 he died at 49 years of age.^[1]

After seven years of school,[2] Yegorova joined Mosmetrostroy, where she worked as a steelman, and then as a tiler on the construction of Krasnye Vorota station. Her construction job allowed her to study at the Mosmetrostroy aeroclub.^[3]

In 1938, she was recommended to attend the Ulyanovsk flight school, but was soon expelled due to her brother's arrest as an "enemy of the people".^[3]

After her expulsion, Yegorova worked as a

bookkeeper's assistant at a weaving factory in Smolensk, while tutoring members of the factory's aero club.^[4] She was then sent to attend the Kherson flight school, which she graduated from in 1939. Soon afterward, Yegorova became a flight instructor for the Kalinin municipal aero club.^[4]

Military career

After the start of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR by Germany, Yegorova volunteered for combat service. From 1941 to 1942, Yegorova flew 236 reconnaissance and delivery missions for the 130th Air Liaison Squadron in a Polikarpov Po-2, and was subsequently awarded the Order of the Red Banner for distinguished service.^[2]

After an

aircrash, which was determined to be pilot error, Yegorova was transferred to a training air regiment. In 1943, Yegorova was transferred to the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment and flew 41 missions in the Ilyushin Il-2. These missions included the battles above the Taman Peninsula, Crimea, and Poland.^[5]

During a mission on 22 August 1944, while in an attack formation of ten aircraft over the Magnuszew bridgehead near Warsaw, Yegorova's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire.^[6] Her gunner, Yevdokiya "Dusya" Alekseyevna Nazarkina was killed in the attack.^[7] With her gunner killed, and the plane heavily damaged, Yegorova exited the aircraft while the plane was inverted, and suffered serious thermal burns. Yegorova's parachute only partially opened, and she was seriously wounded again upon landing.^[8]

Yegorova was captured by the

German Army and taken to a prisoner of war camp where her wounds were treated by Dr. Georgy Sinyakov.^[9] Back at her air base, Yegorova was presumed dead and was recommended for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but she did not receive the title until 1965.^[10]

On 31 January 1945, Soviet forces overran the

NKVD filtration camp for returning Soviet prisoners.^[9] Eventually, she was released from custody, but was discharged into the reserve soon after.^[11]