Antonina Zubkova

Antonina Zubkova (Антонина Зубкова) was a captain in the 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment of the 4th Bomber Guards Aviation Division, 1st Bomber Aviation Corps, 3rd Air Army, 1st Baltic Front, during World War II. For her service in the military she was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August 1945.

Civilian life
Zubkova was born on 12 October 1920 to a Russian peasant family in the city of Semion in the Ryazan district of the Russian SFSR. After secondary school she transferred to the mathematics department of Moscow State University in 1938.

Military career
When three all-female aviation regiments were founded by Marina Raskova in October 1941, the faculty of the university recommended Zubkova join one of the regiments as a navigator because of her background in mathematics. She joined the military in 1941 and went through navigation training at Engels; the course normally lasted three years but because of the war the time was shortened to three months.

Throughout the course of the war Zubkova fought mostly on the Baltic and East Prussia fronts as well in Stalingrad, Kuban, Crimea, and Belorussia, flying combat sorties as navigator in a Petlyakov-2 with squadron commander Nadezhda Fedutenko, who was also awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She made over 50 sorties in the war.

Later life
After the war, she joined the reserve, and on 18 August 1945 she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union along with her colleague Fedutenko and three other members of her regiment. She returned to her studies at Moscow State University, graduating in 1948, afterwards teaching at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. She committed suicide on 13 November 1950 and was buried in the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.

Awards

 * Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Order of Lenin
 * Two Orders of the Red Banner
 * Order of the Red Star
 * Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"