Anna Yegorova

Lt. Anna Alexandrovna Timofeyeva-Yegorova (Анна Александровна Тимофеева-Егорова; September 23, 1916 – October 29, 2009) was a pilot in the Red Army Air Force (VVS) during the Second World War. She learned to fly and became a flight instructor before the war, then volunteered for the front when Germany invaded. In 1941–42, she flew reconnaissance and delivery missions for the 130th Air Liaison Squadron in a wooden biplane, the Polikarpov Po-2. After being shot down, she transferred in 1943 to the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment and flew more than 270 missions in the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik, including battles above the Taman Peninsula, Crimea and Poland.

During an August 1944 mission to destroy German forces at the Magnuszew bridgehead near Warsaw, Yegorova's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Her tail gunner was killed, and the plane was heavily damaged and crashed. Rolling inverted, Yegorova was burned as she left the plane at a low altitude; her parachute only partially opened and she suffered broken bones and other internal injuries on hitting the ground. She was given first aid by the German captors, then taken to a prisoner of war camp where her wounds were tended by Dr. Georgy Sinyakov. Back at her air base, Yegorova was presumed dead and 'posthumously' granted the status of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On January 31, 1945, Yegorova was liberated after Soviet forces overran the Kustrin prisoner camp where she was being held. Yegorova was interrogated as a potential traitor continuously for eleven days at a filtration camp for returning Soviet prisoners. After others vouched for her injuries and her conduct, she was released but invalided out of the Soviet Air Forces for medical reasons in 1945.

Yegorova was the subject of a feature article in the Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1961, and in 1965, she was finally awarded her Hero of the Soviet Union medal.

Honours and awards

 * Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Order of Lenin
 * Two Orders of the Red Banner
 * Two Orders of the Patriotic War 1st class
 * Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
 * Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
 * Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"