Tatyana Makarova

Tatyana Makarova (Татьяна Петровна Макарова; 25 September 1920 – 25 August 1944) was a pilot in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. She was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after the aircraft she and Vera Belik were flying was shot down by the Axis forces over Nazi-occupied Poland.

Civilian life
Makarova dreamed of aviation throughout her childhood despite such career being discouraged by her father, an injured veteran of the World War I who worked as a mailman.

After graduating secondary school, she worked at a confectionery factory before she got her civilian pilot's license at the age of 19. She trained cadets at the local flight school before she joined the military in 1941 to fight in World War II. She became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1942.

Military career
Makarova enlisted in the Red Army in 1941 and graduated from the Engels Military School of Aviation. That same year she was sent to the Eastern Front, but did not execute her first sortie until the next year.

On 27 September 1942 she and her flight crew were awarded the Order of the Red Banner after she managed to land her plane after it was targeted by a barrage of anti-aircraft warfare and searchlights; after losing control temporarily she managed to distract German forces by releasing another bomb, providing enough time to leave the area and land. She participated in bombing campaigns in against German forces in the North Caucasus, Crimea, Kuban, Taman peninsula, Byelorussia and East Prussia.

Her colleagues respected her as an aviator and for never returning to base before completing a combat mission. To improve the accuracy of the attack, Makarova would often fly down to 100-150 meters before dropping the bomb; she often had to do eight to nine sorties in one night but did not appear to be affected by fatigue. For her military merit, in 1944 she was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class and another Order of the Red Banner.

On a mission in Ostroleka with Vera Belik as navigator on 25 August 1944, the flight crew managed to drop a bomb on the target after the enemy saw their aircraft, having triggered searchlights and anti-aircraft munitions. A fighter followed their aircraft as they were returning to the airbase and shot their plane down. Due to the heavy payload the plane had to carry for night bombings, neither Makarova nor Belik had a parachute and the two perished in the burning plane.

In her career she performed 628 night raids, dropped 96 tons of bombs and 300,000 leaflets over enemy territory, destroying two ferries, two anti-aircraft guns, one searchlight, two ammunition depots, and killing more than two platoons of enemy soldiers.

Makarova was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945 "for exemplary fulfillment of commanded missions and demonstration of courage and heroism in battles against the German fascist invaders."

Memorials
There is a small museum dedicated to her career, a street in Moscow and school in Kerch named after her, a monument at the technical school where she studied, and an official envelope of the USSR bearing her portrait next to that of Vera Belik.