Talk:Lydia Litvyak/@comment-28179027-20160410213620/@comment-28179079-20160423035320

While presenting her book to me at the reunion in San Diego, in June 2005, Polunina also told me that she had ordered that a plaque with Litvyak's name on it be placed on a pertinent grave in Krasnyy Luch in the Ukraine, even though there was absolutely no proof that Litvyak was buried there along with 2,000 other bodies. As Polunina confided in me, she did this to make sure that Litvyak was deemed qualified to receive the Hero of the Soviet Union award! While one may argue that Polunina merely implies that Litvyak bailed out of her disabled aircraft, Italian author Gian Piero Milanetti was told by a Ukrainian peasant, while visiting the pertinent area, that a woman pilot was seen in the vicinity indeed descending with a parachute, while Lydia Litvyak was known to be the only female pilot operating in this area. I should explain that Milanetti and I exchanged some correspondence concerning Litvyak.