Over Fields of Fire by Anna Timofeeva-Egorova

[KEV67]

I have started reading Anna Timofeeva-Egorova's war memoirs. She flew Polikarpov Po-2 light bombers and Il-2 Sturmovik ground attack aircraft during WW2. In Britain women were allowed to deliver military aircraft to their bases, and perform various non-combat roles, but in the Soviet Union women were combatants. There were a number of female, Soviet snipers, which is a concept I find chilling. Anna was a combat pilot. If she flew those Po-2 biplanes, she presumably was one of those Nachthexen that bombed the German troops in their sleep. Sturmoviks were the most greatly manufactured aircraft in WW2, and probably the most shot down. So far, I have only got as far as her first flying lesson. It is not extremely well written, but it is quite interesting already. She was really keen. She left home, which was some small town in the countryside, to go to Moscow and started working on the Moscow metro system, not project managing, but hard, manual work. She loved it. Communist ideology was such that all sorts of opportunities were open to Soviet women, which were not in the west. However, the thing that surprised me most is that the Soviets replaced the seven day week with a five day week. Do they still keep to five day weeks?

[KEV67]

I do not think the book is brilliantly written, but what a story she had to tell! To start with she was flying these Po-2, which she calls U-2 biplanes. They were useful for delivering mail, delivering important messages, delivering radios and other important packages, extracting injured servicemen, taxiing important people, etc. My favourite story so far is her escaping four Messerschmitt fighters by flying as close to a river as she could and following it around. I suppose it was a river with steep valley sides that meandered around. She would not have escaped any Messerschmitts flying down the River Thames. In the last chapter she had had to navigate in white-out conditions, sometimes having to find her airfield in the dark.

 

I made a model of a Po-2, but the paint job is not very good. It is too glossy.

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by KEV67

[Brian.]

22 hours ago, KEV67 said:

I made a model of a Po-2, but the paint job is not very good. It is too glossy.

 

 

 

I do a bit of scale modeling. A coat of matt varnish will solve your gloss issues.

[KEV67]

Thanks Brian, I shall give that a go.

 

Still working through Over Fields of Fire. Anna Timofeeva-Egorova was very respectful and kind about her comrade pilots and the mechanic who fixed up her plane. There are a number of photos at the back of very handsome pilots who all died in action. She is not so nice about the Germans, understandably enough. She calls them Hitlerites and scum. She is flying Il-2 Sturmoviks now. The were ground attack planes, the most produced aircraft in WW2. Anna is piling up awards while living a charmed life. So far she has not mentioned her gunner. I wonder why not.

 

Edit: it was because she was flying one of the earlier single-seat Il-2 Sturmoviks. She was allocated a two-seater later. First she had a young male gunner, then a female gunner.

Edited March 4, 2023 by KEV67

[KEV67]

Way, finished it! Incredible story, although for some reason, not gripping. Anna was a very bold and determined woman. She was also remarkably loyal, considering the shabby way she was treated after being liberated from a POW camp.