In the normal Soviet air force structure, a flight regiment had three squadrons, a squadron consisted of three crews, and each crew had three aircraft. The eight female pilots selected to fly to Stalingrad were split into two new squadrons before leaving Saratov Air Base and were incorporated into the 434th and 437th Flying Regiments respectively.
The squadron assigned to the 437th Flying Regiment is commanded by Lieutenant Raisa and includes Second Lieutenant Lilia, Staff Sergeant Maria and Staff Sergeant Katja. Lilia, who served as deputy squadron leader, soon frightened German pilots because of her brilliant achievements. The enemy mistook the lilies on her fuselage for white roses and called her the "White Rose of Stalingrad."
Two days ago, when they drove the plane to the airport where it was scheduled to land, they found that it had just been hit by a German air raid. The runway was covered with dense craters and the plane could not land at all. They had to change to a new backup airport.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they landed at the backup airport, German long-range artillery fire began to bombard the airport. Since the commander of the 437th Flight Regiment didn't know they were coming, no one was arranged to pick them up. Several girls who had just got off the plane were so frightened when they saw the shells exploding all around them that they didn't know where to hide.
"Hey, what are you doing standing there stupidly?" Just when the girls were at a loss, a loud voice suddenly came from not far away, "Why don't you hurry up and take cover, don't you want to be hit by German shells?"
Lilia turned around and saw that the person shouting to them turned out to be a young and handsome air force captain. After the captain finished shouting, he rushed toward them, threw his arms around Lilia and Katya, and ran towards a bomb shelter not far away. After pushing the two of them into the bomb shelter, the captain turned around and rushed over to bring Raisa and the others back.
The five people were squatting in the bomb shelter, listening to the explosions outside. The captain asked loudly: "Hey, girls, where did you come from?"
"Comrade Captain," Raisa, who was squatting next to him, replied loudly: "We came to report to the 437th Flying Regiment. Unexpectedly, we were bombarded by the enemy as soon as we landed."
When the captain heard what Raisa said, he was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "Are you the women's flying squadron sent by your superiors?"
"If this is the 437th Flight Regiment, then it should be us." After Raisa said this, thinking that the captain had saved the lives of several of her, she took the initiative to reach out to him and said politely: "I am squadron leader Raisa Lieutenant, I don’t know what to call you?”
The captain held Raisa's hand and replied politely but somewhat distantly: "I am Alexei, captain of the second squadron of the 427th Regiment. Welcome to Stalingrad."
"Captain Alexei, thank you for saving us." Lilia noticed Alexei's indifference towards her and said rudely: "You said you welcome us, but from your expression, it seems that you Don’t you welcome us?”
Seeing that the young and beautiful blonde in front of him had read through his thoughts, Alexey just grinned and did not answer her question. Instead, he turned to Raisa and said: "Comrade Lieutenant, wait until the enemy's shelling is over." , I will take you to the regiment headquarters to meet the regiment commander and ask him to assign combat tasks to you."
After the bombardment stopped, the five people crawled out of the bomb shelter in disgrace. Alexei took Raisa to see the regiment leader, while Lilia and the other two female pilots went to check whether the plane was damaged.
Along the way, the two met many pilots and enemy intelligence personnel who had just come out of hiding. Seeing a female pilot following Alexei, they couldn't help but point behind them and whisper about why there was a female pilot here.
When they arrived at a semi-underground shelter, the sentry standing at the door saw the female pilot following Alexei and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Comrade Captain, who is she?"
"She is the squadron leader of the women's flying squadron. Their plane just landed at the airport before the bombardment started." Alexey asked the sentry: "I want to take her to see the regiment commander now. Is the regiment commander here?"
"Yes," the sentry nodded, extending his hand in a gesture of invitation: "Comrade Captain, please invite me."
Alexey took Raisa into the underground shelter, stopped at the door of a room, turned to Raisa and said, "Comrade Lieutenant, please wait a moment. I'll go in and talk to the regiment leader."
Seeing Raisa nodding in agreement, Alexei smiled at her and walked into the room. Colonel Khostnikov, who was lying at the table looking at a map, heard someone walking in. He raised his head and glanced up. After seeing clearly that it was Alexey, he casually asked: "Comrade Captain, where is your squadron?" Were there any casualties in the shelling just now?”
"No, Comrade Commander." Alexei quickly replied: "Before the shelling started, our squadron did a good job of concealment. Although the enemy's shells caused some damage to the shells, we did not suffer any casualties. .”
Khostnikov straightened up, looked at Alexei and asked: "Since you don't have any casualties, what are you doing here?"
"That's right, Comrade Commander." Alexei said with some embarrassment: "The new squadron leader wants to see you, and he is outside right now."
"Oh, have the additional flight squadron arrived for us?" After listening to Alexei's words, Khostnikov breathed a sigh of relief and said with a relaxed face: "Thank God, they are finally here, so there is no need I’m going to call the commander again and ask for reinforcements.”
When Alexey heard that the regiment commander used "them" instead of "them" when referring to the new squadron, he immediately understood that the other party may not know that the superior sent a female pilot to the regiment. squadron. After he waited for Khostnikov to finish speaking, he said with a wry smile: "Comrade leader, the situation may be different from what you imagined."
"Is there any discrepancy?" Khostnikov asked with a surprised look on his face: "Comrade Captain, I don't understand what you mean."
"Comrade leader, you will understand when you see this person." After Alexei finished speaking, without waiting for Khostnikov to make any reaction, he turned towards the door and said: "Please come in, Comrade Lieutenant."
Raisa, who was standing outside the door, heard Alexey's voice and quickly stepped into the room. She raised her hand to salute Khostnikov and reported dryly: "Comrade Colonel, Captain of the Women's Flying Squadron. Lieutenant Raisa reports to you, I am at your command, please give me instructions!"
After Khostnikov clearly saw the female pilot wearing a pilot uniform in front of him, he couldn't help but be speechless. After staring at Raisa for a long time, he turned to Alexey and asked: "Comrade Captain, this is your superior." Replenish our squadron?"
"Yes, Comrade Colonel." Before Alexei could answer, Raisa answered first: "Our superiors assigned us to the 437th Flying Regiment to participate in the battle."
"Join the fight?!" Khostnikov waited for Raisa to finish, then snorted and said, "What we need are real pilots, not a group of yellow-haired girls with no combat experience."
Khostnikov's words angered Raisa, and she faced him and said in a humble voice: "Comrade Colonel, there are only differences between soldiers and civilians on the battlefield, and there is no distinction between men and women."
Khostnikov sneered again and said: "That's quite beautiful to say. I guess you have only conducted simple flight training and carried out a non-dangerous air training mission, which is fine. If you really let When you go to the battlefield, your first reaction may be to turn around and run away when you see the enemy."
Facing Khostnikov's contempt and cynicism, Raisa tried hard to control her emotions, "Comrade Colonel, before we were sent here, we belonged to the 586th Fighter Flight Regiment. We have participated in many He fought against the enemy and achieved some successes."
"No, you can't stay in my 437th Flying Regiment." Khostnikov said stubbornly: "I can't let the honor of the flying group be ruined in the hands of a group of women. Where are you coming from now? Where to fly back, what we need are real pilots, not a group of young women. I want to call Comrade Commander and ask him to personally give you orders."
Khostnikov always did things without delay. When he said to call the commander, he actually walked to the table, picked up the phone, and asked the operator to connect to the army headquarters. After hearing the voice of the commander, Major General Khryugin, he said aggrievedly: "Comrade commander, didn't you promise to send us real pilots? But why are a group of women coming?"
"What happened to the woman?" Khryugin heard Khostnikov say, and immediately guessed what happened, and said dissatisfied: "Comrade Colonel, let me tell you, these female pilots have rich combat experience That’s why the superiors decided to transfer them from the 586th Fighter Group to strengthen your group. I’m warning you, don’t discriminate against them, otherwise I will remove you from your post. Do you understand?”
"Understood, Comrade Commander." Khostnikov hit a wall with Khryugin and replied with a grimace: "I will follow your instructions and keep them."
After putting down the phone, Khostnikov stood up straight and said to Raisa in an official voice: "Lieutenant, follow Captain Alexei out. He will arrange a place for you."
Looking at Raisa and Alexei's leaving figures, Khostnikov silently made up his mind: Even if manpower is tight, he cannot assign combat missions to the women's flying squadron, lest they delay the entire regiment. leg.
Raisa couldn't guess what Khostnikov was thinking. As soon as she left the regiment command post, she asked Alexey curiously: "Comrade Captain, where do you plan to place us?"
Alexei pointed to a forest not far away and said: "Our barracks are there. The rooms of the Third Squadron are all vacant. You can stay with them first."
"Comrade Captain, I don't understand why the rooms in the third squadron are empty?" Raisa asked in confusion after hearing Alexei's arrangements: "Where have they gone?"
"They all died." The expression on Alexei's face immediately became serious, and he said to Raisa: "Lieutenant Raisa, let me clean up the room for you first. Go and call them all over." After saying that, he walked towards the woods without looking back. Raisa looked at Alexey's leaving figure and was stunned for a while, then she walked towards where the plane was parked.
Still far away, Raisa saw several planes belonging to her squadron, surrounded by a group of male pilots and ground staff. She didn't know what had happened, so she trotted over quickly. Arriving behind the crowd of onlookers, she said loudly: "Please give way, comrades, please give way."
When Raisa squeezed into the crowd, she saw Lilia and the three of them standing in front of a plane with sad faces. She walked over and asked curiously: "Lilia, what happened?"
Lilia pointed to the plane next to her and said to Raisa with a grimace: "Comrade Lieutenant, one of the fuel pipes of this plane was broken by German shrapnel. I wanted to ask the airport's mechanics to help us repair it, but they except Standing aside and watching the fun, not willing to help at all.”
After Raisa turned her head and glanced at the male pilots and ground crew members surrounding her, she immediately waved to them and said with some disgust: "Since you are unwilling to help, just go away and don't gather around here." The male onlookers When the pilots and ground crew heard what Raisa said, they were too embarrassed to stay any longer and dispersed.
When everyone around her had almost left, Raisa raised her hand and patted Lilia's shoulder twice, comforting her and saying, "Lilia, don't be discouraged. Since these men are not willing to help us repair the plane, then we Just fix it yourself!”
"Fix the plane yourself?!" Lilia couldn't help but be stunned when she heard what Raisa said, and asked: "Comrade Lieutenant, can you repair the plane?"
"Why, don't you believe I can repair it?" Raisa replied with a smile: "Before the war, I worked as a mechanic in a car factory. Since cars can be repaired, I guess repairing airplanes won't be a big problem either. ." In order not to let the male soldiers look down on her, Raisa asked Lilia and the others to find tools and start repairing the broken oil pipeline by herself.
After half an hour of busy work, Raisa finally repaired the broken oil pipeline. Just as she was packing up the tools, she saw Alexey walking over with a man in a worker's uniform. Still far away, I heard Alexei saying loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant, I heard that there was something wrong with your plane, so I specially found a mechanic for you."
"Thank you, Comrade Captain." Raisa replied proudly while wiping her hands with a towel dipped in kerosene: "We have repaired the broken oil pipeline."
"What, what did you say?" After hearing Raisa's answer, Alexey was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped to the ground. He asked dubiously: "Comrade Lieutenant, you can't just joke about this kind of thing."
"Look at what you said," Raisa said with a smile: "If you don't believe it, you can ask the mechanic next to you to come over and check it out."
