Anna Yegorova

Anna Alexandrovna Timofeyeva-Yegorova (Template:Langx; 23 September 1916 – 29 October 2009) was a pilot in the Soviet Air Force during the Second World War. She flew a total of 277 sorties that included liaison, reconnaissance and ground-attack missions before she became a prisoner-of-war when her Il-2 was shot down. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965.

Early years

File:Anna Timofeeva (Yegorova) Postal stationery envelope Russia 2016 No 284.jpg

A postal stationery envelope issued to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Anna Yegorova (Timofeeva). Post of Russia, 2016.

Anna Yegorova was born into a peasant family in the village Volodovo (now in Tver Oblast). Eight of her fifteen siblings died when they were infants. Her father, Aleksandr Yegorov, fought in the First World War as well as the Russian Civil War as a Bolshevist. Combat stress and other hardships deteriorated his health, and in 1925 he died at 49 years of age.Template:Sfn

After seven years of school,Template:Sfn Yegorova joined Mosmetrostroy, where she worked as a steelman, and then as a tiler on the construction of Krasnye Vorota station. Her construction job allowed her to study at the Mosmetrostroy aeroclub.Template:Sfn

In 1938, she was recommended to attend the Ulyanovsk flight school, but was soon expelled due to her brother's arrest as an "enemy of the people".Template:Sfn

After her expulsion, Yegorova worked as a bookkeeper's assistant at a weaving factory in Smolensk, while tutoring members of the factory's aero club.Template:Sfn She was then sent to attend the Kherson flight school, which she graduated from in 1939. Soon afterward, Yegorova became a flight instructor for the Kalinin municipal aero club.Template:Sfn

Military career

After the start of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR by Germany, Yegorova volunteered for combat service. From 1941 to 1942, Yegorova flew 236 reconnaissance and delivery missions for the 130th Air Liaison Squadron in a Polikarpov Po-2, and was subsequently awarded the Order of the Red Banner for distinguished service.Template:Sfn

After an aircrash, which was determined to be pilot error, Yegorova was transferred to a training air regiment. In 1943, Yegorova was transferred to the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment and flew 41 missions in the Ilyushin Il-2. These missions included the battles above the Taman Peninsula, Crimea, and Poland.Template:Sfn

During a mission on 22 August 1944, while in an attack formation of ten aircraft over the Magnuszew bridgehead near Warsaw, Yegorova's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire.Template:Sfn Her gunner, Yevdokiya "Dusya" Alekseyevna Nazarkina was killed in the attack.Template:Sfn With her gunner killed, and the plane heavily damaged, Yegorova exited the aircraft while the plane was inverted, and suffered serious thermal burns. Yegorova's parachute only partially opened, and she was seriously wounded again upon landing.Template:Sfn

Yegorova was captured by the German Army and taken to a prisoner of war camp where her wounds were treated by Dr. Georgy Sinyakov.Template:Sfn Back at her air base, Yegorova was presumed dead and was recommended for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but she did not receive the title until 1965.Template:Sfn

On 31 January 1945, Soviet forces overran the Küstrin prisoner camp where she was being held. Yegorova was interrogated as a potential traitor for eleven days at an NKVD filtration camp for returning Soviet prisoners.Template:Sfn Eventually, she was released from custody, but was discharged into the reserve soon after.Template:Sfn

Postwar

After being discharged from the armed forces she married Vyacheslav Timofeev, the commander of her air division, and bore two sons named Pyotr and Igor. She was the subject of a feature article in the Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1961, and in 1965, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn

Yegorova passed away in Moscow at the age on 93 on 29 October 2009.

Awards and honors

• Hero of the Soviet Union (6 May 1965)
• Order of Lenin (6 May 1965)
• Two Orders of the Red Banner (20 February 1942 and 26 May 1943)
• Two Orders of the Patriotic War 1st class (23 February 1948 and 11 March 1985)
• Medal "For Courage" (4 May 1943)
• Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1960)

See also

• List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union
• Lidiya Shulaykina
• Tamara Konstantinova
• Mariya Tolstova
• Lyolya Boguzokova

Bibliography

• Thanks, Annushka // "Soviet Military Review", No. 7 (67), July 1970. pages 39-40
• Le Chien, Monsieur and Connard, L'Odieux (2021). Le Petit théâtre des opérations. Paris, France: Éditions Audie-Fluide Glacial. ISBN 9791038200838. This bande dessinée/graphic novel tells Yegorova's story in partly humorous cartoon style on pp. 23–30.