Antonina Lebedeva

Biography

Antonina Vasilevna Lebedeva, known as Tonya, was born in 1916 in the village of Bakunin in the Kuvshinovsky District of the Tver Oblast, Russia. She was a student at Moscow State University and a member of a flying club. Working her way up to instructor, she joined the women's air regiment 586 and after earning her fighter designation was transferred to the 434 IAP Fighter Regiment. She participated in the battles of Stalingrad from 10 September to 3 October, 1942, the Velikie offensive of October 1942, and in December 1942 was hit in a battle, as was her wingmate, after having shot down an enemy plane.

In a dogfight which occurred on 10 January, 1943, Lebedeva faced two enemy fighters alone and destroyed one Bf-109, but her aircraft was hit, suffering serious damage. She made an emergency landing while under attack, landing outside the airport on the fuselage of her aircraft. On 22 February, 1943, she was awarded the medal Order of the Patriotic War in the 2nd degree, for her courage in battle and by the time of the medal, had logged nearly 1,500 hours of fight time, had participated in three air battles and made 12 sortie runs. Lebedeva was made a lieutenant in May, 1943 and on 9 May was assigned to fighting at the Bryansk front. On July 12, she participated in the Battle of Kursk and during an evening battle on 17 July 1943, while flying a combat mission, she and her comrades went missing and were presumed dead.

In 1982, while looking for rumored downed pilots from a Normandy France Volunteer Regiment, school children near Betovo in the Bolhovskogo District of the Oryol Oblast discovered remains of a pilot, along with a parachute, pistol, knife and documents. After the items were recovered and examined, they proved to belong to Lebedeva. Her log book and medical card bore her name and the serial number on the machine gun retrieved was confirmed to belong to her plane.