Allegiance Soviet Union Russia Years of service 1941–1957 Service/branch Soviet Air Forces | Battles/wars World War II Name Natalya Meklin | |
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Born September 8, 1922Lubny, Ukraine ( 1922-09-08 ) Commands held 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment Awards with sign of HonourOrder of the Red Banner (3) Died June 5, 2005, Moscow, Russia | ||
Les grandes heures de l'aviation féminine (contains fragment of rare interview with Natalya Meklin)
Natalya Fyodorovna Meklin née Kravtsova (Russian: Наталья Фёдоровна Меклин, Ukrainian: Наталія Фёдорiвна Меклин; 1922–2005) was a World War II combat pilot in one of the three women-only Soviet air regiments. They were nicknamed the 'Night Witches' by their German opponents.
Contents
- Les grandes heures de laviation fminine contains fragment of rare interview with Natalya Meklin
- Awards and honors
- References
She was born on September 8, 1922, in Lubny, Ukraine. In 1940 she joined the glider school at the Kiev Young Pioneer Palace. When she was 19, in 1942 she joined the Night Witches, piloting a Polikarpov Po-2 light bomber, and by the end of the war had flown 980 night missions. In 1953 she graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages.
Subsequently, she worked as a translator before retiring. She became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. She was awarded the Order of Lenin, with Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, of the Red Star, with medals. Several schools are named after her in Smolensk, Poltava, Stavropol' and other cities. She was entitled honorable citizen of the city of Gdańsk (Poland). She died in Moscow on 5 June 2005.
Awards and honors
