It was a suicidal maneuver if someone had sights on you, for it left you as a fixed target hanging in the sky. Our enemies, however, were over a thousand meters below and had no hope of getting a shot on me. Thus, they could only watch in fear, I hoped, as I set up for another diving pass.
I didn’t wait as long as I had on my first attack to open fire. Once I lined up my target, I let loose with both machine guns. I didn’t expect a kill, but I wanted him to stay on the defensive and force him to roll out of the way, which he did. Seeing pieces of metal fly from his left wing was an added bonus.
“No tight turns, Alexandra!” Valeriia yelled. “That’s an order.”
“They haven’t jettisoned any bombs,” she protested. “I need to put more pressure on them.”
I couldn’t see her until I’d climbed and rolled my plane upside down. Alexandra was in the middle of a high-G yo-yo, a maneuver where a pilot follows a slower, tighter-turning plane in a curve by combining a steep climb with a sharp turn. It’s done to keep from overshooting a target and to conserve as much total energy as possible, but it still bleeds speed.
The Messer I was responsible for banked right, setting himself up to intercept Alexandra’s attack. I slammed the throttle forward to the stop and dove. “My guy is setting up on you!” I yelled, machine guns blazing.
I didn’t ease off the trigger until I blew past the Stukas and started climbing once more. Tracers flew past my cockpit. When I looked behind me, I saw all three Stuka tail gunners firing on me.
“Alexandra, make another pass,” Valeriia called out. “Nadya, clear her six when that fighter moves in on her.”
I craned my head back, searching the sky for Alexandra. Valeriia kept the other German fighter on the defensive, circling above him, making feints and snapshots as she could. I pulled back on the stick, rocketing my plane upward for a better view of the battle below.
I found Alexandra barreling through the Stuka formation with the fury of a Valkyrie, machine guns and cannons blazing. Her rounds punched through a wing on one of the trailing bombers. Brown mist poured from the damage, and the Stuka fell out of the group. I screamed in delight as three bombs dropped from its fuselage a split second later.
“One jettisoned,” Alexandra said as she peeled her plane left and entered a shallow dive. Unlike my own ecstatic state, she sounded calm, as if she’d done this a thousand times over. “Now if you’d rid me of this 109, I’ll get you a nice bar of chocolate.”
The German fighter followed her, and I pulled on the stick for all I was worth. Lightning shot through my arms, and I clenched my jaw as tight as I could to stave off the pain and keep from blacking out. When I let go, I was trailing both Alexandra and the Messer by at least four hundred meters.
“I’m too far to make a shot,” I said. “If you circle, I might be able to get him in the turn.”
“I’ll do you one better,” Alexandra said. “I’ll set him up for the perfect kill.”
My brow knitted. I wasn’t sure what she was about to do. Then I saw her drag the fighter into a tight U-turn before shooting upward. My mouth ran dry. She was flying a hammerhead, and the enemy fighter was following her into it. They’d both be helpless in the sky. The question was, who would be shot down, Alexandra or the Messer?
Time slowed, and I held my breath. My heart thundered in my chest. My vision tunneled to where all I could see was the perfect image of the German fighter in my gun sight, climbing, aiming… stalling.
My heart prayed for guidance as my thumbs hit the triggers. Once again, the nose of my plane erupted with flame and smoke. Tracers slammed into the enemy fighter with bright flashes of light, tearing large chunks off its skin and internals. Black smoke poured from its engine, and I exhaled.
“Nadya, I love you!” Alexandra yelled.
Her exuberance filled me with pride, and I’m sure my face glowed brighter than any halo. “Circle back,” I said, forcing myself to abandon the celebration and refocus on the mission. “There are still more.”
“Negative,” Valeriia said. “They’re running. Form on me. We’re leaving.”
Perplexed at the order, I put my plane into a lazy circle and watched with an equal mix of frustration and disappointment as the German planes ran to the west, including the one smoking like a chimney. Though I knew it wouldn’t last, I wanted the others, too. “We could chase them down.”
“Negative. I’m low ammunition,” Valeriia replied. “And despite what brass says are sound tactics, I have no intention of running this plane into another when my guns are dry. Besides, you’ll be famous when we get home, Nadya. You scored not only your first kill, but the first victory for the entire regiment. You should be eager to get back.”
I sank back in my seat and turned her words over. I didn’t need the fame coming, but I was excited to write home and let them know what I’d done. Father would be proud of me, and I certainly would appreciate the acknowledgement by others that I was a damn good pilot. If I got enough of it, I thought I might believe it myself.
We cruised back to Anisovka, a few thousand meters high. We’d barely left the Don behind us when I heard the light thumping of rounds hitting my plane and saw tracers zip over my canopy.
“Break!” I yelled, instinctively I jamming my stick forward and putting the plane in a steep dive. My body lifted off the seat and my belt cut into the tops of my thighs. Plummeting toward the earth, I looked over my shoulder and saw two Messers hot my tail. We’d gotten sloppy with excitement and never saw them making the intercept.
“Nadya where are you?”
Valeriia sounded stressed, but at least she wasn’t calling for help. Maybe these two were the only Messers around.
“Diving northwest,” I said. I banked right, two thousand meters and falling, and made such a hard reversal that I knocked my head on the side of the canopy. I pulled out of the dive and checked my six, praying I’d thrown my enemies off my tail. I saw one extending away from me, but the other was unaccounted for. I weaved left and right a couple more times and wondered where he’d gone.
“Nadya, we’re clear up here,” Valeriia said. “Head northeast and we’ll regroup.”
I turned back toward my flight, and as I did a Messer dropped from the sky and saddled up next to me. There couldn’t have been room for more than a single train car between our wingtips. I stared at the 109 in shock, and felt my mouth hang open when I spied the bright yellow eight painted on its tail.
“What the hell do you want from me?” I yelled, smacking the canopy as hard as I could.
The pilot waggled the wings to his plane and followed it up with a salute before peeling away, leaving me feeling confused and helpless all the way home.
“You can’t be serious!” I shouted. Tamara stood a pace away in the command post, scowling. Her skin was flush, and her jaw set. I didn’t care.
“This is your one and only warning, Nadya,” she replied, leveling a finger at me. “I will throw you back in the box. I don’t care how many pilots I need.”
“I saw the shot firsthand, comrade major,” Alexandra said. “She tore him apart and saved my life.”
I turned and beamed at my newly found friend. Alexandra stood next me, her posture relaxed and her hands stuffed in her pockets. Other than her black hair parted down the middle and wrapped snugly in a bun, there wasn’t a tight thing about her. I was astounded at her care-free attitude and wondered if it would work against me as Tamara always commanded with strict discipline, but at the moment, I didn’t care. Someone was fighting for me, someone who didn’t want to see me robbed of my accomplishments. “See?” I said. “There’s your verification right there.”