Lydia Litvyak was the first woman in history to become a fighter ace, and one of the deadliest, a slight, blonde 21-year-old who painted a white lily on her fighter and shot down German planes over Stalingrad until the day she vanished in a dogfight. They called her the White Lily of Stalingrad.
She was a Russian girl, born to a Jewish family in Moscow, who had fallen in love with flying as a teenager and learned to fly before she could legally drive, so obsessed that she soloed at fifteen. When the war came and the Soviet Union, uniquely among the major powers, formed combat units of women pilots, Litvyak talked her way in, reportedly fudging her flight hours to qualify. She was tiny, cared about her appearance even at the front, bleached her hair, cut up her uniform to fit, and was utterly lethal in the air.
Sent to the desperate fighting over Stalingrad, she scored her first kills within days of arriving, becoming the first woman ever to shoot down an enemy aircraft in combat, and one of the men she downed was a German veteran with dozens of victories who, when captured, refused to believe he had been beaten by a young woman until she described the fight move for move. Over the following months she flew constantly, tangling with the best German pilots, was wounded more than once, kept going back up, and ran her score into the double figures, the highest tally any female fighter pilot has ever achieved, along with several shared kills. The white lily on her plane made her famous, and the Germans learned to be wary of it.
On August 1, 1943, at 21 years old, on her 66th combat mission, she dove into a swarm of German fighters and did not come back. Her plane and body were not found, and for decades her exact fate was unknown, which cruelly delayed her recognition, because there were even whispers she might have been captured rather than killed. It was only long after the war, when her remains were finally located and identified beneath the wreckage, that the record was set right, and in 1990 she was at last made a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The White Lily of Stalingrad, history's first female fighter ace, who painted a flower on her fighter and died in the sky at 21.
He was the most feared gangster in Amsterdam. Ran the brothels, the protection rackets, the whole Red Light District. He was one of the only criminals in Holland who carried a gun, and he'd punch a man to the ground just for looking at him wrong. They called him the Dutch Al Capone.
His name was Dries Riphagen.
When the Nazis rolled in, he didn't hide his money. He saw an opportunity.
Riphagen would walk up to terrified Jewish families and offer them a deal only a man like him could sell. Hand me your gold, your diamonds, your paintings, and I'll keep them safe until this madness is over. He was charming. Rich. Convincing. People trusted him.
Then he robbed them blind and sold their hiding places to the SD for as little as 7 guilders a head.
His first raid alone sent 21 people to the camps. None came back. He joined a unit whose entire job was hunting Jewish wealth, and he was perfect for it, because he got to do the two things he loved most at the same time. Hunting people, and getting paid. He shipped the loot off to secret accounts in Belgium and Switzerland.
Here's the part that should make your blood boil.
When Germany started losing, he simply switched sides. He walked into the Dutch resistance, offered up his old Nazi contacts, and talked his way into police protection. He literally moved into his handler's house while quietly planning his escape. When it was time to run, that same handler slipped him diamonds to bribe his way out of a Spanish jail.
He fled to Argentina, where Perón was rolling out the red carpet for Nazi fugitives. Riphagen befriended Perón's own secretary and lived under state protection for years.
And how did the monster die? Not in a cell. Not on a rope. He died of cancer in 1973 at a luxury clinic on a Swiss lake, 63 years old, still conning wealthy widows into buying overpriced jewelry right up to the end. Not one of them knew they were laughing with the man who sent thousands to their deaths.
The Netherlands didn't even issue a warrant for his arrest until 1988.
He'd been dead for 15 years.
⚡⚡⚡Освободили Рубежное.
‼️🇷🇺 Войска России и ЛНР разгромили врага в Рубежном.
Спецподразделения "Ахмат" совместно с разведподразделениями 2-го армейского корпуса ЛНР атаковали последние позиции украинцев в городе, нанеся им огромные потери.
@Elena_Bers Чему вы удивляетесь... Палестинцы, сирийцы и ливанцы уже давно не удивляются. Еврейский нацизм и геноцид коренного населения на приграничных и оккупированных Израилем территориях цветёт и колосится десятилетиями. Но об этом вам не расскажут Галкин с Пугачёвой и прочие плакальщики
Пользуясь ротацией националистов, старик с женой вырвались. Сначала жена везла его в тележке. Когда у нее просто иссякли силы, он шёл сам, опираясь на две швабры. Наконец, он дополз до бойцов ДНР.
Смотрите, украинцы, это ваши "герои". Какие "герои" такая их ждёт и "слава"...
Раненный украинским снайпером старик буквально выползает с территории националистов «Азова» в Мариуполе.
«Даже не думайте выходить. Будем стрелять на поражение. 1/2
«Схватил гитару и помчался в госпиталь. По дороге заскочил в магазин за пряниками (сам в Армии без них помирал)… Ребят-солдатиков привезли раненых с Донбасса. Наших, родненьких! Побитых, но живых. Узнаю, может помочь чем… Нет, так хоть спою пацанам».
Юрий Гальцев