Call Sign White Lily [signed]

A DARING TEENAGE GIRL BECOMES HITLER'S WORST NIGHTMARE.(contains 60+ rare photographs) 11-year Lilia Litvyak becomes fascinated with flight as she reads about the Wright Brothers. Tragedy strikes when her father is unjustly executed as an enemy of the state. Six years later, Hitler brutally invades Russia. The supremely self-confident yet conflicted 17-year-old Lilia realizes she must use now substantial flying skills to defend her Motherland. Against all odds in the male-dominated Soviet Society, her perseverance, grit, and determination make her the first female-fighter-pilot in the history of the world. By age 21 Lilia is setting military records that will stand to this day: 268 missions,15 solo kills, and 22 assists. Ironically, despite living the pain, tragedy, and suffering of battle, in her spare moments, Lilia laughs heartily, reads poetry, and falls madly in love with her soulmate and constant flying companion, the dashing ace, Captain Alexey Solomatin. Call Sign, White Lily, five years in the making, gives readers the opportunity to meet Lilia and her friends up close and personal, and learn why this remarkable young woman who was decades ahead of her time. The world-famous Hermitage in St. Petersburg calls Call Sign, White Lily, "among the greatest books and stories ever told about WW2."