Reina PenningtonReina Pennington">
`Valentina Flegontovna Kravchenko-Savitskaia
Валентина Флегонтовна Кравченко-Савицкая
Regimental navigator in the 125th Guards Dive Bomber Regiment
Awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation in 1995
A native of Kemerovo, Siberia, Valentina Kravchenko graduated from the Kherson Aviation School in 1935and later worked as an instructor pilot at the Saratov Aeroclub. She was recruited by Marina Raskova for the 122nd Air Group, and assigned as a navigator to the 587th Dive Bomber Regiment (later 125th Guards). She flew first as a squadron navigator with squadron commander Evgeniia Timofeeva, then as regimental navigator with Valentin Markov. She completed 66 combat sorties over Crimea, Kursk, and East Prussia, among other locations.
I interviewed her in 1993; click here for a complete translated transcript. An excerpt follows:
" I don't know why he [Major Markov] chose me.. . . But it was a pleasure to fly with him, he did not interfere with my work. He trusted me completely . . . [He] later told me that he and the division commander agreed that we should only be given the same missions as the other regiments, without exception. So the regimental commander made sure that the missions would be the same. If the division was going after some target, all three regiments should be included. So that there would be no special treatment.
"I flew many times with Markov, and he trusted me completely about how to reach the target, because his main goal was that no one would get shot down. He was always worried about the wingmen. He even interrupted my work sometimes, he constantly asked, where is Egorova, where is Fedotova? But I had no time for that, when I had to aim. It seems to me he loved all of us, it seems to me so. He was only 31 when he arrived at our regiment."
Valentina Flegontovna Kravchenko (9 January 1917 -15 Feb 2000)
Sources:
In English
Fedotova, Ekaterina. "There Were Three of Us." In In the Sky above the Front: A Collection of Memoirs of Soviet Air Women Participants in the Great Patriotic War, edited by K. Jean Cottam, 70-76. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1984.
Kravchenko-Savitskaia, Valentina Flegontovna. "The Bombs Went into the Target!" In In the Sky above the Front: A Collection of Memoirs of Soviet Air Women Participants in the Great Patriotic War, edited by K. Jean Cottam, 47-55. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1984.
Markov, V. V. "I Am Proud of My Comrades in Arms!" In In the Sky above the Front: A Collection of Memoirs of Soviet Air Women Participants in the Great Patriotic War, edited by K. Jean Cottam, 21-22. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1984.
Noggle, Anne. A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994.
Ol'khovskaia, Galina. "The Brave Squadron." In In the Sky above the Front: A Collection of Memoirs of Soviet Air Women Participants in the Great Patriotic War, edited by K. Jean Cottam, 23-28. Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1984.
Pennington, Reina. Wings, Women, & War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat. Edited by Theodore Wilson. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
In Russian
Anishchenkov, Panteleimon Stepanovich, and Vasilii Yerofeyevich Shurinov. Tret'ia Vozdushnaia: Voenno-Istoricheskii Ocherk O Boevom Puti VVS Kalininskogo Fronta I 3-I Vozdushnoi Armii V Gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1984.
Driagina, Irina. Zapiski Letchitsy U-2: Zhenshchiny-Aviatory V Gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny, 1942-1945. Moskva: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.
Kravchenko, V. F., ed. 125 Gvardeiskii Bombardirovochnyi Aviatsionnyi Borisovskii Ordenov Suvorova I Kutuzova Polk Imeni Geroia Sovetskogo Soiuza Mariny Raskovoi. Moscow: privately published, 1976.
Martyniuk, N. M., ed. 125 Gvardeiskii Bombardirovochnyi Aviatsionnyi Borisovskii Ordenov Suvoroba I Kutuzova Polk Imeni Geroia Sovetskogo Soiuza Mariny Raskovoi. Moscow: privately published, 1989.
Migunova, E. A. "Prodolzheniie Podviga." In Zapiski Shturmana/Prodolzheniie Podviga. Moscow: DOSAAF, 1976.
Simonov, Andrei, and S. V. Chudinova. Zhenshchiny-geroi Sovetskogo Soiuza i Rossii. Moskva: Russkie Vitiazi, 2017.
Unpublished sources
Kravchenko-Savitskaia, Valentina Flegontovna. Interview with Reina Pennington. Moscow, Russia (Kravchenko's apartment), 7 May 1993.
Links
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8742
https://ok.ru/vov1945/topic/69129281085455
https://www.tomsk.ru/news/view/151290-zhenskoe-lico-voyny.-valentina-kravchenko-luchshiy-shturman-polka
https://tushinec.ru/article/devushki---letchitsy-na-voyne-valentina-flegontovna-savitskaya-kravchenko?page=4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Kravchenko
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Valentina_Kravchenko
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Савицкая,_Валентина_Флегонтовна
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie25967939/
https://moiraion.moscow/list/74
https://aif.ru/society/history/letchicy_pikiruyuschih_bombardirovschikov_my_byli_schastlivy_na_voyne