Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August 1945 Mariya Ivanovna Dolina enlisted as a volunteer in the 269th Fighter Regiment in 1941 and flew 200 combat special missions in an antiquated U-2 training aircraft carrying orders, mail and medical supplies for the hard-pressed Southern Front. In 1942 she graduated to flying the fast Pe-2 twin engine bomber with the 587th Dive Bomber Regiment and her first combat mission was fought above Stalingrad. Promoted to Guard Captain, she became deputy squadron leader of the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment M. Raskova, leading her comrades in 72 successful bombing operations (bombing enemy ammunition depots, strongholds, tanks, artillery batteries, rail and water transports, and supporting Soviet ground troops) over the Northern Caucasus, the Kuban, Crimea, Kursk, Belarus and the Baltic. Ivanovna survived the war and continued to serve in the Soviet Air Force into the 1970s. —description from the publisher