Vera Belik

Vera Lukianovna Belik
File:Belik.jpg
Native name	Віра Лук'янівна Білик
Born	(1921-06-12)12 June 1921
Died	25 August 1944(1944-08-25) (aged 23)
Place of birth	Ohrimovka, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine SSR, Soviet Union
Place of death	near Ostrołęka, Poland
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Soviet Air Force
Years of service	1941–1944
Rank	Guard Senior Lieutenant
Unit	46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment
Battles/wars	Eastern Front of World War II†
Awards

Vera Belik (12 June 1921 – 25 August 1944) was a link navigator and Guards Lieutenant in the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment where she worked with pilot Tatyana Makarova. When their Po-2 was shot down by a German fighter after completing a bombing mission she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 23 February 1945.

Early life

Belik was born in Ohrimovka, Ukraine on 5 August 1921 to a Ukrainian family and was the oldest of six children. Her father was a master electrician. For most of her childhood she lived in Kerch, Crimea where she graduated from secondary school in 1939 before she enrolled at the Karl Liebknecht Pedagogical Institute in Moscow, where she studied mathematics.

Military career

Belik joined the Red Army in October 1941 after the start of the war and became active starting in May 1942. Belik was trained as a navigator at the Engels Military Aviation school and after competing the brief navigation courses that lasted three years in peacetime she was assigned to the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (later redesignated the 46th Guards) in mid-1942. She worked closely with Tatyana Makarova who served as pilot of the Po-2 they flew while she navigated. In December 1942, the regiment was expanded and Belik was promoted to navigator of the second squadron. She flew in difficult sorties over Ukraine, the Kuban area of the North Caucasus, the Crimea, Belorussia, and Poland. On 1 August 1944, she and Makarova flew the first bombing mission over East Prussia- the first aircrew of the regiment to fight over German soil.

On the night of 25 August 1944 on her 813th sortie, the plane Belik and Makarova were flying was attacked by a German fighter over Ostrołęka, Poland, killing both of them after it caught fire and crashed. She had accumulated 1,287 total flight hours of which 1,045 were in combat. In those 813 sorties she had dropped 106 tons of explosives over enemy controlled territory, caused 156 major explosions and 143 fires, destroyed two searchlights, two ammunition depots, three enemy crossings, three ground-based anti-aircraft guns, and over two platoons of enemy infantry personnel. For her combat operations she was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union and posthumously awarded the title on 23 February 1945, the same day as her pilot Makarova.

Awards and honors

Monument to Vera Belik in Kerch, Crimea

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union
• Order of Lenin
• Order of the Red Banner
• Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class
• Order of the Red Star

Memorials and dedications

• A 1981 Soviet envelope from a series of covers with portraits of people awarded Hero of the Soviet Union featured Belik and Makarova.
• A statue in Kerch, Crimea (pictured) stands as memorial to Belik.
• The lobby of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute where she studied contains a memorial to her.
• Ohrimovka, Ukraine contains a school and street named after her.
• School No.17 in Kerch was renamed in her honor.

See also

• List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union
• Tatyana Makarova – her pilot on the day they were shot down
• Rufina Gasheva – another pilot from the regiment; she survived being shot down multiple times
• Polikarpov Po-2 – plane she was shot down in
• "Night Witches" – Belik's regiment