A shot-down German ace demanded to meet the Soviet pilot who bested him, expecting a grizzled veteran. His captors brought a 21-year-old blonde woman, and he refused to believe it until she recounted every maneuver of their dogfight. This deep dive reconstructs the life of Lydia Litvyak, the White Lily of Stalingrad and the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

Marked by her father's disappearance in the Great Purge, she channeled everything into aviation, forging her flight log to enter an all-female regiment. She then met both the engineered enemy in the air and entrenched institutional resistance on the ground with astonishing tactical brilliance.

• Using the agile Yak-1's tight turn radius to defeat the heavier Messerschmitt Bf 109
• Her selection for the elite free-hunter role, roaming independently ...