War heroes

Monument to brave female pilot Olga Sanfirova

27.03.201709.04.2020 by Elena

Monument to brave female pilot Olga Sanfirova

Hero of the Soviet Union, guard captain Olga Aleksandrovna Sanfirova (May 2, 1917, Samara – December 13, 1944, Poland) was the brave commander of the airborne regiment of the Taman Squadron, an order-bearer who carried out more than eight hundred combat sorties, which in many ways helped our army to defeat the German army. Enemies often called such brave female pilots “night witches” and not in vain. They silently and very carefully selected fascist positions, unexpectedly dropped bombs, and then dissolved in total darkness. Fascists really feared and hated them. However, in their homeland, on the contrary, such heroes were loved and cherished.
Unfortunately, Olya Sanfirova died in Poland, at the age of 27, just six months before the victory of the Soviet Union, in December 1944. She was posthumously awarded the title of Hero.

The opening of the monument took place on the jubilee date of the Great Victory – 40 years, a high commemorative stele was installed in a small but cozy garden. So the people of the city gave the debt of respect and memory to their countrywoman.

Olga Sanfirova was born in Samara in a working class family. Like many other young people of her time, she was carried away by aviation. After graduating from the Kolomna Air club, Olga worked in the Department of Sanitary Aviation in Moscow.

In 1940, she worked as a pilot of the Moscow Special Operations Squadron, an instructor pilot in the 78th Air Squadron of the West Siberian Civil Aviation Administration in the city of Tatarsk in the Novosibirsk Region.

Olga Sanfirova participated in the battles for the defense and liberation of the North Caucasus, Novorossiysk-Taman, Kerch-Eltigen, Crimea and Belorussia. More than once Sanfirova’s crew had to land on a damaged plane and make their way to their own homes at night. For military merit, Olga Sanfirova was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and Alexander Nevsky.