The Female Soviet Ace Who Ruled the Skies in WWII

"I am now devoting my entire life to the struggle against the vile Nazi creatures,” Yekaterina Budanova wrote to her sister in the early years of World War II. “If I am fated to perish, my death will cost the enemy dearly. My dear winged ‘Yak' is a good machine and our lives are inseparably bound up together; if the need arises, we both shall die like heroes.”