This day in Russian history and the History of the world.

April 9

April 9, 1944: Evgeniya Rudneva died. Yevgeniya Rudneva was a female Soviet military air navigator, a Hero of the Soviet Union, a member of the Moscow branch of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the USSR, and head of the Solar Department.

She flew 645 night combat missions on the old and slow Polikarpov Po-2 biplane, destroying river crossings, troop trains, troops and military equipment of the enemy.

She perished valiantly while flying her 645th combat mission near the village of Bulganak, to the north of Kerch.

She was shot down by Flak along with her pilot Anna Prokofyeva.

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