Vinogradova is excellent on the technical aspects and experience of flying the various aircraft . . . She is at her best, though, in bringing alive the quotidian details of wartime -- Wendy Slater * Times Literary Supplement * The story of the Soviet airwomen is well told by Lyuba Vinogradova . . . She has done a huge amount of research, which shines through the pen portraits of the aviators and some of the vivid descriptions of the aerial battles -- Leo McKinstry * Literary Review * Superbly written and researched . . . Vinogradova takes her place in the top flight of Russian historians -- Anna Reid A feat of historical research and a wonderful, stirring read -- Rachel Polonsky Remarkable . . . Vinogradova tells the stories Russian pilots with verve -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman * Lyuba Vinogradova tells the poignant story of the determined young women who fought and died in the air above Stalingrad and elsewhere in the epic struggle to expel the German invaders from their country. It is an absorbing and meticulously researched account -- Sir Rodric Braithwaite A gripping, unforgettable and heart-breaking story of female heroism in war and terror, written elegantly, filled with new research - archival and oral - and told here fully for the first time. Not just a tale of amazing derring-do, but a terrifying window into Stalinist Russia. Simply superb -- Simon Sebag Montefiore [ Vinogradova's] assiduous research, including numerous interviews with elderly veterans, has uncovered fascinating nuggets about the young female pilots' experience -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * Brings to light the fascinating story of the world's first and only all-female aviation regiments . . . Not for the first time, one can't help being flabbergasted by the heroic achievements of the poverty-stricken and hounded peoples of the USSR -- Charlotte Hobson * Spectator * What has been missing until now is a thoroughly researched account of all these pilots' wars, based on primary sources and stitched into the larger picture of the epic battle for what Hitler called the "world island" of central Russia. Defending the Motherland fills that void -- Giles Whittell * The Times *
