Vera was ecstatic when she received her fifth letter from Yuri. They had kept in touch as much as they could over the last year, and every letter made her heart sing. He was busy with the wounded, and she was still doing extra duty flying during the day.
One day, she received orders to fly a general to the airfield where the 587th Women"s Day Bomber Regiment was based. At this base, the women flew the bomber/fighter Petylakov"s, or as everyone called them the PE-2"s. Vera was somewhat familiar with them, although she had never seen one up close.
She preferred flying her little Biplane, even though sleep was becoming almost non-existent in her life. Twice she and Ksenia fell asleep at the same time. They came up with a plan that one would sleep going to the bombings and the other on the w
