After the start of
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR by Germany, Yegorova volunteered for combat service. From 1941 to 1942, Yegorova flew 236 reconnaissance and delivery missions for the 130th Air Liaison Squadron in a
Polikarpov Po-2, and was subsequently awarded the
Order of the Red Banner for distinguished service. After an
aircrash, which was determined to be pilot error, Yegorova was transferred to a training air regiment. In 1943, Yegorova was transferred to the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment and flew 41 missions in the
Ilyushin Il-2. These missions included the battles above the
Taman Peninsula,
Crimea, and
Poland. During a mission on 22 August 1944, while in an attack formation of ten aircraft over the
Magnuszew bridgehead near
Warsaw, Yegorova's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Her gunner, Yevdokiya "Dusya" Alekseyevna Nazarkina was killed in the attack. With her gunner killed, and the plane heavily damaged, Yegorova exited the aircraft while the plane was inverted, and suffered serious thermal burns. Yegorova's parachute only partially opened, and she was seriously wounded again upon landing. Yegorova was captured by the
German Army and taken to a prisoner of war camp where her wounds were treated by
Dr. Georgy Sinyakov. Back at her air base, Yegorova was presumed dead and was recommended for the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union, but she did not receive the title until 1965. On 31 January 1945, Soviet forces overran the
Küstrin prisoner camp where she was being held. Yegorova was interrogated as a potential traitor for eleven days at an
NKVD filtration camp for returning Soviet prisoners. Eventually, she was released from custody, but was discharged into the reserve soon after. == Postwar ==