World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMarina Stirbey was born to George and Elisabetei Stirbey, a Romanian family of high standing, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary in 1912. After flight training under Ioana Cantacuzino in the mid-1930s, she participated in state-sponsored flights to Northern Europe to stir interest in aviation. In 1938, she became a member of the board of the Romanian Red Cross. After the outbreak of the European War, while male pilots prepared for combat in the air, she had the notion that female pilots could conduct non-combat flights, thus born the all-women "White Squadron" of the Romanian Air Force. As a founding member of the squadron, she flew aircraft over hostile territory, evacuating the wounded from the front lines. In Feb 1942, she married Constantin Basarab Brancoveanu. In 1947, her husband was arrested by the newly established Communist government, and she escaped Romania with her two children. She passed away in France in 2001.

Marina Stirbey Timeline