Anatoly Yakovlevich Brandys (Russian: Анатолий Яковлевич Брандыс, Ukrainian: Анатолій Якович Брандис; 12 August 1923 – 23 March 1988) was a Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack pilot during World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Brandys was born on 12 August 1923 to a Latvian family of miners in the village of Nizhnedneprovsk, situated in an area presently in the Amur-Nyzhnodniprovskyi District within the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

As a child he was very athletic and engaged in a variety of sports; he went on to attend the local aeroclub and the Dnipropetrovsk Special Air Force School, both of which he graduated from in 1941 shortly before entering the military in June.

In 1942 he became a member of the communist party,[1] but it was not until August 1943 that he was deployed to the warfront, since graduated from the Molotov Military School of Pilots in July.

[4] Throughout the war he flew in a variety of combat operations including the battles for Donbas, Crimea, Minsk, Vitebsk, Vilnius, and Königsberg.