Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It was a cold winter night in 1942 and quiet blanketed the eastern front as thick as fresh fallen snow.

A dozen Nazi soldiers were huddled in their tents,

shivering against the bitter Russian cold.

The steady rhythmic beeps of the lft-Offa's radar screen signaled clear skies, and only

static filled the airways. It had been a slow night. With any luck, it would stay that way.

The officer sat up as a faint sound came to him over the mechanical worrying of his instruments.

Somewhere far above, he could hear a noise like a soft wind whooshing through the willow branches.

His face fell. They were here.

Even as he yelled to raise the alarm, he could see it was too late. The first bomb was already

exploding against the command center, painting the night sky red with fire. But

Night Witches had struck again. In the final years of World War II, one of the most feared ally air squadrons of the Eastern Front was the Soviet 588th Night bomber regiment.

The 588 was night bomber regiment. The 588th was nicknamed the Nachexen or the night witches by the Germans.

Not just because their planes made a sound like a sweeping room, but because every member of the 588 from mechanics to pilots were women.

The Soviet Union hadn't intended to have women on the front line at all.

When Hitler invaded Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin believed

his Red Army would easily defeat the Nazis. By the fall, his outlook was less rosy. The Nazis had proven stubborn and Leningrad was under siege.

Thousands of young men had been captured or killed. So when female flying a Samarina Raskova approached

...