Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

At the height of World War II, as darkness descended on the battlefields, a nightmare would

appear over German skies. The Night Witches.

That's what the Germans called their nightly nightmare.

The 80 or so female aviators from Russia

who dropped bombs from rickety wooden planes

that sounded like brooms sweeping the sky.

These pilots, flying more than 30,000 missions,

were among the bravest fighters in that terrible, long war.

That's Irene Raqabelskaya, the chief of staff of the night witches,

speaking to NBC news,

saying one girl managed to fly seven times to the front line and back in her plane.

She would return, shaking, and they would hang new bombs, refuel her plane,

and then she'd go off to bomb the target again.

This is how we worked.

Can you imagine?

The Night Witches, as brave as they were, have been mostly lost to history.

But their story is seeing a revival thanks to Kate Quinn,

a best-selling historical novelist whose new book, The Huntress,

centers around the exploits of the Night Witches.

Quinn stumbled over them during a late-night Google Hunt for potential storylines.

She was hooked immediately.

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