Night Witches

They flew planes made of canvas and wood. They had no parachutes, no radios, and no radar. Their top speed was slower than a WWI fighter. And yet, the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment became the terror of the German eastern front.

The Nazis called them "Nachthexen" (Night Witches) because the whooshing noise their planes made when they cut their engines to glide silently over targets sounded like a witch's broomstick. This book tells the incredible true story of young Soviet women, many barely out of their teens, who dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on the invading army.

Facing skepticism from their own male comrades and deadly flak from the Germans, they flew up to 18 missions a night, freezing in open cockpits. "The Night Witches" is a story of grit, ingenuity, and the sheer terror of silent warfare in the dark. It explores how these women turned their obsolete equipment into a stealth advantage and carved their names into aviation history.