This Veteran's Day, as they do every day, Hollywood gives America something to celebrate.
From the executive producers of the acclaimed WWII docudrama, "Band of Brothers," Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Fr. James Francis Ryan (Ret.), comes the never-before-told tale of an unlikely group of American heroes.
HBO/Vatican Films Present: "BAND OF SISTERS"
The stunning true story of how America's nuns turned the tide of war and saved the world.
Actual Roman Catholic nun recruitment poster
In the dark days of 1943, with the outcome of the war still very much in doubt and the planning of the invasion of Europe underway, the Allied command knew they were lacking a critical element to succeed. Stretched thin by fighting on numerous fronts on several continents, America and its allies went to their "Hail Mary" play.
In the autumn of 1943, the first regiment of nuns were drafted in to the American army and sent to the top secret military training facility at Fort Holy Mother of God near Arcadia, Florida.
There, the nuns learned modern military strategy, basic combat skills and the finer points of terrorizing elementary school children.
The nuns used their command of archaic Latin dialects to form their own version of the Navajo Code Talkers to communicate with each other without fear of their battlefield messages being intercepted by the enemy.
The leader of the nuns, tough-as-a-fifth-grade-arithmetic-pop-quiz, Sister Georgina "Old Blood-and-Guts" CeeScotti, molded her charges into a lethal juggernaut, a killing machine without equal.
"I want to run through those Nazi bastards like crap through a goose! I want to spill their blood, I want to cut out their living guts. I want to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel."
The sisters, now an integral part of the invasion force of the D-Day assault, were readied for their first real taste of combat, anxious to do their duty.
Little Sisters of the Blessed Bayonet get outfitted with gas masks.
Some sisters volunteered to be dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day to disrupt Nazi resistance. Their uniquely aerodynamic wimples allowed them to be deployed from aircraft without parachutes.Sisters of the Holy Order of the Flying Nun ("Sallius Fieldius") in their jump outfits.
Just before their departure, Supreme Allied commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, visited the brave troops to wish them well.
Gen. Eisenhower, in a heartwarming display of solidarity with his beloved 'Flying Nuns', dresses up as a priest to see them off, June 5, 1944.
No matter how much training, how much instruction, how much preparation, how much anticipation for this moment, everyone--even the veterans--gets pre-jump jitters."Smoke 'em if you got 'em."
And, then, dawn breaks over the English Channel. June 6, 1944.
INVASION!
With Allied casualties mounting, the nuns provide expert covering fire to their sisters-in-arms trying to take the high ground.
And, so, with the invasion foothold secure, the battle to re-take Europe begins. Time and time again, the nuns prove themselves, in battles from France to Holland to the very doorstep of the Third Reich. Then, with the spring of 1945, comes the news that the war is finally over. The nuns are going home.
Nuns arrive home following the end of the war in Europe.
Now, nearly 65 years later, only a few of the nuns involved this worldwide conflict survive. This rapidly-depleting "greatest generation" of sisters deserve to have their story told, so that the world will know what they did.
Surviving sisters from the Convent of Audie Murphy meet annually to remember their fallen members, drink beer, swap lies.
One member displays her distinctive armband, signifying her membership in the famed "Combat Convent".
Although their numbers are dwindling, their bravery, valor and courage will never die. Even today, members of the Army's elite Green Berets Special Operations unit continue to be trained by a select few nuns in the art of ruler-to-hand combat.
Sister Johanna Rambo teaches the finer points of permanently disabling an enemy, both physically and psychologically, using only a wooden ruler.
And, then, dawn breaks over the English Channel. June 6, 1944.
INVASION!
Nuns from the Order of St. John of Wayne storm ashore on D-Day, suffering horrific losses from the entrenched enemy positions.
With Allied casualties mounting, the nuns provide expert covering fire to their sisters-in-arms trying to take the high ground.
And, so, with the invasion foothold secure, the battle to re-take Europe begins. Time and time again, the nuns prove themselves, in battles from France to Holland to the very doorstep of the Third Reich. Then, with the spring of 1945, comes the news that the war is finally over. The nuns are going home.Nuns arrive home following the end of the war in Europe.
Now, nearly 65 years later, only a few of the nuns involved this worldwide conflict survive. This rapidly-depleting "greatest generation" of sisters deserve to have their story told, so that the world will know what they did.
Surviving sisters from the Convent of Audie Murphy meet annually to remember their fallen members, drink beer, swap lies.
One member displays her distinctive armband, signifying her membership in the famed "Combat Convent".
Although their numbers are dwindling, their bravery, valor and courage will never die. Even today, members of the Army's elite Green Berets Special Operations unit continue to be trained by a select few nuns in the art of ruler-to-hand combat.
Sister Johanna Rambo teaches the finer points of permanently disabling an enemy, both physically and psychologically, using only a wooden ruler.
Yeeeeesh... this is totally giving me cold chills. I swear I had one of these nuns for 1st grade, back in my days as St. Euthanasius.
ReplyDeleteThis is hilarious, Dick...
You forgot the most secret and sinister Sister of all. Sister Mary SADISTA! Sister Sadista singlehandedly unmanned a German battalion, with one hand (hence singlehandedly), while whirling and hurling her giant rosary beads at the heads of 50 cowering altarboys who vowed never to fight for their country or anything else.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Nuns rule! Just check out that weapon of mass psychological destruction.
ReplyDeleteWait! You're telling me there's more to this story? St. Euthanasius? Sister Sadista? I was only repeating what I stole from the History Channel and Catholic Weekly.
ReplyDeleteWhat other secrets about the "Sisterhood" don't we know?????? I had read snippets about some returning nuns getting involved in the mob after the war, but figured that was just more pernicious Presbyterian propaganda.
I wonder......