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Band of Sisters

Madeleine Pauliac, the Women of the Blue Squadron, and Their Daring Rescue Missions in the Last Days of World War II

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Band of Sisters tells the dramatic story of Madeleine Pauliac, a French army doctor, and a group of Red Cross nurses—known as the Blue Squadron. At the request of Charles DeGualle, the group was sent to rescue French soldiers and civilians who had been captured, injured, or stranded during World War II. Written from letters, diary entries and interviews, the book recounts their rescue missions in Germany, Russia, and Poland in 1945, in the final days of the war and in the first months after the German defeat.

It's a previously unknown story of heroism and daring by a remarkable group of women, none more brave and intrepid than Pauliac herself, who was the author's aunt that he would never know.

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    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2025

      Screenwriter and film executive Maynial pays homage to his aunt, Madeleine Pauliac, and 12 other women for their efforts during the last days of World War II and its immediate aftermath in France. In the last months of the war, Charles de Gaulle, the French military commander and statesman, asked Pauliac and 12 Red Cross volunteer nurses and ambulance drivers to rescue French service members and civilians who had been captured, injured, or stranded. They agreed to the request, came to be known as the Blue Squadron, and drove all over Europe on rescue missions. They also helped a group of nuns who had been raped and impregnated by Russian soldiers. When the assignment ended, the Blue Squadron had completed 200 rescue missions and repatriated 1,000 French people. After that, Pauliac headed up a project to work in Poland, where she died in 1946. VERDICT Using archival records, stories from Maynial's family, and an interview with the last surviving nurse from the Blue Squadron, this book delivers a gripping, affectionate account of these women's heroic work. Best for history, gender studies, and human-interest readers.--Jacqueline Parascandola

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      February 1, 2025
      In this intriguing work of retrieved WWII history, the nephew of a French female army physician examines his aunt's remarkable life and suspicious death. He never met his mother's sister, Madeleine Pauliac, who died in a car crash in Soviet-occupied Poland in 1946, before he was born. But Maynial thoroughly reports her 34 years, especially the two leading up to her death. He notes a 2020 Der Spiegel article revealing that the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB) started monitoring Pauliac in April 1945. After all, she witnessed murders, pillage, and rapes by Red Army troops and might report the atrocities and make them public. Was her 1946 death an accident? Likely not. Translated from the French, Maynial's account of his aunt's life includes the history of France's courageous Blue Squadron, women nurses and ambulance drivers sent to the front to rescue French troops and civilians. Maynial notes that French women didn't get to vote until 1944. The dramatic, too-little-known story of courageous Pauliac and the valiant band of sisters reaffirms the horrors of war and the unstoppable power of remarkable women.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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