The lives of two Australian women, Lorna Whyte, an army nurse, and Sister Berenice Twohill, a Catholic nun, from New South Wales during World War II.survived as prisoners of war in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, at Unapope from 1942 to 1945.
Sisters of War is a telemovie based on the true story of two Australian women, Lorna Whyte, an army nurse and Sister Berenice Twohill, a Catholic nun from New South Wales who survived as prisoners of war in Papua New Guinea during World War II in Rabaul.
The true but little known story of how Australian nuns and nurses united to survive being held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II unfolds in the emotional telemovie Sisters of War.
At the heart of this story of heroism and survival in the face of starvation and torture is the friendship of two extraordinary Australian women, Lorna Whyte (now Johnston) an army nurse played by relative newcomer Sarah Snook and Sister Berenice Twohill, played by Broome-born actor Claire van der Boom.
Sister Berenice was a Catholic nun from country NSW stationed at the Catholic Mission of Vunapope (the place of the Pope) approximately 20km from Rabaul, which in 1942 was the capital of the Australian Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
In 1942 a handful of Australian nurses took refuge at the mission hospital with wounded Lark Force Australian soldiers abandoned by their commanding officers, left to face the invading Japanese alone.
They were saved from being massacred by the mission's leader, Bishop Leo Scharmach, who convinced Japanese soldiers he was a friend of Hitler and that the mission was Hitler's property. Any massacre would be a declaration of war on Germany.
