11/5/2022 0 Comments Nancy wakeA leading figure in the French Resistance, she was deemed the White Mouse by the Gestapo due to her uncanny ability to elude capture. Get the best of Accidental Talmudist in your inbox: sign up for our monthly newsletter.Nancy Wake was a crusading journalist who became one of the most respected and feared secret agents during the German invasion of France. Her remarkable story has been the subject of multiple biographies and television mini-series.įor fighting the good fight against the Nazi war machine, we honor Nancy Wake as this week’s Thursday Hero. She could be found every morning at the hotel bar, drinking her first gin and tonic of the day. She lived at the Stafford Hotel near Picadilly, her expenses largely paid for by the hotel’s owners, who were honored to host a renowned heroine. Nancy’s husband died in 2001, and she returned to London permanently. Nancy’s autobiography, The White Mouse, was published in 1985 and became a bestseller. She married a Royal Air Force officer in 1957 and for the next several decades they divided their time between London and Australia. Nancy continued to work as an intelligence agent. I was really surprised.”Īnother time, Nancy’s wireless operator was shut down in a German raid, and she rode her bicycle over 300 miles through German checkpoints to deliver the secret codes.Īfter the war, Nancy was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom, the Medaille de la Resistance, and the Croix de Guerre, among many other honors. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. She later described how she did it, “They’d taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE and I practiced away at it. Nancy was a highly successful recruiter, and is credited with bringing 7500 fighters into the resistance.įrom April 1944 until the liberation of France in August 1944, Nancy’s band of maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1400 casualties while sustaining only 100 of their own.Īt one point, Nancy killed an SS guard with her bare hands to stop him from raising the alarm during a raid. Her assignment involved collecting and distributing arms and equipment that were sent in by parachute. Nancy, on her way across the Pyrenees to Spain, was unaware of her husband’s death until after the war. Her husband stayed behind, and he was captured, tortured and killed by the Gestapo. By 1943, she was the most wanted resistance fighter, with a 5 million franc price on her head.Īfter Nancy’s maquis network was betrayed, she fled France. Nancy led repeated attacks on Gestapo headquarters. Nancy described her method of avoiding detection by the Germans: “A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I’d pass their German posts and wink and say, ‘Do you want to search me?’ God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was.” The Gestapo called Nancy the “White Mouse.” They tapped her phone and intercepted her mail. After Germany invaded France, she helped Allied POW’s and other personnel escape the country. Speaking perfect French, she worked with the “maquis” – guerrilla bands of resistance fighters. Nancy became a courier for the French resistance. She later said, “I resolved there and then that if I ever had the chance I would do anything to make things more difficult for their rotten party.” She was shocked to see roving gangs of Nazis beating up Jews, and never forgot the sight of Jews chained to massive wheels and rolled through the streets. Stationed in Vienna, Nancy witnessed the rise of Nazism. She ran away from home at age 16 and went to London, where she became a self-taught journalist.Īs a young woman, Nancy described herself as someone who loved nothing more than a “good drink and handsome men, especially French men.” In 1930 she married Henri Edmond Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist.ĭuring the 1930’s Nancy worked for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. Nancy Wake was a gutsy journalist from Australia who became a leader of the Allied resistance and killed a Nazi with her bare hands.īorn in New Zealand in 1912, Nancy was raised in Sydney. Home / Heroes / Resistance Fighter – Nancy Wake
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