When Nancy was 20-months-old, her parents moved to Sydney, where she grew up, chafing under the confines of genteel society. From 1940 to 1944 Germany ruled France. Nancy Wake's Importance in History. Twelve of the 39 women operatives were killed by the Germans and three who returned had survived imprisonment and torture at Ravensbruck concentration camp. Then an aunt in New Zealand sent her £200 – a princely sum in those days. (See discussion point from a reader regarding the accuracy of these figures). Nancy Wake was born on the gusty heights of Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand, on 30 August 1912 to Charles Augustus and Ella Rosieur Wake. The Maquis had a difficult withdrawal and took many casualties. Later when working with the Maquis she insisted that amongst the weapons and ammunition dropped to her were silk stockings and Elizabeth Arden face cream! Aged 19 she became a journalist based in Paris, New York and London. “I got back and they said, “how are you?” I cried. With a force of only 500 who were heavily out-numbered and lightly armed they were not equipped to take on a pitched battle with battle-hardened troops supported by heavy weapons, armour and aircraft. “I’ve always got on very well with the French, perhaps because I’m very natural.”. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Escape was not easy. The Frenchmen could not believe what they saw and considered her to be completely mad. Apparently she sold her medals to make ends meet and commented on the medal sale saying ‘When I die I will go to hell and they will melt anyway!’. In Vienna she saw horrific Dantescan scenes: Jews chained to massive wheels, rolled around the streets, and whipped by Nazi stormtroopers in a city square. In later years Nancy moved to a Star & Garter Home. Nancy Wake, Escape Line courier, French Resistance worker and SOE agent, a free spirit, self-disciplined, fearless, and determined. Many were offered the opportunity to join the Allies and fight in uniform. Then, she is like five men.”. “I was a loner and I had a good imagination.” She was a rebel, in particular shunning her mother’s strict religious beliefs. The White Mouse was highly respected by the 8,240 Maquisards, (18 Groups) she commanded. The line had been broken again. After five failed attempts to cross the Pyrenees, she was on her way to Perpignan by train along with allied evaders also aiming to cross the Pyrenees, when a railway official dashed in saying the Germans were going to check the train. Summary: At the age of 20, Nancy Wake left Australia to travel and settle in pre-World War II France as a journalist. She was on safer ground, but had no news of her husband, who worked separately. The most decorated servicewoman of the conflict, she was code-named White Mouse, was a recipient of the George Medal, and was once the most wanted person in Europe. On returning to Paris Nancy worked with O’Leary on the Awards Bureau and confirmed with him that the man who had betrayed the Line, and O’Leary himself, had in turn been executed by her Maquis. Despite enjoying her residence at the hotel, Nancy Wake moved to the Star and Garter forces retirement home in 2003. Intensely loyal to Great Britain and France she was confident in what she did and felt no guilt. The ‘Gestapo’ who called Wake ‘The White Mouse’, declared a price of 5 million-franc on her head. On her return after her marathon cycle ride she was unable to walk or even get off her bicycle!! But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. At 16, Nancy made an ambitious move to run away and become a nurse. Wake used the money to travel to London and then to Europe where she worked as a journalist, swinging with a cosmopolitan set of independent and carefree young people. Her femininity worked well and she cleared the roadblock travelling at the side of her Gestapo escort. A later job with the Foreign Office brought Nancy into contact with many of her former Resistance comrades. Legend has it that the great Maori chieftain, Hone Heke, had loved Pourewa himself and had sworn death to them both, but had been killed in the Maori Wars before fulfilling his threat. “Young Nancy’s father, Charles, however, was of solid English stock…an extremely good-looking, tall man of easy, extroverted charisma and enormous warmth. Nancy Wake was a Reporter, but when Germany Occupied France there was a group formed. Nancy used her feminine charm to talk her way through roads blocks and other compromising situations. In 1940 following a chance encounter with a British officer in the Hotel du Louvre in Marseille, she became involved with the Resistance, which led to her courier work with the O’Leary Line where she assisted allied escapers and evaders out of occupied France to the Pyrenees. Dubai Here are some facts about Nancy Wake. No sector in the whole of France caused the Germans more trouble. According to her wishes, Nancy’s body was cremated privately at a small gathering of chosen friends. I just cried.”. In sum, Ella’s people went a long, long way back in New Zealand, and physically she was like the land itself, rustically beautiful. On one occasion Nancy cycled 500 km through several German checkpoints to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid. http://www.channel4.co.uk/history/microsites/C/ Soon after VE Day she heard that Pat O’Leary was on his way to Paris from Dachau and not well. In line with her request, the small group met up. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. I took the liberty of placing two white mice on the coffin. Her missions with the Resistance meant her life was in constant danger. She was the one person Gestapo wanted to get, she was #1 on his list. However, for many years she was never awarded a medal by the Australian government. “Wartime Heroes”: We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Video: Distributor Discovery Video, PO Box 550 Malvern, Victoria 3144, Australia Tel 61-3-563 9344, Fax 61-3-563 9885. There wasn’t an egg to be had for love nor money, and even if there had been why would I be frying it when I had men to do that sort of thing?”. Otherwise they were free to return home. She was known as the White Mouse for her uncanny ability to run rings around the Gestapo in occupied France, in spite of a 5m franc price on her head.. Nancy Wake tells the true story of Australia's greatest war heroine - the woman the Gestapo dubbed the 'White Mouse'. Wake was raised without affection by her embittered mother after her father had walked out on them. She obtained false papers that allowed her to stay and work in the Vichy zone in occupied France, and became deeply involved in helping to spirit a thousand or more escaped prisoners of war and downed Allied fliers out of France through to Spain. Operating from her flat, Nancy became a key courier travelling throughout southern France to deliver her parcels (evaders) from Nice, Nimes, Toulon, Cannes and Marseille onwards to Perpignan and the Pyrenees border areas. She and the other women recruited by the SOE were officially assigned to the First Aid Nursing Yeomantry and the true nature of their work remained a closely guarded secret until after the war. The sight fed an early determination to work against the Nazis and eventually led to her courageous role in the French resistance. Weitz, Margaret Collins (1995). Le Chemin de la Liberte (Pat O’Leary Line), The Forgotten Years – British Army Aid Group, Spain’s “Historic Memory” and Links with WWII, Escapers, Evaders and Helpers – Personal Stories. Although her house became a safe-house for the line and held evaders and escapers, to take the pressure of the house and Henri, Nancy bought a flat for the Resistance which she also used as a safe-house for evaders and men on the run. Throughout her life in the field she always tried, each night, to change into a nightdress. With a roar that makes both her name and nickname seem quaintly ironic this is Nancy at 89: “Somebody once asked me, ‘Have you ever been afraid?’ … Hah! World War II Resistance Figure. “He was the love of my life.” Together they had a charmed and sophisticated life of travel, dinner parties, champagne and caviar, residing in a luxury apartment on a hill overlooking Marseilles and its harbour. 1 I go into this in more detail throughout, but Nancy gave many interviews later in her life where subtle details don’t quite add up or fit. On one occasion, carrying a suitcase of supplies for the Resistance, she stopped to talk to a Gestapo Officer before he had chance to stop her. At one stage they had me cooking eggs and bacon to feed the men. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. One of Nancy’s evaders was Sir Lewis Hodges, the first Patron of ELMS. She had no entitlement to British pensions and always made her own way in the world. Her father was a journalist who went to live in New Zealand to make a movie about Maoris. She also worked for the French Resistance network. Wake was born in 1912 in New Zealand, and ran away from home at … Nancy Wake’s comrade Henri Tardivat perhaps best characterised the guerrilla chieftain: “She is the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. After making the final move back to England, Wake become a resident at the Stafford Hotel which had been a British and American forces club during the war. He was a journalist/editor by trade, then working on a Wellington newspaper. Fitzsimons, Peter (2000), “Unsung hero wants to die abroad”, The Sydney Mroning Herald, April 25, http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/25/text/pageone02.html. Her radio operator, Denis Rake, had opened ‘comms’ with London and informed Nancy that all had to carry out a fighting withdrawal under the cover of darkness. At 1225 Nancy, together with French and Spanish fighters, leapt from four cars, dashed into the building and cleared each room with grenades and machine-gun fire both upstairs and down, and within thirty seconds were back in their cars and away. There she could be found in the Stafford Hotel, then owned by Louis Burdet a Resistance friend from the South of France, where she had her own leather bar-stool at the end of the bar and where she could drink her gin & tonics. Her husband didn't tell him where I was hiding so he had got killed. Unknown to Nancy, at the time she was edging towards safety, Henri was being harshly interrogated by the Gestapo in Marseille to find out where she was. The hotel’s owners welcomed her warmly, absorbing most of the costs of her stay – helped occasionally by anonymous donations. For goodness sake did the Allies parachute me into France to fry eggs and bacon for the men? Amongst her equipment that night were two French nightdresses and cosmetics. On the 17 August 2011 I again travelled south, this time to say goodbye to Nancy as she made her final Home-Run. She had to shoot her way out roadblocks; and execute a German female spy. It was a glamorous life of parties and travel, and she lived it to the full. On one of these attempts she was captured by the French Milice (Vichy militia) in Toulouse and interrogated for four days. Her husband was executed by the German and she worked as a nurse, a journalist, a courier & finally a spy for the UK. Dec 11, 2012 - Explore Hil Cook's board "Nancy Wake", followed by 201 people on Pinterest. Nancy could also be harsh and tough and was reputably able to swear in the French language in the coarsest of terms. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEwake.htm 2021 WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society. New York. The car burst into flames as she returned to the Frenchmen. Promised reparations of over F5,000,000, Nancy received almost nothing (£70). After the war her achievements were heralded by medals and awards: the George Medal from Britain for her leadership and bravery under fire, the Resistance Medal, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur and Croix de Guerre with two bronze palms and a silver star from France, and the Medal of Freedom from America. The car was raked with bullet holes. He went to New Zealand to make a movie about the Maoris, and he never came back. She spent her childhood in Sydney and after her studies she traveled to Europe where she worked as a journalist. A fake French ID card, left, on which Nancy Wake was known as Lucienne Carlier. The French Commissaire fully understood. Peter Fitzsimons also wrote that Nancy never rode a bike again for the rest of her life and she lived to be 98, dying in 2011. With Noni Hazlehurst, John Waters, Randall Berger, Richard Boué. A Memorial service was held later for Nancy’s many friends and comrades to pay their respects and remember her remarkable life. Nancy Wake continued to work with the SOE after the war, working at the British Air Ministry in the Intelligence Department. She grew up a strikingly beautiful woman. Born in New Zealand, Nancy grew up in Australia. Composite by Matt Fratus/Coffee or Die Magazine. As the 1930s progressed, the rise of German Fascism formed the basis of … So for their struggle, they need information. Initially the French would not deal with her and only wanted the money that they thought she had. London During the ensuing battle Nancy visited each sector and Maquis to deliver ammunition and reassure. At the age of 16, she ran away from home and worked as a nurse. In 1939 Nancy married a handsome wealthy French industrialist, Henri Fiocca, in Marseilles (apparently seduced by his proficiency in tango). Not averse to a drink or two, she frequented and dined in the luxury hotels in Marseille and Paris and lived ‘the good life’ to the full. Nancy Wake was the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo’s most-wanted person. He was a dapper dresser who never seemed to have a worry in the world.”. Nancy had worked with the resistance in 1940 and was there still in 1944, she knew the people and shared their attitudes and their sorrow. With stills and footage, septuagenarian Wake reconstructs her involvement with the French Resistance. http://www.gendergap.com/military/Warriors-2.htm. She was never betrayed. Page on Wake from the site for the Channel 4 television documentary series, Behind Enemy Lines – The Real Charlotte Grays. In 1960 she married a former prisoner of war, Englishman John Forward, and returned to Australia to live. By the end of September 1944, the war had effectively ended for Nancy and her Maquis fighters. I’ve never been afraid in my life.” The Sunday Times (South Africa) describes her as a real-life Charlotte Gray “whose exploits with the French Resistance make Sebastian Faulks’s fictional Charlotte Gray – read like an Enid Blyton girls’ school frolic.”. One of the chosen targets was the local Gestapo headquarters at Montlucon that caused particular problems for the Resistance and the local population. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. She ran away from home when she was 16 because she was unhappy and wanted to take charge of her own life, and to find love. Right, Wake is presented with flowers in 1945 after being hailed a hero following the war. Of all the amazing things she did during the war, Nancy believes this marathon ride was the most useful. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. In England, Nancy was invited by SOE for training and a return to operations in France; she trained and complained. Born in New Zealand, Nancy lived in Sydney with her mother and siblings when she was growing up. Mme Sainson’s house was a risky choice, she always had a house full of airmen and soldiers, over thirty at any one time. Picture of Nancy from the Channel 4 TV documentary series Behind Enemy Lines – The Real Charlotte Grays, See the excellent biography of the ‘White Mouse’ by Australian journalist Peter Fitzsimons, Nancy Wake: A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine, published by Harper Collins, 2001. Ms. Wake left home at 16, worked briefly as a nurse, and managed with the help of a small inheritance from an aunt to leave Australia at age 20. On 29 April 1944, now holding the rank of Captain, Nancy was parachuted back into France, into the Auvergne near Montlucon, together with another agent. The Mayor of Montlucon announced that later in the year a plaque would be installed in the village in memory of the local Resistance and Nancy. She became a suspect and was watched. (1994), “Official snub prompts roar from angry White Mouse”, The Evening Post, April 30, p.16. However, through the intervention of Ian Garrow and a former evader who she had hidden in her Marseille flat and was now a Colonel in the SOE, she returned to training, where amongst her many friends was Violette Szabo. She collected and distributed weapons and ensured that her radio operatives maintained contact with the SOE in Britain. Although heavy thunder-storms had been forecast, the rain held off and the sun shone throughout until the ceremonies were over. Nancy Wake had a difficult childhood growing up in Sydney. Copyright White Mouse Productions 1987, Time Magazine article on Wake: Wake entry on UK educational website, Spartacus Educational She made a dash for the car, wrenched open the door and grabbed a parcel just as the aircraft returned. Inevitably, living a very dangerous lifestyle, she was arrested and badly beaten under interrogation for four days, but kept to her cover story and betrayed no one. See more ideas about nancy wake, women in history, nancy. Miss Wake became a nurse before an inheritance from a New Zealand aunt enabled her to run away from home in 1931 and fulfil her dream of travelling to New York, London and … Now joined by a Spanish Maquis, with a good knowledge of explosives, they also blew bridges across the main rivers. Wake settled in Paris, working for the Hearst group of newspapers as a journalist. Sonya d’Artois, a lifelong friend who trained with Nancy and also dropped into France for SOE, described Nancy as ‘Very feminine, but as tough as any man.’ A Resistance friend also described her as ‘The most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts, then she is like five men.’ Another Resistance veteran said, ‘I do not know what effect Nancy had on the Germans, but by God she frightened me! Her agent said he hoped all trees could bear such beautiful fruit. In late April 1944, Nancy Wake and another SOE operative, Major John Farmer, were parachuted into the Auvergne region in central France with orders to locate and organise the bands of Maquis, establish ammunition and arms caches from the nightly parachute drops, and arrange wireless communication with England. Nancy led from the front and took part in ambushes, sabotage and raiding parties. Nancy Wake was far from a damsel in distress, and by the end of the war was number one on the Gestapo's Most Wanted list. And I left and I never saw him again.”. This was all gift-wrapped and I carefully carried it all the way to south London from North Yorkshire by train, without mishap! She could usually flirt her way out of trouble. She became a saboteur, organiser and Resistance fighter who led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis. He sold our house from under us and we were kicked out.” Wake ran away from home at 16 and went to work as a nurse. At that time, with perfect German punctuality, the Gestapo would be gathering for their meal at 1230. 375 of the 469 SOE operatives in the French Section survived the war. She left for the world. When war broke out she was a young woman married to a wealthy Frenchman living a life of luxury in cosmopolitan Marseilles. Of all the things Nancy accomplished during the war she was reportedly most proud of her epic bicycle ride – 400 km in 72 hours. Hidden in a convent before arriving at the side of her Gestapo escort, maybe... 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