But he was a bastard. Her father was a journalist who went to live in New Zealand to make a movie about Maoris. Nancy once said, "Freedom is the only thing worth living for. Her missions with the Resistance meant her life was in constant danger. She had no entitlement to British pensions and always made her own way in the world. 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. When warned that the Gestapo were on to her in Paris and Marseille, Nancy quickly kissed Henri goodbye and moved to the safe-house of Francoise Dissart in Toulouse. Nancy Wake was born in Wellington, New Zealand on August 30th, 1912. 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. When Nancy was 20-months-old, her parents moved to Sydney, where she grew up, chafing under the confines of genteel society. http://www.abc.net.au/btn/australians/wake.htm, Women Warriors in the 20th Century Nancy led these men in guerrilla warfare, inflicting severe damage on German troops and facilities. The Frenchmen could not believe what they saw and considered her to be completely mad. 0,9171,1107991025-33742,00.html, Official site to the Warner Bros movie Charlotte Gray (directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Cate Blanchett), with a reference to Nancy and NZEDGE in a section entitled ‘The Real Charlotte Grays’: George Medal – Legion d’Honneur – Croix de Guerre (3 times) – Medaille de la Resistance –Medal of Freedom – Companion of the Order of Australia. Coughlan, Kate. Nancy Wake was born in New Zealand but her family moved to Australia when she was 2. Her mother was a dogmatically strict religious woman. Luckily she still had money and finding the guides had also gone to ground, and O’Leary was captured, she took two of the airmen and boarded a train to Nice and the safe-house of Mme Sainson. Poster for the war office by Abram Games, “Your Talk May Kill Your Comrades”, 1942. Nancy continued her war: she personally led a raid on Gestapo headquarters in Montucon, and killed a sentry with her bare hands to keep him from alerting the guard during a raid on a German gun factory. In 1960 she married a former prisoner of war, Englishman John Forward, and returned to Australia to live. There were 22,000 German troops in the area and initially 3-4,000 Maquis. Throughout her life in the field she always tried, each night, to change into a nightdress. Wake settled in Paris, working for the Hearst group of newspapers as a journalist. On seeing the mouse Nancy burst into a smile and said ‘After all these years you still remember!’ The white sugar mouse took pride of place that day. By 1943, Wake was No.1 on the Gestapo’s most wanted list and there was a five million-franc price on her head. So for their struggle, they need information. (1994), “Official snub prompts roar from angry White Mouse”, The Evening Post, April 30, p.16. I knew too that freedom could not be permanent. The ‘Gestapo’ who called Wake ‘The White Mouse’, declared a price of 5 million-franc on her head. 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. Really! Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Wake moved with her parents and five siblings to Sydney, Australia, when she was two. 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. Right up to her death, she remained assertive about what would happen to her body: “I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes to be scattered over the mountains where I fought with the resistance. http://www.channel4.co.uk/history/microsites/C/ Nancy Wake was the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo’s most-wanted person. With Noni Hazlehurst, John Waters, Randall Berger, Richard Boué. Her husband didn't tell him where I was hiding so he had got killed. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Please leave a comment we’d love to hear your thoughts. The Resistance movement’s principal objective was to weaken the German army for a major attack by allied troops. http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/ In Paris Nancy’s independent spirit and good looks caught the eye of the rich industrialist Henri Fiocca, from Marseille, who she later married. She also carried cosmetics and had a string shopping bag on her handle-bars. 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. Otherwise they were free to return home. Nancy Wake, then 31, became one of 39 women and 430 men in the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive which worked with local resistance groups to sabotage the Germans in the occupied territories. It has to be defended at all cost, even if by doing so part of our own freedom has to be sacrificed. She's remembered for many things. Soon after VE Day she heard that Pat O’Leary was on his way to Paris from Dachau and not well. Nancy Wake's Importance in History. And the moon shone through her nightie……………. Nancy Wake was born on the gusty heights of Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand, on 30 August 1912 to Charles Augustus and Ella Rosieur Wake. In an English fort, the ditch…. ‘I needed these,’ she said and opened the box that included face cream, a red satin cushion, tea and other personal items. As it had been Nancy’s wish for her ashes to be scattered at Montlucon in central France where she fought in the heroic attack on the Gestapo Headquarters, on the 10th March 2013, a small group gathered in that beautiful area of the Auvergne to say a final farewell to Nancy Wake and to scatter her ashes in the woods surrounding the, now privately owned, Chateau de Fragne on the outskirts of the village of Verneix, near Montlucon, which had served as Nancy… Later she worked for British Intelligence, until 1957 when she again moved to Australia and married a former fighter pilot, John Forward. Twelve of the 39 women operatives were killed by the Germans and three who returned had survived imprisonment and torture at Ravensbruck concentration camp. 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. On Forward’s death Nancy returned again to London. Born in New Zealand, Nancy lived in Sydney with her mother and siblings when she was growing up. On one occasion, when caught drinking, Nancy was dismissed from the course and asked to return her FANY uniform. Despite enjoying her residence at the hotel, Nancy Wake moved to the Star and Garter forces retirement home in 2003. These cookies do not store any personal information. 375 of the 469 SOE operatives in the French Section survived the war. When the Australian Returned Services League recommended that Wake be awarded a medal, they were turned down. December 1940 saw her flat in Marseille hosting fifteen allied evaders, escapers and other fugitives for Christmas dinner; the group included Ian Garrow, who had an escape route in place (it later became the Pat O’Leary Line). She was a member of ELMS and a great supporter of the Society and its work. Of all the things Nancy accomplished during the war she was reportedly most proud of her epic bicycle ride – 400 km in 72 hours. She was trained at a British Ministry of Defense camp in Scotland in survival skills, silent killing, codes and radio operation, night parachuting, plastic explosives, Sten guns, rifles, pistols and grenades. Then, she is like five men.”. 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. (1994), “White Mouse puts her medals up for sale”, New Zealand Herald, April 14, Section 1 p. 9. Pat O’Leary escaped from St Hippolyte-du-Fort, was hidden in a convent before arriving at the Fiocca’s home. No sector gave the Reich more cause for fury than Nancy’s – the Auvergne, the Fortress of France. He was a dapper dresser who never seemed to have a worry in the world.”. She ran away from home at the age of 16 and found work as a nurse, but a windfall enabled her to leave Australia for Europe in 1932. She bought an ambulance and used it to help refugees fleeing the German advance. Many Gestapo were killed. Intensely loyal to Great Britain and France she was confident in what she did and felt no guilt. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEwake.htm She became a saboteur, organiser and Resistance fighter who led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis. Through bitter battle and then escape, Nancy and her army had cause to be satisfied: 1,400 German troops lay dead on the plateau, 100 of their own men. “I’ve always got on very well with the French, perhaps because I’m very natural.”. Nancy Wake (1912 – 2011) was a legend in her lifetime, an ordinary woman who accomplished extraordinary things. Nancy Wake had a difficult childhood growing up in Sydney. charlotte_gray/real_nancy.html, Nancy Wake: In 1939 Nancy married French industrialist Henri Fiocca who was killed during the War. 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. The Maquis had a difficult withdrawal and took many casualties. Nancy used her feminine charm to talk her way through roads blocks and other compromising situations. Here are some facts about Nancy Wake. 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!’. Now joined by a Spanish Maquis, with a good knowledge of explosives, they also blew bridges across the main rivers. 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. 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. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. A year after Nancy had left France in 1943, the Germans had captured Henri, tortured and executed him, because he refused to give them any information about the whereabouts of his wife. Apparently it had quite a saucy ending! Sisters in the Resistance: How Woman Fought to Free France 1940-45. 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. Nancy wake joins this group. She was the youngest of six children. Although heavy thunder-storms had been forecast, the rain held off and the sun shone throughout until the ceremonies were over. The Sydney Morning Herald (April 28th, 2000) surmised that she was turned down for a medal because she was born in New Zealand and was considered a New Zealand citizen. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. 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. Nancy returned to Marseille to deal with Henri’s estate, most of which had been stolen by the Gestapo including all of their expensive furniture (the flat had been used by women serving in the Marseille Gestapo). 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. In June 1944 22,000 SS troops made their move on the 7,000 Maquis. She was later released through the intervention of Pat O’Leary who, taking a very dangerous risk using an identity card of a senior member of the French Millice, stormed into the prison demanding to see the Commissaire. Nancy Wake passed away on 7 August 2011 at the retirement home where she had lived at the past eight years. On 25 August 1944, Paris was liberated and Wake led her troops into Vichy to celebrate. Within a year Germany was defeated. Right up to her death, she remained assertive about what would happen to her body: “I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes to be scattered over the mountains where I … He went to New Zealand to make a movie about the Maoris, and he never came back. The French Commissaire fully understood. It was a glamorous life of parties and travel, and she lived it to the full. They needed spies to do the job. However besides her courage and spirit of adventure Nancy was also a very wise and observant woman; to quote from her autobiography: “I already knew the horrors a totalitarian state could bring and long before the Second World was declared, I understood that the free world can only remain free by defending itself against any form of aggression. On one occasion when her house was raided her twelve-year-old daughter calmly removed a radio transmitter from the house, placed it in a box of rubbish and took it outside to the rubbish tip right past the Gestapo agents. 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! This miniseries event begins in 1939 when Nancy meets Henri Fiocca, while she is working on assignment as a journalist in Marseilles. 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. Director Neil Brown. Her story is one of daring, courage and optimism in the face of impossible odds. The Maquis were surrounded and a conference of all group leaders was hastily convened. Unable to locate a radio operator in the area Nancy decided to cycle the long journey to Chateauroux to try and find one of Rake’s contacts. Their mission was to organise the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day invasion. Her focus was rock steady to the end of her epic journey, when she wept in pain and relief. See more ideas about nancy wake, women in history, nancy. The order had come from General Konig who was with the Free French in London. And I left and I never saw him again.”. The Maquis wanted to fight to the death but were convinced by Nancy that they should fight a withdrawal action to enable them to fight another day. Martyn Cox, represented the Escape Lines Memorial Society and laid an ELMS wreath at the ceremony in the woods, but following the service the wreath was taken from the private Chateau grounds and relocated on the Resistance Memorial at Montlucon as a public display of recognition for Nancy Wake. Troops were massed in towns all around the plateau, with artillery, mortars, aircraft and mobile guns. Summary: At the age of 20, Nancy Wake left Australia to travel and settle in pre-World War II France as a journalist. Nancy told him not to give her ‘that French shit’. On 6 December 2001, Nancy left her home in Port Macquarie, Australia for good to spend her final years in her cherished Europe. Six months after they married, Germany invaded France. They code-named her ‘The White Mouse’ because of her ability to elude capture. On top of the financial struggle, her and her mother did not have a very strong relationship. 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. 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. 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. NZEDGE.COM EXECUTIVE EDITOR BRIAN SWEENEY, “In an English fort the ditch is deep, and outside the defences; in a New Zealand pa the ditch is shallow, and inside the palisades. Nancy Wake was a Reporter, but when Germany Occupied France there was a group formed. Nancy Grace Augusta Wake died on 07 August 2011 aged 98. The hotel’s owners welcomed her warmly, absorbing most of the costs of her stay – helped occasionally by anonymous donations. Nancy met him in Paris and for nearly a month nursed him back to reasonable health. She collected and distributed weapons and ensured that her radio operatives maintained contact with the SOE in Britain. Gaspard’s recruitment work, with the help of Wake, bolstered the numbers to 7,000. In England, Nancy was invited by SOE for training and a return to operations in France; she trained and complained. Initially the French would not deal with her and only wanted the money that they thought she had. Wake passed away at age 98, in 2011, at the Royal Star and Garter Home for Disabled Ex-Service Men and Women. The White Mouse was highly respected by the 8,240 Maquisards, (18 Groups) she commanded. 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. At one stage they had me cooking eggs and bacon to feed the men. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. London You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Nancy also delivered civilian clothing, documents and money. As the 1930s progressed, the rise of German Fascism formed the basis of … Mme Sainson’s house was a risky choice, she always had a house full of airmen and soldiers, over thirty at any one time. “I was a loner and I had a good imagination.” She was a rebel, in particular shunning her mother’s strict religious beliefs. Freedom will always be in danger because, alas, victory is not permanent. ”, first! We also use third-party cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the targets! And was reputably able to swear in the 20th Century http: charlotte_gray/real_nancy.html! Over F5,000,000, Nancy made an ambitious move to run away and become a nurse fighter pilot, Forward! 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