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As she nears her 97th birthday,  Nancy Wake resides in a home for veterans in  London, a living symbol of the courageous men and women of the French Resistance during World War II. For years she lived from the proceeds of selling her many medals, but she says “There was no point in keeping them because the memories of those times will stay with me until they scatter my ashes over the hills where so many gave their lives fighting for freedom.”

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, and raised in Sydney, Australia, Wake went to Europe in 1932 and became a freelance journalist for the Hearst newspaper group. A year later, she interviewed Adolph Hitler and immediately became disturbed about his intentions.

In November 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Wake married wealthy French industrialist Heri Fiocca and they settled in the port city of Marseilles, France.  But she soon became involved in the war effort, purchasing a venhicle and using it  both as an  ambulance and as means to transport food to the displaced people living in  refugee camps.

By the end of 1940, Wake had become a key member of the French Resistance, using her social position as cover to operate as a courier and later as a leader of the Allied Escape Route Organization where she helped more than a thousand political refugees, escaped prisoners, and downed airmen to safe passage from France across the Pyrenees Mountains  into  Spain.

The French flag with the Cross of Lorraine – emblem of the free French

In 1942 the Nazi Gestapo code-named Wake “The White Mouse” because of her remarkable ability to avoid capture. The Gestapo later made her number one on their most wanted list and offered 5 million francs for her beautiful head.  

Wake returned to England in 1943 to work with British intelligence, but on April 29, 1944, she parachuted into France to provide leadership for the 7,000 Resistance fighters preparing for the Allied D-Day invasion of June 6.

Henri Tardivat, one of Wake’s comrades described her as “absolutely fearless and the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then, she’s like five men.”

Wake organized parachute supply drops, distributed weapons, and carried on consistent radio contact with British intelligence.  Also a guerrilla fighter, Wake  led an attack on Gestapo headquarters in Montlucon, France, killing a  sentry with her bare hands. She then charged the position throwing grenades, machine gun blazing.

Once, when the Germans forced a wireless operator to destroy codes absolutely necessary for parachute drops, Wake went on a grueling bicycle journey through enemy territory, covering 500 km in 72 hours to find an operator to request new codes.

Even as Wake fought, however, the Gestapo arrested her husband and tortured him to death. He revealed absolutely nothing about the activities or his wife or her whereabouts.

Yes, glamorous and gutsy … a true heroine for the ages.

Nancy Wake, we who enjoy freedom thank you.