Nancy Wake

Introduction

                Nancy Wake was one of the great yet unknown heroines of World War II. Her work in France saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands. She was strong yet beautiful, and is a fascinating character to study. 

Life Before World War II

                Nancy Grace Augusta Wake was born on August 30, 1912. She was the youngest of six children. Although she was born in New Zealand, she moved to North Sydney, Australia, with her family in 1914. She lived in Australia for the following years, going to the North Sydney Household Arts School. However, this life was too tame for an adventurer like Nancy.

                When she was 16 years old, Nancy ran away from home and traveled to America and Europe. She officially arrived in Europe in 1932, and then Vienna in 1935. She worked first as a nurse, which was what she originally ran away to do. However, she also trained herself to be a journalist and bluffed her way into a job as such. She faked fluent Egyptian – the man who was offering the job loved Egyptian, and Nancy wrote in a messy shorthand that she passed by him as Egyptian. And so she landed the job she desired.

                During her time in Vienna in the 1930s, Nancy noticed the anti-Semitism as roving groups of Nazis would attack and seriously injure Jews who were committing no crime. From that time, she fostered a deep dislike of the Nazis. In 1937, she met her future husband, Henri Edmond Fiocca. He was a slick French businessman, and she was fashionable young woman. Naturally, they took to each other and were married November 30 of 1939.

War Involvement

                They were happily living in Marseille, France, when the Germans invaded the country. It wasn’t long after that that Nancy became a vital part of the French Intelligence. In 1940, she was an ambulance driver. At the same time, she was a courier for the French Resistance. Shortly thereafter, some of the records of the French were captured and Nancy was forced to go into hiding due to the release of her information.

                Not long after that, she got incorporated with the escape network of Ian Garrow. She flirted with soldiers to get past the German checkpoints. One thing with which she helped was escorting soldiers across occupied France to safety in England.

                However, not surprisingly, she could no longer live safely in France and had to leave. Henri stayed behind, and they planned to reunite after the war. Nancy did not know, but not long after she left, the Gestapo arrested Henry and tortured him, trying to find her. They had no luck, and he soon died. Meanwhile, she tried multiple times to cross the Pyrenees Mountains to safety. Once, she was arrested in Toulouse – four days later, a friend got her released with a tall tale. On the sixth attempt, she made the crossing in the back of a coal truck.

                By 1943, Nancy had reached the top of the Gestapo’s most-wanted list. In fact, they put a five-million franc price on her head. However, she managed to consistently elude capture and continued to aid the Allies. 

In April of 1944, she parachuted into an area known as Auvergne. She provided the liaison between London and the local resistance group, also known as a maquis. She built the group of men she was in charge of into approximately 7500 strong. Once, her group of men went to fight against 22,000 Germans who challenged her. Her men were victorious – they caused 1400 casualties among the enemy and only suffered 100 among themselves. Another time, she learned that her men were sheltering a German spy who also happened to be a girl. Nancy suffered no compunctions about killing the girl in cold blood, and promptly did so. And on yet another occasion, she encountered a German guard, who would have shouted and given away their sneak attack. She killed him with a karate chop to his jugular – he died instantly. She was also in charge of organizing four parachute drops per week, dropping men, weapons, and supplies behind enemy lines.

The crowning achievement in her career, according to an interview she did many years later, was the time she rode a bike for 310 miles to replace the wireless codes that an operator had been forced to destroy. With the codes replaced for both parties, they managed to resume communication. The ride took her 71 hours straight, and included passing several German checkpoints.

In June of 1944, Nancy was one of 39 women and 430 men who parachuted into France to help with the preparations for D-Day, coming on June 6. They caught weapons and supplies as they were parachuted in and secreted them for later use.

Friends who knew her during the war described her with flashing eyes and a cheerful personality that put the soldiers to shame. She was a great shot with her gun, and had a strong character. Her quotes show a fine sense of humor, and she possessed an independent personality.

Life After the War

                Nancy loved her war work, and never felt as fulfilled after the war as she was during it. She was heartbroken to learn of the death of her husband, and felt guilty for it. But she won multiple medals from both the United States and England. She continued to work British Intelligence after the war, moving to England in 1951. In December of 1957, she married her second husband, John Forward, a RAF officer. He died in 1997.

                It was in 1985 that Nancy wrote her autobiography, titled “The White Mouse.” This nickname had been given her by the Gestapo on discovering her impressive skills at evading their vain capture attempts. In the 1990s, a documentary was made about her life, which she did not dislike – her main problem with any movie version of her life was when it insinuated that she had affairs during the war, claims that she staunchly denied. 

                She lived in hotels and war hero homes until her death from a chest infection on August 7, 2011. She was 98 years old. Her ashes were scattered in France in March of 2013, near where she had worked. She was the Allies’ most-decorated servicewoman of World War II.

Conclusion

                Nancy Wake lived a life that was full of impressive feats during the War. Her staunchness and survival were truly impressive with all that she accomplished. She deserves far more fame than she has received.