Nancy Wake (1912-2011)

DOSSIER:
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, daughter of Charles Augustus Wake and Ella Rosieur, was born on 30 Aug 1912 in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand. She died on 30 Aug 1912 in London, England.

In 1937, she met wealthy French industrialist Henri Edmond Fiocca, whom she married on 30 Nov 1939. She was living in Marseilles, France when Germany invaded.

CODE NAMES:
Helene
Andree
White Mouse
Witch

After the fall of France in 1940, Nancy became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the Escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. In reference to Wake's ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the "White Mouse." The Resistance had to be very careful with her missions; her life was in constant danger, with the Gestapo tapping her phone and intercepting her mail.

By 1943, she was the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head. When the network was betrayed that same year, she decided to flee Marseilles. Her husband, Henri Fiocca, stayed behind; he was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo. Until the war ended, she was unaware that Gestapo had tortured him to death in 1943 for refusing to disclose her whereabouts. She subsequently blamed herself for it.

Nancy had been arrested in Toulouse, but was released four days later. An acquaintance managed to have her let out by making up stories about her supposed infidelity to her husband. She succeeded, on her 6th attempt, in crossing the Pyrenees to Spain. 

After reaching Britain, she joined the Special Operations Executive. Vera Atkins, who also worked in the SOE, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well." Training reports record that she was "a very good and fast shot" and possessed excellent field craft. She was noted to "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character."

On the night of 29/30 Apr 1944, she was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat in the Forest of Tronçais. Upon discovering her tangled in a tree, Captain Tardivat greeted her remarking, "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year," to which she replied, "Don't give me that French shit." Her duties included allocating arms and equipment that were parachuted in and minding the group's finances. Nancy became instrumental in recruiting more members and making the maquis groups into a formidable force, roughly 7,500 strong. She also led attacks on German installations and the local Gestapo HQ in Montluçon.

At one point Nancy discovered that her men were protecting a girl who was a German spy. They did not have the heart to kill her in cold blood, but she did. She said after that it was war, and she had no regrets about the incident.

From April 1944 until the liberation of France, her 7,000+ maquisards fought 22,000 SS soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while suffering only 100 themselves. Her French companions, especially Henri Tardivat, praised her fighting spirit, amply demonstrated when she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him from raising the alarm during a raid.

During a 1990s television interview, when asked what had happened to the sentry who spotted her, Wake simply drew her finger across her throat. "They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."

On another occasion, to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid, she rode a bicycle for more than 310 miles through several German checkpoints. During a German attack on another maquis group, Nancy, along with two American officers, took command of a section whose leader had been killed. She directed the use of suppressive fire, which facilitated the group's withdrawal without further losses.

Immediately after the war, she was awarded the George Medal, the United States Medal of Freedom, the Médaille de la Résistance, and thrice the Croix de Guerre. After the war, she worked for the Intelligence Department at the British Air Ministry attached to embassies in Paris and Prague.

Wake left Australia just after 1951 and moved back to England. She worked as an intelligence officer in the department of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff at the Air Ministry in Whitehall. She resigned in 1957 after marrying an RAF officer, John Forward, in December of that year. They returned to Australia in the early 1960s. Around 1985 they left Sydney and retired in Port Macquarie.

In 1985, Nancy published her autobiography, The White Mouse, a bestseller that has been reprinted many times. After 40 years of marriage, John Forward died at Port Macquarie on 19 Aug 1997; the couple had no children. She left Australia for the last time in 2001 and emigrated to London. She died at Kingston Hospital on 7 Aug 2011 after being admitted with a chest infection. Her ashes were scattered near the village of Verneix, near Montlucon, on 11 Mar 2013.