[August 30, 2016] For a vibrant, open society to have heroes is necessary like a living animal having blood that flows through its veins. A hero helps us define the limits of our aspirations in life and so it is with Nancy Wake, the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of World War II. Her story is one of daring, courage, and optimism in the face of impossible odds.1
“When we stop recognizing heroes, we stop having heroes.” – Unknown
Most of us value courage and optimism and wish for a dash of daring in our lives. Those traits define Nancy Wake but it doesn’t get to the heart of why she resisted the Nazi Empire during the war. When war broke across Europe, Wake was a young woman married to a wealthy Frenchman living in luxury. Later she would become one of the most wanted Resistance fighters and code-named “The White Mouse” because of her uncanny ability to elude capture.
Nancy Wake was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia but bucked under the rules of a genteel society. “I was a loner and I had a good imagination,” she once said. But she was a rebel in her family, rejecting her mother’s religious beliefs and much of the values of the upper class. At 16 she ran away from home to London and then to France where she worked as a journalist.
In 1940, when the French Resistance was in its infancy, she joined as a courier, smuggling messages and food to underground groups. Being the wife of a wealthy businessman she was able to travel more than her contemporaries and she used her connections to obtain false papers that she put to good use. She is credited with helping an estimated one thousand escaped prisoners of war and down Allied fliers out of France through to Spain.
“She is the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. Then she is like five men.” – Henri Tardivat, French Guerrilla Chieftain
By 1943, Nancy Wake was Number 1 on the Nazi Gestapo’s most wanted list. She later escaped France and became one of only 39 women in the British Special Operations Executive branch that operated in Nazi occupied territories in sabotage. Her heroic exploits are well documented and I recommend a reading of those sources for a flavor of her actions.
Nancy Wake passed away on August 7, 2011 and remained, right up to her death, that she wanted her ashes scattered over the mountains where she “fought with the resistance. That will be good enough for me.”
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