Nancy Wake | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Wake in 1945 | |
| Nickname(s) | Hélène (SOE) Andrée (French Resistance/SOE Identity) White Mouse (Gestapo in France) |
| Born | 30 August 1912 Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand |
| Died | 7 August 2011 (aged 98) London, England |
| Allegiance |  France United Kingdom |
| Service | Special Operations Executive First Aid Nursing Yeomanry |
| Years of service | 1943–1945 (SOE) |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Freelance |
| Battles / wars | Second World War |
| Awards | Companion of the Order of Australia George Medal Officer of the Legion of Honour (France) Croix de guerre (France) Médaille de la Résistance (France) Medal of Freedom (United States) RSA Badge in Gold (New Zealand) |
| Spouse(s) | Henri Fiocca (d. 1943) John Forward |
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011), also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry. The official historian of the SOE, M. R. D. Foot, said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her".[1] Many stories about her World War II activities come from her autobiography, The White Mouse, and are not verifiable from other sources.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Wake grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. By the 1930s, Wake was living in Marseille with her French industrialist husband, Henri Fiocca, when the war broke out. After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Wake became a courier for the Pat O'Leary escape network led by Ian Garrow and, later, Albert Guérisse. As a member of the escape network, she helped Allied airmen evade capture by the Germans and escape to neutral Spain. In 1943, when the Germans became aware of her, she escaped to Spain and then went to the United Kingdom. Her husband was captured and executed.[2]
After reaching Britain, Wake joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) under the code name "Hélène". On 29–30 April 1944 as a member of a three-person SOE team code-named "Freelance", Wake parachuted into the Allier department of occupied France to liaise between the SOE and several Maquis groups in the Auvergne region, which were loosely overseen by Émile Coulaudon (code name "Gaspard").[3] She participated in a battle between the Maquis and a large German force in June 1944. In the aftermath of the battle, a defeat for the Maquis, she claimed to have bicycled 500 kilometers to send a situation report to SOE in London.[4][2][5][6]
Wake was a recipient of the George Medal from the United Kingdom (17 July 1945), the Medal of Freedom from the United States (1947), the Légion d'honneur from France (1970: Knight; 1988: Officer), a Companion of the Order of Australia from Australia (22 February 2004), and the Badge in Gold from New Zealand (2006).[7][8]
- ^ Foot, M. R. D. (1966), SOE in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 365
- ^ a b "Nancy Wake, Proud Spy and Nazi Foe, Dies at 98" (New York Times, 13 August 2011)
- ^ "Nancy Wake: SOEs Greatest Héroïne" Braddon, Russell, 1956.
- ^ "Nancy Wake". The Telegraph. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
- ^ FitzSimons, Peter (8 August 2011). "The white mouse who roared". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
- ^ Kedward, H. R. (1993), In Search of the Maquis, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 162–169
- ^ "United States Medal of Freedom : Ensign N G A Wake, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Special Operations Executi". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ Hadley, Kathryn (8 August 2011). "Death of Nancy 'White Mouse' Wake". History Today. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.