![]() in 1985.Īfter studying journalism in London, she became a correspondent for The Chicago Tribune in Paris and reported on the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany.Ī 1933 trip to interview Hitler in Vienna led her to become committed to bringing down the Nazis. Miss Wake became a nurse before an inheritance from a New Zealand aunt enabled her to run away from home in 1931 and fulfil her dream of travelling to New York, London and Paris, she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. When she was two the family moved to Sydney, but her father left the family soon after and returned to New Zealand. Her only Australian honour did not come until 2004, when she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.īorn on August 30, 1912, in the New Zealand capital of Wellington, Nancy Grace Augusta Wake was the youngest of six siblings. The United States awarded her its Medal of Freedom and Britain, the George Medal. ‘The Germans were looking for someone who looked like them: aggressive, a man with guns - and she was not like that.’įrance decorated her with its highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, as well as three Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Resistance. ‘Part of it was she was a gorgeous looking woman,’ he said. she was gone again,’ FitzSimons told Australian Broadcast Corp. ‘They called her the 'la Souris Blanche,' 'the White Mouse,' because every time they had her cornered. While distributing weapons, money and code books in Nazi-occupied France, she evaded capture many times and reached the top of the Gestapo's wanted list, according to her biographer, Peter FitzSimons. Trained by British intelligence in espionage and sabotage, Wake helped to arm and lead 7,000 resistance fighters in weakening German defences before the D-Day invasion in the last months of the war. It’s no wonder that she received no fewer than 12 medals of honour from Britain, Australia, France, New Zealand and the U.S. One of her comrades in the Resistance, Henri Tardivat, later described her as 'the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. Nancy cycled 300 miles in 72 hours, crossing several German checkpoints, so she could find an operator to radio Britain and get new codes. On one occasion in 1944, supply drops were threatened after the Nazis destroyed crucial radio codes. In an interview she conducted later about the incident, she illustrated how she neutralised the guard by simply drawing her finger across her throat. The Germans suffered 1,400 losses – the French, despite being heavily outnumbered, just 100.Īt one stage of the operation an SS sentry came close to raising the alarm – but Ms Wake killed him with her bare hands. The pinnacle of her remarkable career, however, may well have been a battle she fought in 1944 with 7,000 French liberation fighters against 22,000 SS troops. She was quickly parachuted back into enemy territory, where she bravely led attacks on German and Gestapo facilities. Somehow she managed to escape to Britain, where she signed up to the Special Operations Executive. Nancy Wake’s birth sign is Virgo and she had a ruling planet of Mercury.Second World War heroine Nancy joined the French resistance in 1940.Īnd within three years, her reputation was so great that the Germans put a huge price on her head – 5million francs.ĭespite having her mail and phone calls intercepted, she remained ice cool and undetected – even when the network was betrayed in 1943. People who are born with Mercury as the ruling planet have communication skills, intellect and cleverness. In Astrology, Mercury is the planet that rules our mindset. Ruling Planet: Nancy Wake had a ruling planet of Mercury and has a ruling planet of Mercury and by astrological associations Wednesday is ruled by Mercury. They hate hypocrisy and gossip and can sometimes be a bit arrogant and impatient. People born under this sign are energetic and excitable. The greatest overall compatibility with Virgo is Pisces and Cancer.Ĭhinese Zodiac: Nancy Wake was born in the Year of the Tiger. The strengths of this sign are being loyal, analytical, kind, hardworking, practical, while weaknesses can be shyness, overly critical of self and others, all work and no play. People of this zodiac sign like animals, healthy food, nature, cleanliness, and dislike rudeness and asking for help.
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