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What is Nancy Wake famous for?
Wake worked manning the dangerous escape routes through France helping to save the lives of many Allied troops and Jewish refugees. She was given her code name ‘The White Mouse’ by the Gestapo. Wake became one of the Gestapo’s most wanted resistance leaders and Wake was forced to flee France.
Why did Nancy Wake join the resistance?
Having earlier witnessed the brutality of the Nazi regime as a journalist, Wake joined the French Resistance in 1940 and risked her life in a network helping Jewish people and Allied servicemen to escape. Wake hated war but believed that if it came, she, like other women, needed to play an active part.
What did Nancy Wake do as a spy?
Nancy Wake set two of the girls free, but she suspected that a third was a German spy. After interrogating and exposing her, Wake ordered the resistance group to shoot the informer. Wake also said that she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him from raising the alarm during a raid.
What did Nancy Wake do for the French Resistance?
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011) (also known as 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.
Why was Nancy Wake Most Wanted?
Nancy Wake was a crusading journalist who became one of the most respected and feared secret agents during the German invasion of France. A leading figure in the French Resistance, she was deemed the White Mouse by the Gestapo due to her uncanny ability to elude capture.
Why is Nancy Wake a hero?
Trained by British intelligence in espionage and sabotage, Wake helped to arm and lead 7,000 resistance fighters in weakening German defenses before the D-Day invasion in the last months of the war. The United States awarded her its Medal of Freedom and Britain, the George Medal.
Who Did Nancy Wake remarry?
After the war, Britain awarded Wake the George medal, the United States gave her the Medal of Freedom and France honoured her with the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre – three times – and the Légion d’Honneur. In 1957, Wake married John Melvin Forward, a former RAF fighter pilot.
What was Nancy Wake famous for?
Nancy Wake (1945) Nancy Grace Augusta Wake (30 August 1911 – 7 August 2011) known as the “White Mouse”, was an Australian who worked as a spy for the British in World War II.
What was Nancy Wake role in the war?
Nancy was an extraordinary woman and was one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II, playing a significant role in the Allied resistance to German occupation. Trained in hand-to-hand combat, espionage, sabotage, and able to drink almost all of her male counterparts under the table, Nancy Wake was known as one of the most fearsome French
What are the achievements of Nancy Wake?
Getty Images Nancy Wake after World War II. Her most notable achievement came when the SOE was raiding a German gun factory . As an investigating SS sentry was about to raise the alarm and give her and her crew away, Wake killed the guard with her bare hands.
Who is Nancy Wake husband?
In brief: Nancy Wake is living in Marseilles with her husband, French industrialist Henri Fiocca, when German troops occupy France in 1940.