Nancy Wake

her Achievements

Nancy attended North Sydney Girls High School for girls and at the age of 16 escaped from her home and worked as a nurse. Then, with a 200-pound inheritance from her aunt’s will, she left for London and New York alone where she qualified as a journalist. In the 1930s, she worked in Paris. She later served as a correspondent for the European Hearst Newspaper Network owned by William Randolph Hearst. Wake married in 1937 to a wealthy named Henry Fiocese and they both lived in Marseille which is in France. After the fall of France in the 1940s, Wake began to act as liaison for the French resistance movement. Because of her ability to evade the Gestapo, her name was called “White Mouse”. After exposure to the network she was in contact with, in December 1943, Wake left Marseille and separated from her husband, who remained in Marseille.

After six attempts, she crossed the Pyrenees to Spain. From Spain to England and joined the Special Operations Director on her behalf, she was ousted on the night of April 29, 1944, returned to France and worked to establish a link between London and the local resistance group. The cycle’s resistance activities and the recruitment of its members’ software by and under its leadership were attacks on the German facilities and the local Gestapo headquarters.