Back to the Fighting Nancy Wake, then 31, became one of 39 women and 430 men in the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive which worked with local resistance groups to sabotage the Germans in the occupied territories.  She was trained at a British Ministry of Defense camp in Scotland in survival skills, silent killing, codes and radio operation, night parachuting, plastic explosives, Sten guns, rifles, pistols and grenades. She and the other women recruited by the SOE were officially assigned to the First Aid Nursing Yeomantry and the true nature of their work remained a closely guarded secret until after the war. Poster for the war office by Abram Games,  “Your Talk May Kill Your Comrades”, 1942. >>>

In late April 1944, Nancy Wake and another SOE operative, Major John Farmer, were parachuted into the Auvergne region in central France with orders to locate and organise the bands of Maquis, establish ammunition and arms caches from the nightly parachute drops, and arrange wireless communication with England. Their mission was to organise the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day invasion. The Resistance movement's principal objective was to weaken the German army for a major attack by allied troops. Their targets were German installations, convoys and troops. When dropped over Auvergne Nancy's parachute became stuck in a tree. Her agent said he hoped all trees could bear such beautiful fruit. Nancy told him not to give her 'that French shit'.

There were 22,000 German troops in the area and initially 3-4,000 Maquis. Gaspard’s recruitment work, with the help of Wake, bolstered the numbers to 7,000. Nancy led these men in guerrilla warfare, inflicting severe damage on German troops and facilities. She collected and distributed weapons and ensured that her radio operatives maintained contact with the SOE in Britain. (See discussion point from a reader regarding the accuracy of these figures).

On one occasion Nancy cycled 500 km through several German checkpoints to replace codes her wireless operator had been forced to destroy in a German raid. Without these there would be no fresh orders or drops of weapons and supplies. Of all the amazing things she did during the war, Nancy believes this marathon ride was the most useful. She covered the distance in 71 hours, cycling through countryside and mountains almost non-stop. Her focus was rock steady to the end of her epic journey, when she wept in pain and relief.
      

No sector gave the Reich more cause for fury than Nancy’s – the Auvergne, the Fortress of France. Methodically the SS laid its plans and prepared to obliterate the group, whose stronghold was the plateau above Chaudes-Aiguwes. Troops were massed in towns all around the plateau, with artillery, mortars, aircraft and mobile guns. In June 1944 22,000 SS troops made their move on the 7,000 Maquis. Through bitter battle and escape, Nancy and her army had cause to be satisfied: 1,400 German troops lay dead on the plateau, 100 of their own men.

Nancy continued her war: she personally led a raid on Gestapo headquarters in Montucon, and killed a sentry with her bare hands to keep him from alerting the guard during a raid on a German gun factory. She had to shoot her way out roadblocks; and execute a German female spy.

Victory and Sadness

Within a year Germany was defeated. 375 of the 469 SOE operatives in the French Section survived the war. Twelve of the 39 women operatives were killed by the Germans and 3 who returned had survived imprisonment and torture at Ravensbruck concentration camp. In all 600,000 French people died because of World War II, 240,000 of them in prisons and concentration camps.
     

After the war her achievements were heralded by medals and awards: the George Medal from Britain for her leadership and bravery under fire, the Resistance Medal, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur and Croix de Guerre with two bronze palms and a silver star from France, and the Medal of Freedom from America.

However she was never awarded a medal by the Australian government. When the Australian Returned Services League recommended that Wake be awarded a medal, they were turned down. Angry at the Australian government’s attitude, Wake decided that she would never accept a medal from them: she vowed it would go down in history that the most decorated Australian had never been awarded an Australian medal.  The Sydney Morning Herald (April 28th, 2000) surmised that she was turned down for a medal because she was born in New Zealand and was considered a New Zealand citizen. In 1994 she refused to donate her medals to the Museum of Australia and proclaimed to the New Zealand Press Association in Sydney (Evening Post, April 30, 1994)  that she was still a New Zealander and reminded the press that she had kept her New Zealand passport, despite her 80 year absence from the country.
   

In 1987 a television mini-series was made about her life. However the subject was irritated by historical liberties that were taken with her life story, such as showing her having an affair while working for the Resistance in Auvergne:

"What do you think my bosses in England would have thought, all those thousands of pounds to train me and for me to go and have an affair. Really!

"The mini-series was well-acted but in parts it was extremely stupid. At one stage they had me cooking eggs and bacon to feed the men. For goodness sake did the Allies parachute me into France to fry eggs and bacon for the men? There wasn’t an egg to be had for love nor money, and even if there had been why would I be frying it when I had men to do that sort of thing?"

Nancy Wake’s comrade Henri Tardivat perhaps best characterised the guerrilla chieftain: "She is the most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. Then, she is like five men."

Nancy Wake, lives at Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia, but has recently expressed a desire to spend the remaining years of her life abroad, either in Britain, where many of her friends are, or France, where she rose to international fame during WWII (see postscript).  

"The people of Port Macquarie have been wonderful to me, as have most individual Australians I've met, but I just feel I would be better off in the UK or France where I could go to special occasions as a member of a services club." 

Demonstrating the esteem with which she is held internationally, in France when she is wearing the rosette of her Officer de Legion d'Honneur, all the gendarmes halt and salute her. Asked if her desire to leave could be swayed if the Australian Government were to at last acknowledge her achievements with an Australian honour she replied flatly and with characteristic vigour,

"No. The last time there was a suggestion of that I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts.  The thing is if they gave me a medal now, it wouldn't be love so I don't want anything from them".

Nancy Wake: A lover and a fighter.  She is just as assertive about what will happen to her body when she, improbable as it seems, is gone, assured that this wake will be a respectful one:

"I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes to be scattered over the mountains where I fought with the resistance.  That will be good enough for me".