11/1/2022 0 Comments Nancy wake![]() ![]() Her husband, Henri Fiocca, stayed behind. When the network was betrayed that same year she decided to flee France. This gave the Germans and the Gestapo unrestricted access to all parts of Vichy France and made life more dangerous for Wake. In November 1942, Wehrmacht troops occupied Vichy France after the Allies' Operation Torch had started. I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas. The Resistance exercised caution with her missions her life was in constant danger, with the Gestapo tapping her telephone and intercepting her mail. In reference to Wake's ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the "White Mouse". After the fall of France in 1940, she joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow, which became the Pat O'Leary Line. During the war in France, Wake served as an ambulance driver. She was living in Marseille, France when Germany invaded. In 1937, Wake met wealthy French industrialist Henri Edmond Fiocca (1898–1943), whom she married on 30 November 1939. She witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement and "saw roving Nazi gangs randomly beating Jewish men and women in the streets" of Vienna. In the 1930s, she worked in Paris and later for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. With £200 (1928 currency) she had inherited from an aunt, she journeyed to New York City, then London where she trained herself as a journalist. Īt the age of 16, she ran away from home and worked as a nurse. ![]() In Sydney, Wake attended the North Sydney Household Arts (Home Science) School. Shortly thereafter, her father, Charles Augustus Wake, returned to New Zealand and her mother, Ella Wake (née Rosieur 1874–1968) raised the children. In 1914, her family moved to Australia and settled at North Sydney. Who was reportedly one of the first Māori women to marry a European. She was Māori through her great-grandmother Pourewa, believed to be of the Ngāti Māhanga iwi, īorn in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand, on 30 August 1912, Wake was the youngest of six children. In 1985, she published her autobiography, The White Mouse, the title derived from what she said the Germans called her. 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 (Knight - 1970 and Officer - 1988), a Companion of the Order of Australia from Australia (22 February 2004), and the Badge in Gold from New Zealand (2006). 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. She participated in a battle between the Maquis and a large German force in June 1944. 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"). NANCY WAKE CODEĪfter reaching Britain, Wake joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) under the code name "Hélène". In 1943, when the Germans became aware of her, she escaped to Spain and continued on to the United Kingdom. As a member of the escape network, she helped Allied airmen evade capture by the Germans and escape to neutral Spain. 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. By the 1930s, Wake was living in Marseille with her French industrialist husband, Henri Fiocca, when the war broke out. ![]() īorn in Wellington, New Zealand, Wake grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Foot, said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her". 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. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |