Nancy Wake was a journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.
After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Nancy became a courier for a Resistance network. The Maquis came to symbolize the French Resistance. She and her husband Henri Fiocca, helped Allied airmen evade capture by the Germans and escape to neutral Spain.
In 1943, when the Germans became aware of her, she escaped to Spain and continued on to Britain, where she joined the SOE and was trained in warfare and used her skills more than once to kill the enemy. She was fearless and as the chef de parachutage, was the ideal person to organise thousands of French troops with her no nonsense attitude. SOE began sending in large amounts of arms, equipment, and money. Her duties were organising the money, the men, and with other leaders, trained them to fight the Germans while living and hiding in the mountains with the Maquis before D-Day.
Nancy carried with her a list of the targets the Maquis were to destroy before the invasion of France by the Allies (which would take place on 6 June). The destruction of communication lines and railways by her network and others, led to German army units, such as Panzer divisions, being delayed to get to the front line after D-Day.
This helped the Allies to get a foothold in Normandy. She earned a price on her head of five million francs and a reputation by the Gestapo, who called her The White Mouse, because of her ability to slip away from them.
The bicycle ride
During the flight from the Germans, Rake, the radio operator, had left his radio and codes behind and the SOE team needed to be in contact with London. The nearest SOE radio and operator were in Chateauroux. She borrowed a bicycle and rode it to Chateauroux, found a radio near there, updated London on the situation, requested a new radio be included in the parachute drop for her radio operator, and then cycled back to Saint-Santin to prepare for the parachutage. She travelled 500 kilometres (310 mi) in 72 hours.
My book ‘She Is Behind Enemy Lines’ is inspired by Nancy’s exploits during World War 2. It is dedicated to the women of SOE who fought fearlessly against the Nazi occupation of Europe.