The "White Mouse" had died. May she raise as much hell in the afterlife as she did in life.

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Unsung Heroes: Nancy Wake

It’s 1944, you’re a member of the resistance in occupied France, and your vitally important radio codes have just been destroyed in a German raid. What do you do?

Nancy Wake c.1945

Well, if you’re Nancy Wake you cycle alone across 500km of enemy territory in order to find replacements. Who was Nancy Wake and what made her so astonishingly badass? Let’s step back to the start of World War II to find out.

A New Zealand-born nurse, Wake had travelled the world before settling in France in the 1930s. At the start of the war she was living with her new husband, industrialist Henri Fiocca, in the hills outside Marseille. Within months this would be occupied territory as Western Europe fell to the rapid advance of Nazi forces.

With a continent falling to the horrors of war, and possessing sufficient money to live comfortably anywhere in the world, many of us might say “hmm, perhaps it’s time to move to America.” Many of us might choose to keep our heads down, live the life of a wealthy socialite – a relatively safe course of action even in wartime. But not Nancy Wake. She became involved in the Resistance, delivering supplies and acting as a courier, purchasing a vehicle to serve as an ambulance for the care of refugees. Wake became more deeply involved with the Resistance as the war continued, becoming a key figure in the escape lines that helped smuggle escapees, downed airmen and Dunkirk survivors over the Pyrenees and into Spain. (And here it should be noted that Wake was far from the only woman to go to extraordinary risks to save the lives of escapees. Andrée de Jongh of the Belgian Comète Line and countless others performed acts of extraordinary heroism to do what they saw as a necessary task.)

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She could kill Nazis with her bare hands: Nancy 'the White Mouse' Wake has died

AFTER witnessing Hitler's early atrocities, Nancy Wake vowed to fight him any way she could.
She fought so well, she ended up on top of the Gestapo's wanted list, saved thousands of Allied lives, played a crucial role in D-Day and received France's highest military honour.

"Nobody can beat you Nancy, nobody," Sonya d'Artois told her old Resistance comrade when Wake was awarded Australia's highest civilian honour in 2004, six decades after the French recognised her.

She was resourceful, cunning, feisty, brave and tough, once killing a German sentry with her bare hands.

"She is the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then, she is like five men," one French colleague said of her. But, at the age of 98, Wake was finally beaten.

The White Mouse died in a London hospital yesterday following a chest infection.
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For three years, she set up escape routes for thousands of Allied soldiers and airmen and led a band of the Resistance, but had to flee over the Pyrenees to Spain and eventually England after being arrested in 1943.

In England, she was trained by the SOE as a spy and saboteur and was parachuted back into France on the night of February 29, 1944 to lead 7000 Resistance fighters on life-threatening missions distributing weapons and sabotaging Nazi installations before D-day.
One operation included an attack on the local Gestapo headquarters in Montlucon, central France, where she requested her ashes be scattered.

She was machine gunned by a German aircraft and cycled 500 kilometres for three days through German checkpoints carrying vital radio codes for the Allies, taking out a factory and dispatching that SS guard along the way.
At the end of the war she learned the Gestapo had tortured and killed Fiocca in 1943 when he refused to give her up.MORE

World leaders pay tribute to war heroine Nancy Wake

Yesterday world leaders rushed to pay tribute to her after her death in a London hospital following a chest infection.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: “Our nation honours a truly remarkable individual whose selfless valour and tenacity will never be forgotten. Nancy Wake was a woman of exceptional courage and resourcefulness whose daring exploits saved the lives of hundreds of Allied personnel and helped bring the Nazi occupation of France to an end.”

Her biographer Peter FitzSimons said: “They called her La souris blanche – the White Mouse – because every time they had her cornered she was gone again.

“Part of it was she was a gorgeous-looking woman. The Germans were looking for someone who looked like them, aggressive, a man with guns, and she was not like that.”

David McLachlan, president of the Returned and Services League of Australia, said: “She was very much involved in providing information for the planning of D-Day.

“She parachuted back in behind enemy lines after she’d been back to England. The Gestapo hated her, wanted her, more than anybody else. She was an incredibly brave woman.”

In one of her final interviews, aged 80, Nancy proved that, despite advancing years the feisty nature which made her a legend was still very much alive.

She said: “Someone once asked me, ‘Have you ever been afraid? Hah! I’ve never been afraid in my life.

“I loved killing Germans! I hated the Germans… I loathed and detested them, and as far as I was concerned the only good one was a dead one. And the deader the better.”

Calmly recalling the moment she karate-chopped a Nazi soldier to death, she said: “It had been raining and I thought that would be good because I wouldn’t make so much noise but I must have made a bit, because he turned around as I went to give him a karate blow and stuck his dagger in my arm.”MORE

1987 Documentary:

Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 1 of 6

Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 2 of 6

Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 3 of 6

Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 4 of 6


Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 5 of 6


Nancy Wake- Codename 'The White Mouse'(1987) Part 6 of 6


Film coming up: Bruce Beresford to direct film on Nancy Wake's life: The White Mouse

Australian director Bruce Beresford has signed on to direct feature film The White Mouse, about the country’s most decorated World War II servicewoman, Nancy Wake.

Produced by Peter Glover and Sue Milliken (Farscape, Sirens), the film – which hasn't raised finance – will tell the story of Wake, who died early Monday morning (Australian time) in London, aged 98. The announcement was made by a publicist on behalf of Milliken.MORE

Director Bruce Beresford reveals wishlist for Nancy Wake leading lady

AUSSIE film director Bruce Beresford has begun his search for the actress to play resistance fighter Nancy Wake in his upcoming biopic blockbuster, with Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman among those at the pointy end of his wishlist.

Currently in Sydney to direct the Opera Australia production of Of Mice And Men, Beresford has begun sending out his script for The White Mouse, with filming likely to begin early next year.

And the legendary Aussie director said he was eyeing a "big name" to help secure financing, with Watts and Kidman the obvious candidates.

"I'd like an Australian girl obviously but casting is still in the early stages," he said.

"I haven't sent any actresses scripts yet but there are some great (women) around who would suit the part," Beresford said yesterday, adding that a "perfect French speaking voice" was a pre-requisite.

"Most of the film is set in France and spoken in French. Otherwise it's just not credible."MORE

Resistance heroine who led 7,000 men against the Nazis

Nancy Wake, "the White Mouse" and the most decorated woman of the 1939-45 war, disliked people messing around with her life story. Small wonder. It was an extraordinary story and an extraordinary life.

Ms Wake, who has died in London just before her 99th birthday, was a New Zealander brought up in Australia. She became a nurse, a journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler, a wealthy French socialite, a British agent and a French resistance leader. She led 7,000 guerrilla fighters in battles against the Nazis in the northern Auvergne, just before the D-Day landings in 1944. On one occasion, she strangled an SS sentry with her bare hands. On another, she cycled 500 miles to replace lost codes. In June 1944, she led her fighters in an attack on the Gestapo headquarters at Montlucon in central France.

Work began earlier this month on a feature film about Nancy Wake's life. Ms Wake, one of the models for Sebastian Faulks' fictional heroine, Charlotte Gray, had mixed feelings about previous cinematic efforts to portray her wartime exploits, including a TV mini-series made in 1987.

"It was well-acted but in parts it was extremely stupid," she said. "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. Even if there had been why would I be frying it? I had men to do that sort of thing."

Ms Wake was also furious the TV series suggested she had had a love affair with one of her fellow fighters. She was too busy killing Nazis for amorous entanglements, she said.MORE

Nancy Wake Wikipedia Take a look at the list of her medals!!!!