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Born in New Zealand in 1912, Nancy Wake was a nurse and a journalist who loved to kill Nazis. Possessing some Maori ancestry, she left home at the age of 16 to see the world, traveling to New York, London, Paris, and Vienna. In the latter, she witnessed the rise of Hitler and said fuck that guy and fuck all Nazis.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: April 29, 1944--
While living in Paris, Wake worked as a correspondent for Hearst Newspapers, but with the invasion of France by the fucking Nazis in 1940, she changed to being an ambulance driver. When France fell, she changed occupations yet again, this time becoming a resistance fighter helping downed Allied airmen to escape.
Called the Pat O’Leary Line (named after the pseudonym of an operative of British Intelligence) it was a resistance organization focused on the exfiltration of Allied soldiers, most of whom were aircrews. There were many such escape lines during the war, with the Pat O’Leary focused on helping soldiers evade capture via a route across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain, then to Britain. A hundred volunteers helped over 600 people escape during the war.
Nancy’s efforts made her the Gestapo’s most wanted person; they referred to her as the “White Mouse” for her ability to elude them. A stunning beauty, one way she’d prevent being searched at checkpoints was to go right up to a German guard and act all flirty and ask him, “Do you want to search me?”
She’d been operating out of Vichy, France, which was the southern part of France being run by fucking Nazi-collaborating French instead of fucking Nazi Germans. But in late 1942, with the Allied attack on German forces in Africa, Germany decided ah shit we better invade southern France, and they occupied that part too. Her network was betrayed to the Germans, and Nancy said ah fuck this shit is getting too dangerous and so in early 1943 she noped out to Britain. That was wise because her husband, a fellow member of the resistance, stayed behind, got caught and was tortured and executed.
She made it back to Britain and joined their spy agency, the Special Operations Executive, and spent the next year in training. Vera Atkins, who oversaw Nancy, said “Everything she did, she did well” and that her character and spirit “put the men to shame.” She was a great shot and skilled in unarmed combat.
On April 29, 1944, Nancy Wake parachuted back into France to assist with preparations for the coming D-Day landings. Her parachute got caught in a tree and a resistance leader found her and made a comment about trees bearing beautiful fruit, and she replied, “Don’t give me that French shit.” Wake organized getting arms to resistance fighters and also participated in numerous raids, personally killing a number of the enemy.
After the war Wake was awarded all the medals. She lived to be 98.
The book is now available! Get On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.