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Birth
Nancy Wake was born in a shack in New Zealand to Charles and Ella Wake. A Maori midwife delivered Nancy and, according to family stories, pointed out the kahu (a birth caul which is a thin, filmy membrane from the amniotic sac still attached to a baby at birth) saying that it foretold great luck. -
Bye, Mom
Nancy runs away from home and works as a nurse in a country insane asylum under an assumed name for 2 years. -
Hello, World
Thanks to a £200 bequest from her aunt, Nancy sails to New York, parties for awhile then heads off to London where she enrolls in journalism school. She has a large group of friends and lives a gay, carefree life even though she is broke most of the time. -
Paris, I am here!
Nancy gets her first job as a free-lance journalist for Hearst because she lies and say that she could speak and write Egyptian. She moves into a cheap, tiny flat on the top floor of a building in the rue Sainte-Anne in Paris. Nancy learns to cook, travels all over France, and revels in the Parisian nightlife. -
Vienna, you opened my eyes
Nancy travels to Vienna and Germany where she sees Jews being publicly persecuted. In Vienna, she witnesses about 12 Jews tied to a large wheel being whipped by Nazis. The Nazis confiscate the camera used to document the event. In Germany, she watches Stormtroopers scream at and whip Jewish shop keepers. Nancy develops a deep revulsion for the Nazis. She understands that "a free world can only remain free by defending itself against any form of aggression." -
Ooo, la, la Henri
When she is 24, Nancy meets millionaire Henri Fiocca in Marseilles. After a 3 year courtship, and over his family's objections, they marry. Henri loves indulging Nancy and she discovers that money makes life easier. -
Henri, you look good in that uniform
Henri is called up to serve in the army. Nancy wants to do her part, so he gets her an ambulance which she drives to the front. Nancy also adopts a poor solider and family and supplies them with food. Henri does not return until weeks after the fall of Paris. -
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Hiding in plain sight
Nancy, in spite of Henri's worries, takes on the role of courier. Her reputation as a social butterfly allows her to travel freely. She delivers "packages" (radios, messages, evaders, escapers) as she travels. Henri funds many of the activities of the Resistance. Nancy arranges an escape for Ian Garrow who is being held prisoner at Mauzac, a Vichyiste concentration camp. Nancy earns the name "the White Mouse" from the Germans who place a five million francs bounty on her head. -
Paris, you've broken my heart
Paris and France fall to the Nazis. The southern part of France under the Vichy government agrees to collaborate with the Nazis and remains unoccupied. -
Hello, sounds of home
After meeting Ian Garrow, a British soldier on parole, in Basso's bar in the Hotel du Louvre et Paix, She promises him 1000 cigarettes and a radio if he will come to dinner at her house. Garrow brings Leslie Wilkins with him. She serves Christmas dinner to fifteen Allied parolees, escapers, evaders, and others on the run from the Germans. Nancy becomes involved in the Resistance. -
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Hello, Spain...and England again
The Gestapo's net is closing on Nancy. She and Henri decide that she will take the escape route to Spain and that he will meet her in London. It took her 6 tries to make it over the Pyrennes. Once she had to jump from a moving train to avoid capture. She and the other evaders make a 47 hour trek over the Pyrennes (through a blizzard) into Spain. Nancy is captured in Spain but is freed after by the British Counsel and some bribes. After a couple of months, she takes a boat to England. -
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Hi, I am a spy
Nancy meets Ian Garrow again and undergoes training to be a saboteur. She passes her psychiatric interview by identifying all the inkblots as blots and being "cussed". Denis Rake, who had been in France himself, is her training officer. He is impressed with Nancy's. fearlessness and loyalty. Her reports say that her morale and sense of humor encourage others. Code name Helene in hand and a dirty limerick as a personal code, she parachutes into France with Hubert, a fellow trainee. -
On the road again
While on the run, Rake has buried his transmitter and destroyed his codes. Nancy and her Maquis need new ones. She hears of a possible source and undertakes to ride 400 kilometers past numerous checkpoints in 72 hours to Chateauroux and back on a bicycle to obtain them. Her thighs are rubbed raw and she can't walk for days upon her return. The bicycle ride is what she is most proud of doing during the war. -
Goodbye, Henri
Nancy returns to Marseille and discovers that Henri had been taken, tortured, and executed in October 1943 after she left for Spain. She is devastated and remembers the nightmare she had about Henri at that time. -
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Hello, I am Mdme Andree, uh, Helene, uh...
Nancy is to join the Maquis. The first group she encounters just wants to extort her for money and sex before killing her. She confronts Gaspard and he eventually sends her to another group. Denis Rake joins her as the wireless operator. She takes charge of finance and airdrops, maintaining contact with vital sources in England. She is then joined by another trainee, Rene Dusacq. The Maquis are falling under more frequent attacks but recruits are pouring in. There are over 7000 men and Nancy. -
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I can see the end, can you?
Nancy returns to duty to find a French "colonel" trying to take over. She refuses to hand over her group's money and arms. Her Maquis go north to join Tardivat's group along with the Spanish Maquis who appointed themselves her bodyguards. Nancy travels non-stop during this time taking care of supplies, codes, and plans. On Aug 25, Paris is liberated and the Maquis celebrated with a feast. -
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Can't a girl catch a break?
Nancy is notified that there will be 2 parachute drops with 150 Liberators included. She picks us the supplies from the night drop, single-handedly checks and loads them, then decides that after weeks of 2 hour naps that she is due a good bath and a nap in her frilly nightie. The next day Gaspard declares that he and his men will fight to the death. Nancy gets London to order him to retreat. She drives out to deliver the order and is straffed but rescues her cosmetics before the car explodes. -
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Hello, rest of my life
Once Germany surrenders, Nancy picks up the pieces of her life but found fitting in to be difficult. She remarries in 1957 to John Forward, a British Air Force pilot. She runs for office unsuccessfully in Australia. She works for British intelligence. Her bold, brash, outspoken personality just does not allow her to really settle. She passes away at the age of 98.
