Nancy Wake, the world’s most badass woman:
Nancy Wake was born in 1912 to a dirt-poor family in New Zealand.
When she was a young woman, she travelled to England, and trained herself to be a journalist.
In the 1930s, she was in Germany, reporting on the new leader, Adolf Hitler. As he assumed power, she saw roving gangs of his supporters, ruthlessly beating up Jews in the streets. She vowed to oppose this evil man.
She got her chance.
Wake married a wealthy French industrialist in 1939. When France fell to Germany, she and her husband began to resist. Working out of their safe house in Marseilles, they helped shelter downed RAF pilots.
This irritated the Gestapo, and they put a huge reward on the head of the “White Mouse”.
In 1943, they began to figure out who she really was. The “RUN FOR IT” message was relayed, but she was captured almost at the Spanish border. The Gestapo tortured her for four days, but she remained silent. They ended up letting her free.
Her husband, however, was caught, tortured, and executed. Instead of convincing Wake that this was too dangerous, it only incited her further. Back in London, she was trained- SOE style.
In 1944, she was back in France. The first group said, “Kill her, and let’s take the cash.” She fled on foot in the middle of the night, joined up with another group, and showed them she was just as good as the men. In two months, she was an officer distributing weapons and organizing guerilla attacks on Nazi bases (supply depots, communications, railways).
When her truck was destroyed by a German bomber, she fled 100 miles/160 km on bike - in three days. When their squad leader was shot, she took over and led everyone back with no casualties.
By war’s end, Wake was the most decorated Allied woman, with Britain’s George medal, the American Medal of Freedom, three Croix de Guerre, the Légion d’Honneur, and inducted into the Order of Australia. A street in New Zealand is named after her.
Did she do it for the fame? No. She did it to free France—because it was the right thing to do. She sold the Croix de Guerre, and when asked why, she said, “There’s no point in keeping them…I’ll go to hell and they’d melt there anyway.”
Nancy Wake lived to be a staggering 98 years old, and died not just a hero, but an underrated and unsung one.
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