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She could kill Nazis with her bare hands: Nancy 'the White Mouse' Wake has died
news,com.au ^ | 8th August 2011

Posted on 08/07/2011 6:19:44 PM PDT by naturalman1975

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.

.....

Wake was awarded France's highest honour, the Legion d'Honneur, as well as three Croix de Guerre and a French Resistance Medal, Britain's George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom.

When she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia at a ceremony in London in March, 2004, d'Artois flew in from Canada especially for the event and was joined by other former Special Operations Executive (SOE) spies and servicemen, including Air Chief Marshall Sir Lewis Hodges who was saved by Wake after being shot down over occupied France.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: frenchresistance; whitemouse; ww2; wwii
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1 posted on 08/07/2011 6:19:47 PM PDT by naturalman1975
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To: naturalman1975

Read it all.

We owe that to her. And so much more.


2 posted on 08/07/2011 6:20:50 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

Wonder Woman . . . come to life.


3 posted on 08/07/2011 6:26:16 PM PDT by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: naturalman1975

Beaten only by time.


4 posted on 08/07/2011 6:28:53 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: naturalman1975

A wonderful article. I never knew about her. May she rest in peace.


5 posted on 08/07/2011 6:31:22 PM PDT by sneakers (EAT YOUR PEAS!)
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To: naturalman1975

Wonderful article. May she rest in peace. She deserves it!


6 posted on 08/07/2011 6:33:39 PM PDT by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
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To: Twotone

R.I.P., dear lady.


7 posted on 08/07/2011 6:34:38 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Beaten only by time.

A fate that none of us will escape, sadly.

The article states that she drank six gins a day until a heart attack forced her to "cut back" - she was already 90 at the time! Now that's my kind of woman! This was a great article and yet another bookmark for my WW2 folder.

8 posted on 08/07/2011 6:35:05 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: naturalman1975

Quite a woman! Her first husband, too, was a very brave man, to suffer torture and death rather than betray her.


9 posted on 08/07/2011 6:37:39 PM PDT by susannah59
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To: naturalman1975

Rest in peace Nancy Wake. Hero.


10 posted on 08/07/2011 6:39:18 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: susannah59

For later.


11 posted on 08/07/2011 6:39:44 PM PDT by Lurker (The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)
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To: naturalman1975

12 posted on 08/07/2011 6:39:56 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

Great story.


13 posted on 08/07/2011 6:40:40 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (I love how the FR spellchecker doesn't recognize the word "Obama")
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To: naturalman1975

Bump to read


14 posted on 08/07/2011 6:41:05 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (SP12: They called Reagan "unelectable", too.)
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To: Lurker

Ditto


15 posted on 08/07/2011 6:41:09 PM PDT by MissyMa
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To: naturalman1975

Nancy Wake made the top of the Gestapo's wanted list
16 posted on 08/07/2011 6:43:25 PM PDT by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: naturalman1975

Now here’s a lady to make a movie about!


17 posted on 08/07/2011 6:43:48 PM PDT by Keith Brown (Among the other evils being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised Machiavelli.)
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To: naturalman1975

An amazing woman. Thank you for posting this.

18 posted on 08/07/2011 6:44:39 PM PDT by Stonewall Jackson (Democrats: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.")
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To: naturalman1975

God bless her an the ones we will never read about that fought such evil at such a great cost....


19 posted on 08/07/2011 6:45:58 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Keith Brown
There's an Australian film from the 1980s called Nancy Wake and Charlotte Grey, though fiction, was partly based on her (Grey was a composite character based on a number of female SOE agents).
20 posted on 08/07/2011 6:52:15 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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