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 ...
Thank you for sharing this!
Au revior. Don’t let the door hit on the way out.
PING
She was quite a woman.
Thanks for posting that. I had never heard of her before. She was quite a character, judging from the information in the article.
Did she have any children? If so, I may have met some of them in Afghanistan.
RIP. Now that is a life well-lived.
What a gal!!!
The most remarkable part of her story is that she was able to live in a British hospital for the last decade.
Read it, posted it to my FB page. What an INSPIRATION, and I’ve never heard of her. God BLESS her!
Uh, thanks?
Said she died of a simple infection. I guess if you’re that tough, there’s not a lot else that can kill you.
plmk
I couldn't disagree more. Hers was a life well lived.
Look, we all will die, but not all of us will truly live.
Death, where is your victory? Grave, where is your sting?
Thanks for posting, I had never heard of her. RIP
Celtic Cross, in case you don't know (and I hope you don't), "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" or its variants is actually a common phrase used to indicate that you're not sorry to see somebody leave - it's a way of telling them to get lost, really. I do hope that isn't what you intended, but it is how I read it to begin with, and I think how Bear did as well.
This explains that useage - it may be more common some places than others.
Health care especially paid for by the Australian government in a private hospital.
People in Britain do have the right not to use the NHS, and to have health insurance, and to pay for private health care if they want to. Those horror stories you hear of from Britain are of people who didn’t make that choice. And to be fair, a lot of the time the NHS does work properly. It’s just ‘a lot of the time’ isn’t good enough when it comes to your health.
Video documentary about Nancy Wake’s wartime experience is on youtube, narrated by her. Parts 1-6, about 50 min. total.
I enjoyed it.
Nancy Wake- Codename ‘The White Mouse’(1987) Part 1 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36PtQ3TxZJI
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