Nancy Wake – a biography

In the early 1930’s, Nancy Wake was enjoying a bohemian life in Paris. By the end of the Second World war she was the Gestapo’s most wanted person.

After witnessing horrific Nazi violence in Vienna, Nancy declared she would do everything in her power to rid Europe of the Nazi presence. What began as a courier job developed into a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, so successful that Nancy had to flee France to escape the Gestapo who had dubbed her ‘the White Mouse’ for her knack of slipping through their traps. But Nancy was a passionate enemy of the Nazis and after training with the British Special Operations Executive she parachuted back into France where she helped to lead the powerful underground fighting force, the Maquis. Training civilian fighters, organising Allied parachute drops, cycling four hundred kilometres across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio – nothing seemed too difficult in her fight against the enemy.