Nancy Wake dies

[onetrack]

This news probably doesn't mean a lot to many people, as the largest % of the WW2 generation are all gone. However, with the death of Nancy Wake, just a few days short of her 99th birthday, thereby passes one of the greatest heroines that WW2 produced.
I don't think that anyone could total up the value of Nancy Wakes selfless and courageous work... not in the amount of lives she saved... nor in the benefit of her work in shortening the War.
The Gestapo never caught her, no matter how many times they tried. They captured her husband, and later tortured him to death, but still never succeeded in breaking her resolve and her courage.
This was a woman who organised and led saboteur work in league with the French Resistance men... who organised for the hiding of downed Allied airmen, and their safe repatriation.
She once rode a bicycle 500 miles through the war-torn countryside of Europe, as a courier, to replace radio codes that a resistance fighter had to destroy after a German raid... and waltzed right past the Nazi checkpoints and the Gestapo, defeating and avoiding them every time.
Nancy Wake, I salute you and your actions... you have earned your rest, with an outstanding life, well-lived. RIP.

Heroine Wake a 'role model for courage' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-08/tributes-flowing-for-nancy-wake/2829254)

NANCY WAKE - The White Mouse (http://www.convictcreations.com/history/nancywake.htm)

[PLovett]

A lady who was not afraid to speak her mind, no matter who it embarrassed. There is a very amusing story on another forum about her not being able to unlock the door to a private club in London. Her swipe card was not working nor could she raise the attention of anyone using the communication phone. When the doorman finally answered the door she was swearing like a trooper and threatening to blow the door in. The doorman later admitted that he was afraid that with her training she might well have achieved her aim.

It is hard for us now to realise just how monumental a role she played, the risks she took and the sacrifices she made. It is also a blot on our country that she was treated so shabbily after the war which is certainly something she was not afraid to let be known.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Max Hastings included Nancy Wake in his book 'Warriors' - it makes her one of the greats of the SOE and, indeed, of his book among the truly great warriors. That she reached such an age, it could be argued that her determination and courage had a part to play in that.

[seacue]

There is an obit for Ms Wake in the 8 August 2011 Washington Post.

Nancy Wake, Australian hero of French resistance known as White Mouse, dies in London aged 98 - The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/43t92fn)

[onetrack]

It's interesting to see that Nancy always considered herself a New Zealander, despite having left NZ at 20 mths of age, and having never been back to NZ in 85 years. She always retained her NZ passport.

Her ancestry was quite interesting, with bloodlines from the English (the Wake name was quite famous in defense activities from the era of William the Conquerer), French Huguenot, and Maori.
Her great-grandmother was a Maori maiden by the name of Pourewa, who was the first of her race to marry an Englishman, Charles Cossell, Nancys great-grandfather.
No doubt the Maori blood gave her some of the rebelliousness and fighting spirit she possessed, and the Huguenot ancestry made her feel at home in France.

The New Zealand Edge : Heroes : Warriors : Nancy Wake (http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/wake.html)