The White Mouse, WWII Spy Heroine, Nancy Wake, Passed Away.

[twyacht]

Amazing Woman, with an incredible life and contribution.

WWII spy heroine who inspired Charlotte Gray movie dies aged 98… and her only regret was ‘not killing more Germans’.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:28 PM on 8th August 2011

A World War II heroine spy who topped the Gestapo’s wanted list after her daring exploits behind enemy lines helped pave the way for the D-Day landings has died aged 98.

Nancy Wake, who inspired the film Charlotte Gray after becoming one the Allies' most decorated servicewomen for her role in the French resistance, passed away in a nursing home in London yesterday.



The Australian, who the Nazis codenamed 'The White Mouse' due to the ease with which she escaped capture, left strict instructions to be cremated in a private ceremony.

She wants her ashes to be scattered at Montlucon in central France, where she fought in a heroic 1944 attack on the local Gestapo headquarters.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today said: ‘Nancy Wake was a woman of exceptional courage and resourcefulness whose daring exploits saved the lives of hundreds of Allied personnel and helped bring the Nazi occupation of France to an end.’

Miss Wake, who had no children and was the widow of British fighter pilot John Forward, once famously said she was ‘sorry I didn’t kill more Nazis’.

Trained by British intelligence in espionage and sabotage, Wake helped to arm and lead 7,000 resistance fighters in weakening German defences before the D-Day invasion in the last months of the war.

While distributing weapons, money and code books in Nazi-occupied France, she evaded capture many times and reached the top of the Gestapo's wanted list, according to her biographer, Peter FitzSimons.

‘They called her the 'la Souris Blanche,' 'the White Mouse,' because every time they had her cornered ... she was gone again,’ FitzSimons told Australian Broadcast Corp. radio on Monday.

‘Part of it was she was a gorgeous looking woman,’ he said.

‘The Germans were looking for someone who looked like them: aggressive, a man with guns - and she was not like that.’

France decorated her with its highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, as well as three Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Resistance.

The United States awarded her its Medal of Freedom and Britain, the George Medal.

Her only Australian honour did not come until 2004, when she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023775/WWII-spy-heroine-Nancy-Wake-inspired-Charlotte-Gray-movie-dies-aged-98.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

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RIP Miss Wake.

[alfsauve]

Hoo Rah,  la Souris Blanche

[fightingquaker13]

Very cool post. And damn she was hot! I'd have helped her too if were French.
FQ13

[Pathfinder]

Very cool post. And damn she was hot! I'd have helped her too if were French.
FQ13

Well, I ain't French and I know I would have helped her. Damn, attacked a Gestapo HQ? That is just awesome!

God Speed, Nancy. You have earned the accolades, and the rest.

[sledgemeister]

She was a legend, a damn shame there is not more like her, they broke the mold I think.
Our asshole govt and return servicemen league didnt give her the recognition she deserved and she told them and I quote " to stick their medals where the squirrels stick their nuts" and returned to england, three years later they gave the companion medal.
Interestingly her care was paid for by anonymous donations from around the world, not surprisingly considering the number of people that she saved I bet their was some very very thankful jewish families.

RIP Nancy.
and the kids reckon they have no one to look upto these days, perhaps they should teach history properly again.

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

++ to that Sledge

[Solus]

Her story makes me wish for reincarnation....the loss of her spirit, the type of which is in great need today, is regrettable.

Would that one in ten would be born with that spirit....

[tombogan03884]

Julia Child OSS captured by Gestapo in France
Dr Ruth, Israeli Army sniper
Jackie Cochran, Ferry pilot, had more hours in fighters than most combat pilots
The list goes on.

[fightingquaker13]

Her story makes me wish for reincarnation....the loss of her spirit, the type of which is in great need today, is regrettable.

Would that one in ten would be born with that spirit....

Well said Solus.
FQ13

[alfsauve]

Her story makes me wish for reincarnation....the loss of her spirit, the type of which is in great need today, is regrettable.

Would that one in ten would be born with that spirit....

Tombogan lists some of the greatest generation women who had that spirit, but what about the current generation?  The twenty somethings?

Personally, watching shooters at the range, I think there are a lot of them out there.  Ladies with guts, stamina, and brains.  I see numerous ones, not with their boy friend, but with their girl friend or even solo.  Learning to shoot.  Shooting pretty good.   Maybe I read too much into it.  I see in them determination and independence.  I think there are quite a few youngsters out there that if the occasion arises will "set into the gap".