The White Mouse was at one point during World War Two, the Gestapo's Most Wanted, with a bounty of $5 million francs, which is over $65 million francs in today's money. What did the White Mouse do to deserve this honor?
The White Mouse was a resistance fighter in occupied France. The White Mouse bought an ambulance to move refugees, and helped 1,000 escaped prisoners of war reach safety in Spain. Later in the war, the White Mouse led raids against the nazis and even killed a Gestapo Officer bare handed.
Where did the White Mouse come from?
She was born in New Zealand in 1912. Her name was Nancy Drake. She went to Paris in 1933 as a journalist. She married a wealthy businessman and was living in Marseille when Germany invaded France in 1939.
She became a courier for the underground and was named the White Mouse for her ability to elude capture. In 1942, the Germans occupied Southern France giving them full access to all of Vichy France's documents.
Nancy Wake, the White Mouse
The network that Nancy was a part of was compromised and she fled, her husband stayed behind, was arrested, interrogated, and executed. She was also arrested, and tortured for four days. She never gave the Germans her real name and was later released.
“I don’t see why women should just wave men a proud goodbye and go an knit themselves balaclavas. ”
She fled to England through Spain and joined the Special Operations Executive. On the night of April 29/30, she parachuted into France and was tangled in a tree. She was discovered by her contact Captain Henri Tardivat. When he came upon her he exclaimed, "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year." The White Mouse responded, "Don't give me that French sh*t".
Wake's responsibilities included acquiring the arms that were parachuted into the country, recruiting, and managing the group's finances. She was able to recruit some 7,500 fighters making her group, the Maquis, one of the most formidable fighting forces in the war.
She led operations against german positions and even against a local Gestapo headquarters in Montluçon. She discovered that some of her men were protecting a woman who was a German spy, and while she did not want to execute the girl in cold blood, the men capitulated after she told them that she would.
“They taught us this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it -Whack!- and it killed him alright. I was really surprised. ”
From April of 1944, her force of 7,000+ Masquiards fought a German force of 22,000. Her force imposed 1,400 casualties in the Germans while losing only 100 fighters. She did kill an SS sentry with her bare hands during a raid to prevent him from raising the alarm.
Another instance in her amazing career occurred when she needed to replace a set of codes that had to be destroyed because of a German raid. She rode her bicycle over 300 miles through multiple German checkpoints in order to replace the codes that had been lost.
When asked why she had decided to fight, she explained that while in Paris she had witnessed the Germans harassing and beating Jews. She explained later that she couldn't have whipped a cat. She was so shaken by the experience that she vowed to bring Hitler to his knees. She did and in so doing became the most decorated woman in World War Two.
Following the war, she was knighted by France for her outstanding military service; all because she saw an injustice and chose to take a stand.