So who was the woman in the picture?
Her name was Nancy Wake and she was the most decorated female British SOE agent of World War Two. In particular, she was involved in fighting alongside the French Resistance and sabotaging the Nazis. She was nicknamed “the white mouse” by the Gestapo because she evaded capture so many times. By 1943, they had placed a 5 million franc bounty on her head.
Early Life
She was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1912, of Maori and English stock. Her family moved to Australia soon after she was born. She had 5 older siblings and a very strict, religious mother. The only harmonious family relationship she had was with her father, but he walked out on the family when she was very young, devastating the young Nancy.
At age 16, she inherited some money from an aunt and left Australia to work as a nurse, and later as a journalist. As a young woman, she lived in New York, London, Vienna and Paris. Her pre-war life during this time was glamorous, bohemian and fun.
While living in Vienna, she witnessed the brutal violence perpetrated by the Nazis towards Jewish men and women and was so shocked by this persecution that she vowed that if she was ever able to fight it in any way, she would.
Marriage
In 1939, she married wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. They lived in Marseille and had a happy marriage and a glamorous, charmed life. Of him she said “he was the love of my life”.
Shortly after they married, Germany invaded France and in her spare time, she became involved in the French Resistance.
She started out smuggling supplies to the resistant groups and helping many escaped prisoners of war. She also escorted Jewish refugees out of France, taking them to the base of the Pyrenees where someone else would guide them to safety.
She became the best in the business at talking and flirting her way through enemy lines, passing on messages and doing courier jobs. Initially, nobody suspected her because she was wealthy, good looking and did not look the part of a spy.
She later left Marseille for Britain in 1943, as she became aware that her phone was being tapped and she was being observed by the Nazis. Her husband stayed and he was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo for refusing to give away her whereabouts.
The Special Operations Executive
In Britain she joined the Special Operations Executive, which was a secret group formed by Churchill to help the Resistance fighters in France. She was trained in parachuting, weaponry, codes, radio communications, silent killing and survival skills. In April 1944, Wake was given the code name Madame Andrée and parachuted into Auvergne, just to the north of Clermont-Ferrand.
Her parachute got stuck on a tree on the way down, and she had to be rescued by Henri Tardavant, a resistant leader, who commented that he hoped all the trees in France would bear such beautiful fruit that year, to which she replied “Don’t give me that French shit!”
Her main role was to communicate with the British about the needs of the French resistant fighters, and arrange for weapons to be flown in. In addition to arranging supplies of guns and money, she fought alongside a rural guerrilla band in France, destroying railway lines, bridges and ambushing German convoys.
At one point, the contact between Wake and the British was severed when the Germans attacked and the radio operator disposed of the code books so as to evade capture. In order to re-establish contact and find a new transmitting radio, she cycled non-stop for 72 hours, covering a distance of 250 miles. She saw this as her most useful contribution to the war effort.
One of the French Resistant fighters Henri Tardivant said that “She is the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then she is like five men.”
She showed no mercy towards the Germans, shooting a captured female German spy without blinking, when none of her male colleagues had the heart to do it. During a raid, she also killed an SS guard with her bare hands to ensure that he did not raise the alarm.
After the war, she was awarded the George Medal, the United States Medal of Freedom, the Medaille de la Resistance and the Croix de Guerre. She also discovered that her husband had been executed by the Gestapo, and realized that her life as she knew it before the war was gone.
She then moved to London to work in intelligence, and remarried a former RAF fighter pilot in 1960.
Her feisty nature and warrior spirit were perhaps better suited to war time than to peace. She attempted to enter Australian politics in 1949, 1951 and 1966, standing as a liberal candidate for parliament, but was unsuccessful each time.
In 1985, she wrote her autobiography and retired to Port Macquairie.
Her husband died in 1997 and she emigrated to Britain in 2001. She died in 2011, aged 98 from a chest infection.
Personality
By all accounts, she was rebellious, feisty, independent, tough, resourceful, hard-drinking, blunt, and fun-loving.
Among her Resistant fighter colleagues, she was renowned for being braver than all of the men. ”Madame Andree is braver than Jacques,” one of the resistant fighters reportedly said to a British SOE agent, ”and Jacques is the bravest of us all.”
She apparently had a fearsome temper and her biographer Peter FitzSimons told Australian radio: “She was a woman who was always a hair-trigger away from being in a rage … and that rage within her was wonderful during the war, [but] it could be problematic when the war was over. She was a force of nature.”
Quotes from Nancy Wake
“In my opinion, the only good German was a dead German, and the deader, the better. I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn’t kill more.”
“I hate wars and violence, but if they come, I don’t see why we women should just wave our men goodbye and then knit them balaclavas.”
“Somebody once asked me: ‘Have you ever been afraid?’ Hah! I’ve never been afraid in my life.”
How Did You Do?
Well done to everyone who took part. Some people did well with this experiment. For those who didn’t get many intuitive hits, remember that it takes practice and/or a good technique to become really adept at reading others in this way, so don’t be discouraged if you weren’t accurate – it’s not a reflection of how you could develop your ability in the future.
A tip I often dish out is to start with the person’s character where possible. I feel that if you start there, it’s much easier to pick out objective facts about the person’s life from then onwards.
Please leave a comment below!
I could only pick up one real aspect of her life. I got the involvement in business and the great wealth but not the war connection. I can’t help wondering if Nancy ever regretted the killing of the woman spy and the SS guard. She may have appeared hard and fearsome but I had the strongest feeling that there was something she had done that she felt bad about. Maybe it was the killings or maybe it was something else that we don’t know about.
Pat – well done for picking up that aspect. I wonder if you are right about that. I think many people would feel ambivalent on some level about having to kill, even during war time.
I picked up not that she was intelligent, rebellious, adventuresome, a health care professional, sister, strong, strong-willed, could be intimidating, gains trust of others, manages others.
*With typo corrected:
I picked up on that she was intelligent, rebellious, adventuresome, a health care professional, sister, strong, strong-willed, could be intimidating, gains trust of others, manages others.
Hmm, I love doing these but I’m not very good at them 🙂
I picked up that there was something dark in her past that she struggled with, so maybe Pat and I picked up on the same thing. I also felt like she had a lot of depression in her early life but there were lighter times in her later life, and that she helped people.
I picked up on spy, Germany, Nazi and I did not go into her marriage or childhood> Thank you so much for these experiments Anna, I really enjoy them. I had a very good feeling I was right about this one! I was so thrilled to see I had an email in with the results:)
Amy – awesome…Good job!
Sue – After I wrote this article I read that she was possibly an alcoholic…she drank all day long in her later years. Perhaps you were picking up on something related to that.
People who don’t do well on these are just in the process of figuring out what works well for them in terms of how they receive intuitive info. Could it be you’re receiving info through one ‘clair’ (such as clairvoyance) when it might work better for you to use another? Not sure if that applies 🙂
Nicole – I noticed you did well on this. Well done!!
Ooh, okay. Yes.
Wow, she had a very varied life, didn’t she?
I’m not sure about other ‘clair’s. I’m a bit of an empath, but I don’t know how else I would categorise myself. But I really love doing these. Thanks for taking the time to put them up on your site 🙂
It was dismaying to hear this individual say that the ‘only good German is a dead German.’ I’m sure that is an outlook that helped her be kill-oriented; it doesn’t add to building peace. Or, understanding that many, many Germans were forced to participate, against their wills and against their values, becuase it was a ‘Kill or be killed’ time in history. Maybe the poster who commented on sensing a ‘secret guilt’ was picking up on this…
Also, not only Jews, but thousands and thousands of Gypsies, mentally retarded people, homosexuals, etc., were imprisoned and exterminated as well in the German camps. I say this just to make sure that it was not only Jews, not even close.
Absolutely love these, Anna! Thank you for you and your energy.
Light, love and unicorns,
Jenna
I picked up WWII, airplanes, hard-ass, spy, alcoholic, no kids, depression. I couldn’t wait for your answer to post, so I Googled ‘Women of WWII’ and found her photo and name to validate! Haha
E.Hoskinson – Yes, I think she had quite a black and white view of the situation, probably because of her experiences in Vienna seeing Jews being persecuted.
Jenna – Glad you enjoyed the experiments!
Melissa – Wow! That’s impressive you managed to work out who she was using your intuitive cues. Awesome.
I read her as happy, STUBBORN, competitive, sarcastic, intelligent, blunt, no-nonsense. A sense that other people would read her as flirtatious but it would be more about their projections about her appearance than because of her actual actions or feelings. The word “Jewish” came into my mind, very strongly, though I then assumed she was Jewish, then “flying” and a general sense of World War II.
Lisa – well done! Lots of intuitive hits there.
It’s very interesting that I stumbled upon this blog of yours about this amazing woman, Nancy Wake. I wasn’t aware of this experiment until too late. However, today, I kid you not, I was typing an email and accidentally typed “rage” — that itself is nothing unusual, but what was extraordinary was that I felt extremely drawn to this (to me: a repulsive) word — and stopped typing for a few seconds, mesmerized — lost in a trance so to speak… then I snapped out of my reverie.
Now this early afternoon, I read this article on Nancy Wake and it mentions of her rages! How interesting!
I seem to pick up a lot of random “silly” information from movies, books, and other seemingly unimportant situations – however, it’s a good place to start practicing anyway! Don’t need any depressing life’s incidents (death, accident, & etc) —
I’ll be paying more attention to your experiment assignments. This looks fun. 🙂
Hi Anna, thank you for the great experiment once again! At first I felt a pain in my heart when i saw her, like she’d been hurt, and was hard-hearted. When I questioned into why, I heard the words ‘she’s a fighter’ and more particularly ‘freedom fighter’ – fighting for rights, and particularly women’s rights, came up for me. I also got spokesperson – i saw her standing up and talking – and writer/author. A very interesting experiment, thank you Anna! <3
Aksara – well done! Glad you enjoyed it.
RaVen – interesting…it can come to us in funny ways sometimes!
I picked up on “medical” and being big-hearted. This was my first experiment 🙂
Hi! I did fairly well, I guess. I guessed she was an actress. This could be because of her pre war life was glamorous. Also that she had an elder sibling, and that she had a push over mother. I sensed that she married rich. Her kids are not mentioned here, so i assume she may have not had kids? because that was what i got. I could be wrong too! I wouldnt have trusted her. That could be because she has killed so many people. I also sense depression in her life, later on! Thank you for such a great website. Enjoy reading all your work 🙂
I got excited about the latest intuition experiment so thought I’d go back and give this one a go. The only word I got was alcohol which is interesting now reading it all. Thanks heaps!
As an Empath I got a very sick stomach from death. She witnessed multiple brutal killings and killed others herself. I did see a rainbow aura around her. I saw the sassy Devious side of her and her calmness in old age it took me a long time to come to these though, like all day, thanks for listening
I kept getting words, images, information, and feelings of fun, outgoing, wealth, travel, and elegance, but also soldiers, gun, cannon, fire, nervous excitement, and images of an empty child’s nursery/toys not being played with. Interesting! I think this has been my best reading so far! 🙂