Nancy Wake – the French resistance heroine and most decorated woman of World War II – has died in London aged 98. Nancy was born in New Zealand.
Branded “The White Mouse” by the Gestapo, she became the most wanted resistance fighter in France with a five million franc bounty upon her head. Far from a “mouse”, Nancy Wake lead a force of 7000 resistance fighters operating on the frontline and once, during an attack on an Arms Factory, killing a sentry with a karate chop to the neck. In her later years , she would often say how she wished she had killed more Germans - an indication of how far she was prepared to go to stop the spread of Nazi Germany.
In 2001, HarperCollins published Peter FitzSimons’ biography of Nancy, a book which has now sold more than 155,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand.
For the last decade, Nancy has lived in London. Peter FitzSimons wrote yesterday: “Nancy was an extraordinary woman possessed of a very powerful personality – on a bad day she frightened me – but I was honoured to help document her story and get to know her. I frankly can’t believe she is gone, as I have visited her in London every year for the last eight years, and I was confident she would get to 100.”
HarperCollins has been proud to publish Nancy Wake: A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine and now, at her death, we celebrate her life and her achievements.
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