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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2011 13:11:47 GMT 12
I have just heard on Radio New Zealand National's 1.00pm news that Nancy Wake has passed away in London, aged 98.
She is without doubt one of the bravest people New Zealand has ever produced. She was a key figure in the French Underground movement in WWII during the Nazi occupation of France. She gained the code name of the White Mouse.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2011 13:17:14 GMT 12
Here is an Otago Daily Times article on Nacy's life:
Resistance hero 'White Mouse' dies aged 98
Mon, 8 Aug 2011
News: National
New Zealand-born World War 2 heroine Nancy Wake has died in a London hospital, days before her 99th birthday.
Wake, born in Wellington on August 13 1912, in World War 2 fought with the French Resistance and was dubbed the "White Mouse" for her ability to evade Nazi agents.
A close friend confirmed Wake's death early on Monday (NZT time).
She had lived in a London nursing home for retired veterans since a heart attack in 2003. Her health recently deteriorated after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection.
Her condition worsened over the weekend and she died peacefully on Sunday evening at the Kingston Hospital.
When France was occupied by the Nazis in 1940 she and French husband Henri Fiocca became active in the resistance movement, saving thousands of Allied lives by setting up escape routes and sabotaging German installations.
Trained as a spy by the British, she led resistance fighters in D-Day preparations and was on top of the Gestapo's most wanted list.
Ms Wake is regarded as a heroine in France which decorated her with its highest military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, as well as three Croix de Guerre and a French Resistance Medal.
She was also awarded Britain's George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom.
She was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2004.
When the Germans became "curious about me", in WW2 Wake fled to England.
In reprisal Fiocca, a wealthy industrialist, was taken by the Gestapo and executed in 1943.
"I remember going out the door saying (to her husband) I'd do some shopping, that I'd be back soon. And I left and never saw him again," Wake once said.
Later in the war she saw first-hand several of her resistance comrades gunned down by firing squad.
"They were my men and they were slaughtered by the Germans," she said.
She moved to Sydney when she was about two years-old.
"I adore my country," the one-16th Maori said of New Zealand in June 2001.
By the 1930s, Ms Wake was working in Vienna as a freelance journalist. She was disgusted by the treatment meted out to Jews and that turned her against the Nazis.
In 1939 she married Fiocca at Marseilles in France.
"He was the love of my life," Wake said.
When France fell to Hitler's advancing armies in 1940, Wake joined the Resistance before heading to England where she trained as a British special operations spy.
She then parachuted into France carrying weapons for Resistance fighters hiding in the mountains and taking control of some 7500 freedom fighters before the D-Day landings.
On one occasion she cycled some 500km in 71 hours to obtain new radio codes, the originals having been destroyed in a German raid.
"I got back and they said, 'How are you?' I cried. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't sit down. I couldn't do anything. I just cried," she said of the ordeal.
After the war, Wake continued working for British special operations in civilian posts, and also at the British Embassy in Paris.
Eventually she returned to Australia with her second husband, former British prisoner of war John Forward.
In December 2002, the then 89-year-old Wake said she would leave her Port Macquarie, New South Wales, home to live in Europe.
"... I think it's my right to settle where I'll be happier," she told one reporter.
She left Australia in a wheelchair in December 2001: "This is it, I'm not coming back," she told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter in her characteristically fiesty manner.
"I see no future here," she said.
Wake's life was chronicled in three books, one an autobiogrpahy, and in the film Charlotte Gray starring Australian actor Cate Blanchett.
But the former journalist has never been completely comfortable with being in the spotlight.
"It's very embarrassing," she told AAP in February 2003.
"I'm sick and tired of people wanting to know about my private affairs," she said -- although she admitted she liked six gin and tonics a day.
About the same time Wake was hospitalised in London after suffering a heart attack at Stafford Hotel in Picadilly, where she had lived since leaving Australia.
In January 2004, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the Government offered to pay for a care giver.
"She will be provided with some additional help and some additional support and comfort in her very advanced years and in special recognition of what a remarkable courageous and special Australian she was and remains," Mr Howard said.
In March 2004, Wake was living in a west London nursing home for ex-servicemen and women, with many generous benefactors around the world picking up the tab.
Wake once said she wanted her ashes scattered in the mountains of Auvergne in France, where "... I was with all those men fighting for the Resistance".
NZPA WGT adm kn
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2011 13:19:42 GMT 12
There was an excellent mini-series made by an Australian TV network about Nancy Wake's war efforts in the 1980's or so, and also Peter Fitzsimons wrote a popular biography of her life too in 2004 or so.
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Post by jonesy on Aug 8, 2011 16:53:31 GMT 12
OK, couple of issues here....Yes I know she was NZ-born, but left at age 2. Did she ever return? or hold a NZ passport? Or identify hereself as a New Zealander? Granted, her deeds were incredible, and she has been publicly acknowledged in those countries that she had associated with. What does constitute a New Zealander? Tough points for discussion but important nonetheless. And I'm sure theres been plenty of people that have served in conflicts over the past 100 years or so that "technically"could be called NZers but really have no hold or ties here. And do we only claim the "good guys"?? Just a little difficult for me to grasp as I'm 5th or 6th generation kiwi, and real damn proud of it!! Over to you then....  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2011 17:06:07 GMT 12
I have read somewhere in the past that she did always retain her NZ citizenship and considered herself a New Zealander. This from NZEdge: "However, for many years she was never awarded a medal by the Australian government. When the Australian Returned Services League recommended that Wake be awarded a medal, they were turned down. The Sydney Morning Herald (April 28th, 2000) surmised that she was turned down for a medal because she was born in New Zealand and was considered a New Zealand citizen. In 1994 she refused to donate her medals to the Museum of Australia and proclaimed to the New Zealand Press Association in Sydney (Evening Post, April 30, 1994) that she was still a New Zealander and reminded the press that she had kept her New Zealand passport, despite her 80 year absence from the country. " www.nzedge.com/heroes/wake.htmlShe was the most highly decorated Allied servicewoman of WWII. Quite a lady. |
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Post by ZacYates on Aug 8, 2011 17:36:04 GMT 12
Very sad news, but one hell of an innings for the lady! May she rest in peace with our other heroes.
Heard on Radiolive today Peter Fitzsimons wrote a biography on her some time ago, I must track it down to read her story.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2011 18:07:13 GMT 12
From the Herald (this says she died in France but all other sources say Kingston Hospital. London!!)
Veteran 'disgusted' war heroine never recognised
By Ian Stuart of NZPA 4:52 PM Monday Aug 8, 2011
The woman considered to be New Zealand's greatest war heroine is likely to be honoured by a permanent memorial but a World War 2 veteran says he is disgusted she was never formally recognised by the country she refused to forget.
Nancy Wake, a British agent in France during the war, died in England yesterday, three weeks short of her 99th birthday.
The New Zealand-born resistance fighter saved hundreds of Allied lives during World War 2 by getting them back to England from Europe. She was one of the most decorated women of the war.
She left New Zealand when she was very young and lived most of her life until the war in Australia but until she died she refused to renounce her New Zealand roots, saying she was born in New Zealand and would always be a New Zealander.
She had been honoured by several countries but not formally by New Zealand.
Her only New Zealand recognition was in 2006 when she was awarded the Returned and Services Association's (RSA) Band in Gold, the RSA's highest honour, which was presented to her at Buckingham Palace by the Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
World War 2 veteran Pat Hickton, who was saved by Nancy Wake and her fellow resistance fighters, told NZPA today he was disgusted she died without formal recognition by the New Zealand Government for saving so many Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen, and getting them back to England.
Mr Hickton, 90, was a tail gunner in a Wellington bomber when he was shot down during a bombing raid over occupied France in 1941.
He was badly wounded when he could not get out of his gun turret and his bomber crashed.
Mr Hickton was taken prisoner of war but escaped and was helped back to England by Nancy Wake.
He told NZPA he met her in a small village as the French resistance helped him and other Allied airmen avoid the Germans and get back to England.
"We just said hello. Everything was kept down, no names were mentioned. They only said hello when they came in.''
Mr Hickton said he had been trying for years to have her recognised and recently hand-wrote a four-page letter to Prime Minister John Key urging him to recognise her achievements.
He said he had yet to hear back.
He also said he had been promised by Veteran Affairs Minister Judith Collins Ms Wake would be recognised with an award in the Queen's Birthday Honours list last year.
"But she didn't get it.''
Mr Hickton said Nancy Wake deserved to be recognised by the Order of New Zealand, the country's highest honour.
He was "absolutely disgusted'' New Zealand had not honoured her, Mr Hickton told NZPA.
RSA chief executive Stephen Clarke said Ms Wake was New Zealand's greatest heroines from any conflict.
The RSA would now consider her for a permanent public recognition.
He said Nancy Wake would stand as someone of great courage and commitment who wanted to put right the wrongs she had seen committed by Nazi Germany in the "darkness of those times''.
"For that she should be remembered by all New Zealanders as our greatest heroine, not just for the Second World War but of our military history.''
He said because of her "huge amounts of courage'' she would continue to be an example for young New Zealanders.
Dr Clarke said the RSA would now consider what could be done to remember Ms Wake.
"It would be nice to set up some sort of memorial, competition, award or scholarship that has a contribution to future generations. There may be an opportunity for a permanent memorial as well.''
He said the RSA would look at something which kept the spirit of Nancy Wake alive.
After living in Australia Ms Wake trained as a journalist in London.
In the 1930s she worked in Paris and before war was declared in 1939, she witnessed the rise of German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
When France fell to the Germans she became a courier for the French resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. The Gestapo called her the White Mouse because they could never catch her as a British agent.
Ms Wake had become the Gestapo's most-wanted person by 1943 and had a price on her head.
She fled to Britain but returned to occupied France by parachute in 1944 to work again with the French resistance.
Last year a plaque was unveiled near her place of birth in Oriental Parade in Wellington.
Awards:
* Australia: Companion of the Order of Australia; George Medal
* Commonwealth of Nations: 1939-1945 Star; France and Germany Star and bar
* United Kingdom: Defence Medal and bar; War Medal 1939-1945
* France: Legion d'Honneur; Croix de Guerre with two palms and a star; Medaille de la Resistance
* United States of America: Presidential Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm
* New Zealand: Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association Badge in Gold.
By Ian Stuart of NZPA
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Post by flyjoe180 on Aug 9, 2011 11:01:24 GMT 12
RIP. Even if you some don't think of her as a New Zealander due to not living here, she was truly a citizen of the world and should be remembered for her contribution towards helping rid the world of tyranny and oppression.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 9, 2011 11:48:10 GMT 12
It is clear that she was both officially and spiritually a New Zealander, she said so herself. I'm sure we all recognise she also lived in several other countries that became her home too.
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Post by oggie2620 on Aug 11, 2011 22:36:52 GMT 12
RIP Nancy. She obviously felt that she was a Kiwi so take your heroine and run. I gather there was a radio interview about her yesterday on one of the channels. Did anyone hear it and is there a link I can follow as I think it may have been someone I know that was interviewed and I would like to check. Thanks in advance lads and lasses.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 11, 2011 23:19:16 GMT 12
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Post by Luther Moore on Mar 2, 2012 5:36:00 GMT 12
She was a Maori,of course she was a Kiwi! She may of lived in Australia for a few years but she was born in New Zealand and was part Maori.I don't know why Australia is saying she is an Australian hero?
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Post by gunny on Mar 2, 2012 19:35:30 GMT 12
I do,Aussies always claim famous people as thier own mainly kiwi's. B)
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