Cornstalk Nancy Wake Biography - Hardcover

Peter Fitzsimons

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0732273854 ISBN 13: 9780732273859

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2001

Synopsis

Nancy Wake led a charmed and sophisticated life with her husband, a wealthy French industrialist, in pre-War Europe. When Germany invaded France, Nancy joined the embryonic Resistance movement and soon played a key part in the war. This is her story.

For Nancy, what began as a courier job became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, perfectly camouflaged by her high-society life in Marseilles. Such was Nancy's knack of slipping through the Gestapo's traps, she was dubbed 'the white mouse'. Much later in the war, Nancy discovered that her husband had been tortured and executed for not revealing her whereabouts.

Nancy was forced to flee to England, where she was trained by the British Special Operations Executive and parachuted back behind enemy lines. Again, she rallied to the cause and helped lead a powerful resistance force. Her work included supplying weapons, organising countless ambushes, and she once cycled four hundred kilometres through German checkpoints and across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio.

Nancy Wake is today one of the most decorated wartime heroines, having received numerous international honours, including the George Medal, the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de la Resistance, the Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur and the US Medal of Freedom.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

For Nancy, what began as a courier job became a highly successful escape network for Allied soldiers, perfectly camouflaged by her high-society life in Marseilles. Such was Nancy's knack of slipping through the Gestapo's traps, she was dubbed 'the white mouse'. Much later in the war, Nancy discovered that her husband had been tortured and executed for not revealing her whereabouts.

Nancy was forced to flee to England, where she was trained by the British Special Operations Executive and parachuted back behind enemy lines. Again, she rallied to the cause and helped lead a powerful resistance force. Her work included supplying weapons, organising countless ambushes, and she once cycled four hundred kilometres through German checkpoints and across a mountain range to find a new transmitting radio.

Nancy Wake is today one of the most decorated wartime heroines, having received numerous international honours, including the George Medal, the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de la Resistance, the Chevalier de Legion d'Honneur and the US Medal of Freedom.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0732273854
• ISBN 13: 9780732273859
• Binding: Hardcover