Whilst in Britain, Nancy became one of the 39 women and 430 men in the French section of the British Special Operations Executive, which worked to sabotage the Germans in occupied territories. She trained at a Defence Camp to learn survival skills, silent killing, codes, radio operation, night parachuting, plastic explosives, Sten rifles, pistols, and grenades. She and a few other women were assigned to the First Aide Nursing Yeomanry and the illicit nature of their work remained a covert secret till the end of the War.
Despite the strenuous work Nancy had undertaken in the past months, all was effortless compared to what was coming. In late April of 1944, Nancy and Major John Farmer were parachuted into the Auvergne region in central France to locate and organize the band of Maquis, establish ammunition, collect weapons from the nightly parachute drops, and arrange wireless communication with England. They had to organize the resistance to prepare for DDay. Their objective was to weaken the German army for a major attack by the allied troops.
Despite the importance of such a major mission, Major John Farmer continued to lighten the mood by flirting with Nancy, prompting her to threaten him to keep their-selves on task. Which proved a struggle even in the shortest of days. The Resistance managed to convert 15,000 out of 22,000 men from the German troops. Once converted, Nancy led them in guerrilla warfare, inflicting harsh damage on German troops and facilities. She collected and distributed weapons and ensured that her radio operatives maintained contacts with the SOE in Britain.
But on an extraordinarily brutal day, Nancy cycled 500km through several German checkpoints to replace codes, for her wireless operator had been destroyed in a raid. Without the codes, Nancy and the Resistance would have to do without fresh orders, or drops of weapons and supplies. Nancy believes that this was the most useful thing that she did in the war. The full 500km was covered in 71 hours, cycling non-stop, throughout countryside, and mountains. When she finally prevailed throughout the extreme hardships, she began to sob in relief.
Lasting for hours before she found solace within herself, and found the deep courage within her that encouraged to continue her restless journey. The rest of the war proved a tough, but do-able assignment for Nancy. She endured a near-sleepless life on the move, often having to hide in forests, hiding in trains, motivating others, and planning and co-ordinating missions. Nancy was in charge of planning parachute drops that occurred four times a week to replenish arms and ammunition. There were numerous violent interactions with the Germans, which wrecked the country-side with hostage taking, executions, burning, and reprisals.
Nancy’s sector gave the Reich more fury than any other. The SS tried to destroy the group numerous times, but failed. Nancy continued to succeed in the war, leading many successful raids, shooting her way out roadblocks, executing a German spy, and most prominently, killing a sentry with her bare hands. Nancy’s war was almost over, but the scenes she had lived through and witnessed would continue to battle her for the rest of her life. On the sixth of June, 1944, The infamous D-Day, allied troops began to push the German army out of France.
Finally, in 1944, Paris was freed from the harsh agony of the Germans, and Wake led her troops into Vichy to celebrate. But her joy was turned to sorrow when she was notified of heartbreaking news. Her husband, Henri, had been tortured, and executed in Germany for refusing to give away information on the whereabouts of his wife. Despite all the hardships Nancy had endured in her life, Nancy was now determined to live a peaceful, and unperturbed rest of her life. After the war, Nancy continued to work with the SOE, working for the British Air Ministry in the Intelligence Department.
She also managed to find a lover again, and married Englishman John Forward in 1960, and moved to Australia afterwards. Her achievements during the War were heralded by numerous medals and awards: The George Medal from Britain for her leadership and bravery under fire The Resistance Medal Officer of the Legion D’Honneur Croix de Guerre Two Bronze Palms from France A silver Star from France The Medal of Freedom from America However, for many years she was never awarded a medal by the Australian government. When the A. R. S. L recommended that Wake be awarded a medal, they were turned down.
Many newspapers, and news stations were surmised that she was turned down for a medal because she was born in New Zealand and was considered a New Zealand citizen. She later refused to donate her medals to the Museum of Australia and proclaimed to 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. Eventually, Wake was finally awarded the “Companion of the Order of Australia”, the “RSA Badge in Gold, as well as a life membership with the RSA for her work with the French Resistance during the war.
