Wake had a blast in Prohibition-era New York. She claimed to have never drunk so much in her life, and spent her time there carousing through speakeasies and imbibing bathtub gin. The glittering New York nightlife suited her and she hated to leave, but her spirit of adventure was tugging at her and she knew she needed to get to Europe before her money ran out. She booked passage on a ship bound for England, and upon landing she found herself a room in a London boarding house and enrolled in a journalism course. Wake felt that this would be the perfect career for her and would allow her to combine both work and travel. From the speakeasies of New York to the pub crawls of London, Wake soon developed a close circle of friends and had an active social life. Money was tight but Wake was ingenious at finding ways to have a good time. She also completed her journalism course and was invited for a job interview for a position covering news in the Middle East. Wake lied easily, saying that she had been to the Middle East many times and could even write in Egyptian (neither were true). Her interviewer was amazed to discover such a qualified candidate and offered Wake a trial position as a freelance reporter based in Paris, from where she could easily travel to cover news stories throughout Europe and the Middle East. Upon accepting the position, Wake was ecstatic at her good fortune and was completely unaware that she was about to experience, first-hand, both the best and worst of humankind.
Wake was twenty-two when she came to Paris in 1934. She embraced life in the French capital, as she had in New York and London, and immediately found herself swept up into the city’s gay social whirl. By writing articles and selling them to various press agencies, she managed to eke out a good enough living to pay her rent, provide for frequent nights out on the town and allow her to travel the French countryside in search of good stories and good times. Wake was determined to become a true Parisienne, frequenting French cafés, dressing as elegantly as she could afford to, and even purchasing a small wire-haired terrier that she named Picon, as she had quickly observed that most stylish French women had a small dog as one of their principal accessories! She also made a concerted effort to learn the French language, although in typical Wake style she recalled, ‘I never worried too much about all that bloody feminine/masculine stuff, all the le this and la that – it would give you the shits – but it wasn’t too long before I could communicate what I wanted to say, and I got better from there.’1
Working as a journalist, Wake soon realised that she needed to become much better informed about politics. She read voraciously on the subject, and began attending rallies and protests to better understand the issues about which she was being asked to write. She also watched with apprehension as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party took control of Germany. Rumours about the harsh National Socialist policies trickled into France through the refugees who were attempting to escape the oppressive regime. Wake and a group of her journalist friends decided to see for themselves what the Nazis were capable of. The group took a trip to the Austrian capital of Vienna, where the party was gaining strength. There, Wake witnessed Nazi party members persecuting and abusing Austrian Jews on numerous occasions. Wake was horrified by what she saw, and explained, ‘It was in Vienna that I formed my opinion of the Nazis. I resolved there and then that if I ever had the chance I would do anything, however big or small, stupid or dangerous, to try and make things more difficult for their rotten party.’2
She also had occasion to visit Berlin, the German capital, later in 1934, and saw Jewish shops defaced with red paint, the stores themselves looted and the shopkeepers whipped. Filled with revulsion, Wake returned to Paris, but, while she enjoyed her carefree and fun-filled lifestyle, the memories of what she had witnessed stayed with her. When war broke out in France, Nancy Wake was prepared to fight.
Wake continued to enjoy all that Paris had to offer despite the political upheavals that were taking place throughout Europe. As Germany marched into the Rhineland in 1936 before annexing Austria in 1938, and the Spanish Civil War raged just south of France from 1936 to 1939, Wake worked steadily as a journalist, surrounding herself with friends and sharing the company of Picon, to whom she was devoted. With everything that was happening in Europe, there was certainly no shortage of news stories to be covered, and Wake was constantly on the move. Work did not preclude her from having an active social life, however, and, after a series of casual affairs, Wake met and fell in love with a wealthy Frenchman named Henri Fiocca. Despite the fact that Fiocca’s family did not care for her and viewed her as a gold-digger, Wake and Fiocca made plans to marry. In July 1939, Wake had decided to resign her position with the news agency. Her plans were to travel to Paris to tender her resignation, pack her belongings and lease her flat so that she could move south to Marseille to live with Fiocca. She also wanted to slim down before her wedding, so as soon as she tied up her affairs in Paris she boarded a ship to Britain, in late August 1939, in order to spend some time at a health spa. Her leisurely spa vacation was rudely interrupted, however. By the time she had arrived in London, Germany had invaded Poland, and France and Britain had declared war on Germany. Wake, keen to take on the Nazis, cancelled her health spa reservation and reported immediately to a London recruiting office to offer her services. She was quite insulted when the recruiting officer suggested that she might find a canteen to serve in! Disgusted that the British were not more interested in her services, Wake quickly booked a ticket back to France. She married Henri Fiocca in Marseille in November 1939, and was now provided with a life of luxury. The couple had a fabulous apartment overlooking the harbour in Marseille, they travelled extensively and Wake totally immersed herself in the sophisticated life. Although war had been declared, nothing much seemed to be happening, and during this period of ‘Phoney War’ Wake enjoyed her new role as a wealthy newly-wed. This idyllic existence was about to change, however, because in May of 1940 Germany invaded France.
Henri Fiocca had received his call-up papers for the army early in 1940, and he departed for his posting (an unknown destination) in March of that year. Shortly after, in May, the Germans invaded the Low Countries (the Netherlands and Belgium). Wake, always a woman of action, responded to the German aggression by taking the vehicle Fiocca had left her and turning it into an ambulance. She immediately joined a volunteer ambulance unit and drove to the north of France to provide medical assistance to the troops and refugees in that region. By June, however, the Germans had swept through the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and France officially asked for an armistice with Germany on 16 June. The terms of the armistice were harsh and dealt a crushing blow to the morale of the French population. Three-fifths of their country fell under German occupation, including the same proportion of the Atlantic ports. French Jews and Germans who had sought asylum in France were to be turned over to German officials and all French soldiers captured by the Germans were to remain incarcerated until the end of the war. The French were also expected to incur the cost of paying for the German occupation force. Following the armistice, France was separated into an Occupied Zone and a Free Zone where the Germans still exerted control but their presence was slightly less noticeable. The Free Zone became known as Vichy France since it was governed from the city of Vichy. With the French army defeated and demobilised, Fiocca returned from the war and joined his wife in their apartment in Marseille, which was located inside the so-called ‘Free Zone’. Wake, devoted to her adopted country of France, refused to tolerate anyone who supported the Germans or the Vichy government, and adjusted her social circle accordingly. She wanted to be able to speak freely about her views on the Occupation, and made sure that she surrounded herself with people she was sure she could trust. Wake also caught wind of the existence of emerging Resistance groups. These early Resistance groups consisted of French men and women who were determined to make the Occupation as unpleasant as possible for the Germans. Unlawfully flying the French flag, defacing German propaganda posters, sabotaging German military equipment, and establishing escape lines out of France (for refugees, escaped British
prisoners of war, downed British and Polish pilots, etc.) were all ways that the French Resistance attempted to continue the fight against the Germans. Well known for her anti-German and anti-Vichy sentiments, it wasn’t long before Wake was approached to assist in some Resistance-type activities.
Wake’s position as the wife of a wealthy industrialist allowed her many privileges that were denied to the rest of the French population. She was able to travel extensively, and could afford both luxury and everyday items that were becoming more expensive and difficult to find under the German Occupation. Wake made friends with a number of British prisoners who had been interned at a fort in Marseille after the fall of France. She used her money to supply the prisoners with a radio, cigarettes and food parcels, so that their confinement was a little more tolerable. On her travels throughout France, she carried papers (which included not only messages but forged identity cards for people whom the Resistance were helping to escape from France) for French Resistance groups, and even opened up her own apartment and her chalet in Névache to hide individuals who were on the run from the Germans or the French Milice. The French Milice were a secret police, similar to the Gestapo, but perhaps even more terrifying since they were French and were turning on their own countrymen. Wake hated the Milice as much as she hated the Germans, describing them as ‘a small army of vicious Frenchmen dedicated to ferreting out members of the Resistance and slaughtering them … arrogant, savagely cruel, treacherous and sadistic … They had absolutely no compassion for any of their compatriots who did not support their beliefs.’3
Wake teamed up with a Scottish officer, Ian Garrow, who had escaped from internment at the fort in Marseille, and had established an escape line for Allied (at this point mostly British and Canadian) prisoners. She worked as his courier and helped to scout out safe houses for the prisoners between Cannes and Toulon. Fiocca provided her with the money to purchase food and ration cards for the prisoners. Things seemed to be going quite well until suddenly Garrow was arrested. Wake did not abandon her friend, sending him food and letters in prison, and even paid for a lawyer to plead his case before the Vichy courts. When she discovered that Garrow was being sent to the Meauzac concentration camp, she initiated a plan to break him out. Wake visited Garrow every week and finally made contact with a guard who was agreeable to taking a bribe in order to help Garrow escape. The money for the bribe would, of course, come from Henri Fiocca’s deep pockets. After weeks of planning, a guard’s uniform was secreted into the prison. On 8 December 1942, Garrow donned the uniform and joined a line of guards who were leaving the prison at the end of their shift. The Resistance was waiting to pick him up in a car, and over the next several days Garrow made his way to a safe house in Toulouse where Wake was able to meet with him. A few days later, Garrow made his escape over the mountains into Spain, eventually making his way all the way to Britain. Wake was overjoyed at their success and determined to continue Garrow’s work.
Wake’s activities did not go unnoticed by the Germans or the Vichy police, however. They knew that a woman fitting Wake’s description was a key member of the Resistance, but their inability to actually catch her doing anything criminal led to the Germans nicknaming her The White Mouse. Discovering that the Germans had given her a nickname delighted Wake no end. Her phones were tapped, her mail was monitored and she was followed, but somehow she managed to avoid actually incriminating herself. However, she felt that the authorities were drawing ever closer. After the Allied landings in Vichy-controlled North Africa, many of the French soldiers stationed there joined the Allied forces. The Germans, fearing an Allied invasion of southern France, occupied the Free Zone in November of 1942. With the increased German military presence Wake knew that her days were numbered. The decision was made for Wake to attempt to escape to Britain via a route over the Pyrenees (the same one Garrow had taken), a mountain range that forms a natural border between France and Spain. She was distraught at having to leave both Fiocca and her little dog Picon but realised that she would become a prisoner of the Gestapo if she stayed. Six times she attempted to cross the Pyrenees into Spain, but the heavily patrolled border proved a formidable obstacle. After several months she finally succeeded. She arrived in Britain in the middle of June 1943 and rented a small flat in London. She hoped desperately that her husband would soon join her, and while she waited she became dreadfully bored, missing the action and intrigue that working with the Resistance had brought into her life. After several weeks spent socialising with old friends, Wake applied to the Free French Forces, an army of Frenchmen organised by Charles de Gaulle, who refused to recognise France’s surrender to the Germans and who had vowed to continue the fight against Germany. Wake hoped that the Free French would be able to send her back into France to continue her work against the Germans. To her shock, Colonel Passy, the Free French officer who interviewed her, declined her application, for reasons that were never made clear. Indignant that the French were not interested in her services, Wake asked one of her British officer friends to put her in touch with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). SOE called her for an interview and were favourably impressed. They knew all about her work in Marseille and held her in very high esteem. Wake was recommended for training as an SOE operative and assigned to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).
Training Nancy Wake would prove to be an interesting experience for all concerned. She was first sent to a training school just outside of London, where she had the opportunity to meet Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, who was the head of SOE’s ‘F’ Section. The two hit it off immediately and, although not everyone was a Buckmaster fan, Wake described him as ‘a lovely man, an Englishman of the old school … and I loved him. He was a gentleman, and he really cared for each and every one of us.’4
Wake thought less highly of her first phase of training, however; during this stage potential recruits were screened, both in terms of their psychology and in their overall aptitude for undercover work. Wake was quite disgusted with the whole arrangement, finding the obstacle course confusing, the task of searching for imaginary hidden papers quite ridiculous and the standard psychiatric ink blot test a complete waste of time. She was convinced that she had failed every test she was put through, but she must have done something right as she was passed on for six more weeks of training in Scotland. Before she left, however, Wake managed to have words with one of the most influential people within SOE, which almost cost her the FANY commission she had been given. The conducting officer for the course, radio expert Denis Rake, had become a good friend of Wake’s. His openness about his homosexuality was off-putting for many but Wake accepted him and quite enjoyed his company. One afternoon, Nancy returned from lunch to Welbeck House, where she and the other recruits were staying, and walked in on an argument between Rake and one of the other female recruits. Wake attempted to mind her own business, but as the voices rose and expletives began to fly she found herself in the thick of things. The female recruit was furious with Rake and insisted she was filing a report against him. Then she demanded that Wake act as a witness to Rake’s rudeness during their altercation. Wake did not want to be drawn into the conflict, and refused, which further enraged the other recruit. Knowing that Nancy liked to drink, the woman complained to Selwyn Jepson, the man in charge of recruiting SOE agents, that Wake was a drunk, and accused her of not being willing to support her accusation against Denis Rake. Jepson responded to the female agent’s complaint by calling a meeting with Wake to question her about her drinking and about her unwillingness to act as a witness for her fellow female agent. Wake was furious that she had been drawn into a conflict in which she had no interest, and took offence at the way Jepson spoke to her. Once he had finished, an exasperated Wake basically told him ‘what he could do and where he could put it’.5 Jepson, shocked by her response and unwilling to be spoken to that way by any recruit, fired her on the spot, while Wake, extremely disappointed (but not remorseful enough to apologise), stormed out. She returned to her flat in London
where she received a telegram ordering her to return her FANY uniform to SOE. Fed up, Wake decided to once again offer her services to the Free French, and placed a call to SOE headquarters to tell them ‘they could have their bloomin’ uniform back, but only if that Jepson came to pick it up himself and apologise to her first’.6 News of Wake’s firing soon reached the uppermost echelons of SOE. Buckmaster, who was very fond of Wake, interceded on her behalf, and somehow managed to smooth things over. SOE rehired her, and scheduled her for the next available training course in Scotland.
Wake’s new training group consisted entirely of men. They were housed at Inverie Bay in northern Scotland, and were provided with extensive instruction in the use of explosives, grenades and weaponry. Wake had never held a gun before and found this type of training thoroughly enjoyable. Unlike the psychological tests she had done in her first round of training, she actually saw the skills she was learning in Scotland as eminently useful and not a waste of her time. So thoroughly did she enjoy the course that she actually began to worry about the possibility that her report card may not be good enough for her to continue with training. While she worked reasonably diligently at her training exercises, she was by no means a star pupil and she did have a tendency to engage in mischief. Determined to find out how well (or poorly) she was doing, Wake decided to exercise some of her training in covert operations and sneak a peek at what her report looked like. While the office clerk’s back was turned, she used plasticine to make an impression of the office key. Then, later that evening, she posted a friend as a lookout (promising to read his report as payment) and broke into the office where the reports were kept. She was pleased with what she read, seeing no negative comments and discovering that her instructors had written that she was ‘good for morale’!7 From Scotland, Wake moved on to Ringway (Manchester) for her parachute training and then to Beaulieu (Hampshire) for security training. She learned how to travel with false identity cards, how to perform surveillance, how to recruit civilians for Resistance work and how to deal with police interrogations. Wake also managed to inject some of her bawdy humour into these training exercises. Two of her more successful pranks included attaching a condom to the back of one instructor and, with fellow SOE agent Violette Szabo, hoisting another instructor’s pants up a flagpole! Training soon came to an end, however, and Wake was assigned her first mission.
Women who Spied for Britain Page 4