Nancy Wake

[Sukerkin]

I came across this report on the BBC of a remembrance ceremony carried out in France for a very notable Australian intelligence agent who so aggravated the Gestapo she was at the top of their Most Wanted list.

All honour to her :bows head:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21735824

 

[Dirty Dog]

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[celtic_crippler]

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[K-man]

She was colourful character. It causes me to shudder if you can imagine she stood for parliament here. 'Fireworks' may well have been understatement!

One evening Wake was dining with friends in the reopened British Officers Club in Paris when she got into a blue - not for the first or last time - with an uppity waiter. This waiter thought he had won the confrontation by saying he would much prefer to serve the Germans than the likes of her and her noisy friends.
She reflected on this for perhaps half a second before leaping to her feet and knocking him senseless with a right hook. As she recounted, as soon as another alarmed waiter rushed to his fallen colleague with a glass of brandy, she grabbed it, drained it in two seconds, said ''Merci'', and walked on out the door. That was Nancy Wake.


For her courage and feats during the war she was awarded numerous bravery medals, including the Congressional Medal of Freedom by the US, the George Medal from Britain and three top French honours: the Legion d'Honneur, the Croix de Guerre, and the Medaille de la Resistance.


However, there was controversy for the next five decades as she was denied a medal by the Australian government on the simple grounds that she was not fighting for any of the Australian services during the war. Despite that, in her latter years, the federal government did contact her from time to time to see if she would accept a medal and was consistently rejected. When she was asked about this in April of 2000, she was typically blunt. ''The last time there was a suggestion of giving me [an Australian medal], I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts. The thing is if they gave me a medal now, it wouldn't be given with love so I don't want anything from them. They can bugger off!''


(The Australian government eventually made Wake a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2004, and two years later she was awarded the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association's highest honour, the RSA Badge in Gold. Her medals are displayed at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra.)




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-white-mouse-who-roared-20110808-1ij2o.html#ixzz2NBXA4LA9

 

[seasoned]

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[arnisador]

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[Xue Sheng]

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[Yondanchris]

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