Nancy Wake
She said that she saw no reason why women should be limited to waving goodbye to their men and sitting at home to “knit balaclavas.”
The Gestapo noted her uncanny ability to elude capture, calling her “the White Mouse,” and putting a price of 5 million francs on her head. They subsequently tortured her French husband to death seeking to track her down. She did not shy from violence when it was called for, once killing a German soldier with her bare hands and also ordering the execution of a woman believed to be a Nazi spy. She remained unapologetic for such tactics throughout her long life saying, “I was not a very nice person, and it didn’t put me off my breakfast.”
After being captured in France she escaped and made her way to Britain where she, like so many other female
After the war she was awarded so many medals that she claimed she lived for years off the proceeds of selling them. She retired in London and died at the age of 98. Her last wish was to have her ashes strewn across the Pyrenees, the site of her most dangerous operations.
Other women spies in my blog series: