Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011), also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a New Zealand born nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry.

After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Wake became a courier for the Pat O'Leary escape network led by Ian Garrow and, later, Albert Guérisse.

In the aftermath of the battle, a defeat for the Maquis, she claimed to have bicycled 500 kilometers to send a situation report to SOE in London.

The Resistance exercised caution with her missions; her life was in constant danger, with the Gestapo tapping her telephone and intercepting her mail.

This gave the Germans and the Gestapo unrestricted access to all parts of Vichy France and made life more dangerous for Wake.

The head of the O'Leary Line, Albert Guérisse, managed to have her released by claiming she was his mistress and was trying to conceal her infidelity to her husband (all of which was untrue).

Vera Atkins, who was the senior female in the SOE overseeing the agents going into France, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell.

"[19] On 29–30 April 1944[20] as part of the three-person "Freelance" team headed by John Hind Farmer (code name "Hubert"), Wake parachuted into Auvergne province, France.

Wake's duties were pinpointing locations at which the material and money were parachuted in, collecting it, and allocating it among the maquis, including pay to individual soldiers.

Wake carried with her a list of the targets the maquis were to destroy before the invasion of France by the Allies (which would take place on 6 June).

[24] Wake and the members of her team accompanied groups of maquis in a three-day 150 kilometres (93 miles), retreat westward to the village of Saint-Santin.

After her bicycle ride, the Freelance team, with another recently arrived operator named Roger, a 19-year-old American marine, returned to Allier Department to join the resistance group of Henri Tardivat (who discovered her tangled in a tree when she parachuted in).

Neither spoke much French and Schley was nearly blind if not wearing his thick-lensed eyeglasses, but he impressed the maquisards with his immaculately tailored military uniform.

Her principal job, however, continued to be to organize the reception and distribution of arms and material for the resistance groups which was parachuted into Allier nearly every other night.

[29] Wake claimed that she participated in a raid (not confirmed by other sources) that destroyed the Gestapo headquarters in Montluçon, killing 38 Germans.

Nancy Wake claimed that the spy girl spat and stripped naked in front of her before facing the firing squad.

"[16] After the invasion of southern France by American military forces on 15 August, the Resistance groups harried the retreating Germans.

[38] Maintaining her interest in politics, Wake was endorsed as a Liberal candidate at the 1966 federal election for the Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith.

In 2003, Wake chose to move to the Royal Star and Garter Home for Disabled Ex-Service Men and Women, in Richmond, London, where she remained until her death.

[49] In April 2006, she was awarded the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association's highest honour,[50] the RSA Badge in Gold.

[11] On 3 June 2010, a "heritage pylon" paying tribute to Wake was unveiled on Oriental Parade in Wellington, New Zealand, near the place of her birth.

[citation needed] In 1956, Australian author Russell Braddon wrote Nancy Wake: The Story of a Very Brave Woman (ISBN 978-0-7524-5485-6).

[41] In 2011, German author Michael Jürgs [de] wrote Codename Hélène: Churchills Geheimagentin Nancy Wake und ihr Kampf gegen die Gestapo in Frankreich.

In 2020, Simon and Schuster published Ariel Lawhon's Code Name Helene, a fictionalisation of Wake's exploits.

[67][68] Claims that Sebastian Faulks' 1999 novel Charlotte Gray is based on Wake's war-time exploits,[69] as well as those of Pearl Cornioley, a British secret-service agent were rejected by the author.

[71] An Australian television mini-series was released in 1987 entitled Nancy Wake, which is based on the 1956 biography by Russell Braddon.

[72] Similarly, Seasons 1 and 2 of the late 1980s British television series Wish Me Luck were based on her exploits and much of the dialogue was copied from her autobiography.

[75] Christine Croydon's Underground, a play reviewing Wake's life opened at The Gasworks Theatre in Melbourne in March 2019.

[citation needed] In 2019, the book Liberation, a historical novel based on the events of Wake's wartime service, was released.

Written by Imogen Kealey, the book's dust jacket from the Grand Central Publishing edition released in April 2020 mentions that the story is in development as a "major motion picture.