French Country Travel Life History Lesson

This French Country Travel Life History Lesson is one of the few that appear in this space. But it’s here precisely because it’s a piece of French History not well known. And it needs to be. After all DA BG’s mission is to hip you to all that you’re not hip to. Right?

The Celebrated Bruce J. Kauffmann is today’s guest teacher:

“Few have lived a life as meaningful or full as did Nancy Wake. Living in France in 1940 when Nazi Germany subjugated that country, she became a leader of the “maquis” groups — the French resistance fighters — who sabotaged the Nazi occupation of France at every opportunity. Wake was so good at her job, and so good at escaping capture, that the Gestapo nicknamed her “The White Mouse” because she avoided every trap.

Fearing the law of averages, however, in 1943 her colleagues convinced her to flee France and head for England, where she underwent rigorous training as part of England’s Special Operations Executive. She proved to be an outstanding trainee, and after completing her training she was parachuted back into France to once again assume a leadership position in the resistance. Her duties ranged from recruiting new maquis members to procuring weapons, to leading attacks on hundreds of German military installations.

In some ways, she was an anomaly. She was breathtakingly beautiful and used her beauty to full effect — she was never without her lipstick and face cream — but she was also a hardened and often hard-hearted killer. She handled a machine gun better than most men and once killed a German soldier with her bare hands. And when she discovered another female resistance fighter was a spy she shot her herself, later saying she had no regrets. “I was not a very nice person,” she explained, “and it  didn’t put me off my breakfast. After all, she had an easy death … Her death was a lot better than the one I would have got.”

Read more HERE.

THROW ME A BONE HERE,PEOPLE!

What are ya thinkin’?