Nancy Wake Learn English through story level 3

avita

nancy wake the woman who became a spy

in the second world war

i fought with the french resistance

against the germans

in the second world war i got weapons

for the resistance

fighters and helped fighters to escape

i was part of the final victory against

the germans

in 1945

i was born in new zealand but i grew up

in

sydney australia when i was 16 years old

i left home and got a job as a nurse in

the australian countryside

in 1932 i received a surprise

200 pounds from my aunt

it was a lot of money at that time

and i decided to spend it i went to

sydney harbour

and bought a ticket to north america

i enjoyed the journey on the ship and

then

traveled around the usa and canada

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when i wasn’t traveling i worked as a

waitress

to earn some money

after a while i moved to britain

i wanted to work on a newspaper so

i studied to become a newspaper reporter

i got my first job on a newspaper in

paris

where i learned to speak french

i went to germany and austria for the

newspaper

i saw the terrible things that adolf

hitler and his nazi party were doing in

their country

i realized then that the nazis were very

dangerous

and they wanted to rule the whole of

europe

in 1940 the germans attacked france

and occupied most of the country

i was already living in the south of

france where i married my first husband

a businessman arie fiocca

we both hated the nazis and wanted to

help in the war against them

i began to work for the french

resistance

in marseille i delivered secret messages

to the resistance fighters

and i also helped fighters to escape

the germans tried to catch me

i used false papers and changed my

appearance

so they didn’t recognize me

in 1943 the germans caught me

but luckily i escaped it was too

dangerous for me to stay in france

i had to leave my husband and go over

the pyrenees mountains to spain

from spain i escaped to london

and joined the british army

i was a little surprised when the

british wanted me

to become a spy they wanted me to be

part of a secret army

which helped the french resistance

the training with the british army was

very hard

and i worked night and day to learn the

special skills

i learned how to look after injured

fighters

i also learned to kill

and so i became a spy

and set off on my first mission to

france

i arrived in france on the 29th of april

1944. at first

the french resistance didn’t believe

that i could help them

they didn’t think that a woman could be

a fighter

a resistance leader told one of his men

this woman could be an enemy ask her to

go for a walk with you

when no one is around kill her

they didn’t realize i could speak french

i understood everything

when we went for the walk i told the man

if you attack me i will kill you first

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he believed me and took me back to the

camp

at last the resistance allowed me to

join them

i got weapons from britain and also took

part in their attacks against the

germans

we blew up railway lines and stole

german weapons on one occasion

i killed a german soldier

on another i killed a resistance

fighter who was working for the germans

our attacks against the germans were

very successful

but it was difficult to keep everything

secret

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many local people were frightened of the

german soldiers

and sometimes they gave the germans

information about our plans

on one occasion someone told the germans

about our secret radio

transmitter our radio operator destroyed

our codes

so the germans didn’t discover our

secrets

i cycled 500 kilometers to get new

codes

when german soldiers stopped me i told

them

i’m going to visit my aunt who’s very

ill after three days

i got the codes everyone

said that i was very brave but i didn’t

think about that

i had to do it it was part of my

job with the new codes

i could send secret messages to britain

we could receive new weapons and start

our attacks again

our attacks were important

they stopped the progress of around

fifty

thousand german soldiers these soldiers

weren’t able to fight the british army

which was arriving in the north of

france

in september 1944

i received orders to go to paris

in paris i helped the british and french

armies

in the final months of the war

on the 8th of may 1945

we heard the wonderful news the war was

over and the victory was ours

i wanted to return home to my husband

i was shocked to discover that he was

dead

he was killed by the germans in 1943

it was time for me to start a new life

i went back to australia and tried to

become a politician

i wasn’t successful and life seemed

boring after the war

i then moved to the uk for several years

and i got an office job with the british

secret service

i was happy to receive many honours for

my work in the war

such as the george medal from the

british

and at the end of my life

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i felt proud to be part of one of the

most important victories in history

the victory brought peace and freedom to

europe