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
- 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