Nancy Wake played a vital role in the French Resistance during World War II; she was born on August 30, 1912 in New Zealand as the youngest of six children. After she ran away from home at the age of 16, Nancy soon found herself in London as a journalist; she told the executive of the newspaper that she was fluent in Egyptian, knowing that he was very fond of Egypt. In the early 1930s, she moved to France, and in 1939, she married Henri Edmond Fiocca a French industrialist. With the fall of France in 1940, Nancy soon joined the French Resistance and became an organizer for the resistance fighters, she smuggled messages and food to the underground in the south of France; she also led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops. She purchased an ambulance to help transfer refugees fleeing from the Germans occupied in France. During that time she was able to obtain false paperwork which allowed her to help transport escaped prisoners of war to Spain. She became the most wanted person by the Gestapo, and they code named her “the White Mouse”, because of her ability to elude capture from the enemy.

Wake described her tactics: "A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I'd pass their (German) posts and wink and say, 'Do you want to search me?' God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was.”

With a 5 million -franc price placed on her head, she attempted six times to get out of France, and she was finally able to escape to Britain from the Pyrenees. Unaware of her husband’s whereabouts, she stated the last thing Henri said:

"You have to leave’, and remember going out the door saying I’d do some shopping, that I’d be back soon. And I left and I never saw him again. “

She did not know of his death until the liberation of Paris in June 1945.

She arrived in Britain in June 1943, where she was as recruited as one of 39 women who served as British Special Operations Executives that worked with local resistance groups to sabotage the German defenses. She was sent to a defense camp in Scotland where she was trained in various tactics, such as decoding, radio operation, night parachuting, plastic explosives, survival skills and gun handling.  

 After eight months of preparing and training, Nancy and another SOE operative parachuted into central France in April 1944; they were there to prepare and organize the French Resistance in preparation for the D-Day attack. Nancy successfully trained 7,000 men in guerrilla warfare and distributed weapons throughout France; she even rode her bike 500 km through several German checkpoints none-stop for 71 hours to replace codes that had been previously destroyed. Nancy was also in charge of making important decisions that affected the Resistance and was not partial to making tough dictions when necessary. One example she explained of this was a situation in which she had to interrogate three French women who were spies; after the interrogation, she was convinced that one of them was a true spy

“I was not a very nice person”, Wake told an Australian newspaper in 2001. “And it didn’t put me off my breakfast. After all, she had an easy death. Shed didn’t suffer. I knew her death was a lot better than the one I would have got.”

“And if I hadn’t done it”, she added, “and she had got away and reported to the Germans what the Maquis were up to, how could I have ever faced the families of the maquisards we lost because of it? It was definitely the right thing to do.”

Once the World War II ended, Nancy remained at the Intelligence Department at the British Air

Ministry. In 1957, she remarried a former prisoner of war, OfficerJohn Forward. Nancy was awarded the George Medal, The United States Medal of Freedom for her services in the War. After the death of her husband in 1997, she sold her war medals to pay for living expenses; when asked why she commented:

“There was no point in keeping them. When I die, I’ll probably go to hell and they’d melt anyway. My only condition is when I die, I want my ashes scattered over the hills where I fought alongside all those men.”

On August 7, 2011, Nancy Wake died at the age of 98.

 

Nancy Wake, “white Mouse” of World WarII, Dies at 98, Washington Post. Bernstein, Adam, August 9, 2011.

              http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nancy-wake-white-mouse-of-world-war-ii-dies-at-98/2011/08/08/gIQABvPT5I_story.html (accessed March 14, 2014)

Nancy Wake, Resistance Fighter, The Global Life of new Zealanders. Sweeny, Brian, April 19, 2000.

http://www.nzedge.com/nancy-wake/ (accessed March 14, 2014)

Nancy Wake, Biography, Spartacus Educational. Simkin, John, September 1997- June 2013.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEwake.htm (accessed March 14, 2014)

Nancy Wake, Proud Spy and Nazi Foe, Dies at 98, The New York Times. Vitello, Paul, August 13, 2011.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/world/europe/14wake.html?_r=0 (accessed March 14, 2014)

Little is known of the none- military group known as the WASP. During World War II, the demand for civilian jobs was on the rise, as most men were fighting overseas. Two pilots, Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love, saw the need to create more jobs within the United States, so they approached the Armed Forces and the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, with the idea of putting female pilots in the skies, in order to free male pilots for military combat.

On September 14, 1942, due to the efforts of the two pilots, Cochran and Love, General Henry Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Force, approved the establishment of a female Air Force, which was named the Army Air Force Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). Jacqueline Cochran became director of the program.  August 5, 1943, the WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) and WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment) were joined together to form The Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP). Applications poured in and, of the 25,000 of the women who applied, only 1900 were accepted. Those womenspent four months flight training, and 1,074 of the women earned their wings, becoming the first women to fly American military aircrafts.  The women were required to have the same requirements in their training courses as male Army Air Corp pilots, although they were not trained for combat and received no gun training.  Once their training was complete, WASP graduates were stationed within the 120 air bases across the United States. Their duties included towing targets for the combat pilots of anti-aircraft artillery practices, stimulated strafing mission and transporting cargo; by 1944 WASP pilots flew every type of aircraft flown by the USAAF during World War II.

During the War, 38 WASP pilots lost their lives. However, due to their none military status, fallen WASP pilots did not receive traditional military honors. Flags were not placed on their coffins, and their bodies had to be sent home at the families’ cost.

 

Since the time they founded WASP, Love and Cochran had tried to make WASP a military entity. On September 30, 1943, the first militarization bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives. And on June 21, 1944, the House bill to give WASP pilots military status was denied.  

 

After World War II, all WASP files were sealed and classified. Nothing was known of this civilian group until 35 year later, when in 1977, after much debate in Congress, WASP members were finally recognized as veterans of World War II.  In 1984, they were given the Victory Medal of Honor, and in 2010 at the United States Capital, 300 surviving WASP members were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Decades after their service in World War II, the members of WASP were finally given the proper appreciation and recognition, which they so deserved for their service during the war. General Arnold stated, in a speech given on December 7, 1944 at the Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas:

"The WASP has completed its mission. Their job has been successful. But as is usual in war, the cost has been heavy. Thirty-eight WASP have died while helping their country move toward the moment of final victory. The Air Forces will long remember their service and their final sacrifice."

It was due to the efforts of these female pilots and their bravery that the American Air Force was supplied with ammunition and planes, which aided the United States in winning the War.

 

References:

TWU Librarues- Gateway to Women’s History. Women Air Force Service Pilots Digital Archive. Texas Woman’s University, 2014

 http://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p214coll2 (accessed February 19, 2014).

 

NPR: Female WWII Pilots: The Original Fly Girls. Carpien, Cindy, March 10, 2010.

http://www.npr.org/2010/03/09/123773525/female-wwii-pilots-the-original-fly-girls(accessed February 19, 2014).

 

 PBS. American Experience. Fly Girls. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/filmmore/description.html (accessed February 19, 2014).

 

 

Book Recommendation:

Carl, Ann B. A WASP Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II. Smithsonian Institution Press, June 22, 2010.

Games,  Ben , R. WASP WWII. Fideli. Publishing Inc, January 31, 2011.

Games,  Ben , R. WASP WWII. Fideli. Publishing Inc, January 31, 2011.

Stephanie von Hohenlohe was born on September 16, 1891 in Vienna, Austria to the daughter of a Jewish ancestor. Stephanie was noted for her beauty and charm even from a young age. She became a political figure in Hitler’s circle and was best known for her tile as the Nazi Princess during World War II. She was known as a socialite, spy, gold-digger and close confident to Adolf Hitler, which to some made her the most dangerous woman at that time. It is known that Hitler bestowed gifts upon her, including the Schloss Leopoldskron Palace.

Stephanie was known for the lovers she would take; in 1913, she began an affair with a married man  named Franz Salcator and she soon found herself pregnant with her first child. Although it was reported that the child belonged to Franz Salcator, she was able to convince another man of high statue,  Prince Friedrich Franz von Holenloche-Waldenburg-Schilingsfurst that the child was his and on May 2, 1914 Prince Friedrich Franz and Stephanie were married. Stephanie found herself in high society where she felt like she had always belonged.  Along with her marriage to Franz Schillingsfurst, she was bestowed with the title of Princess which she still used after the dissolve of her marriage in 1920. During that period she volunteered as a nurse of the First World War, but even in war she still upheld the lifestyle to which she was accustomed to. Her service as a nurse was a short lived occupation due to the lady maid and butler she would keep.

In 1927, while living in London, she began an affair with a journalist named Lord Rothemere, a Nazi sympathizer; he was the key person that introduced Princess Stephanie to Adolf Hitler in 1933. Soon after meeting Hitler, Stephanie used her contacts in London to pass correspondence and arrange meetings with high-ranking Nazi figures. One particular meeting Stephanie arranged with was Duke of Windsor and the Fuhrer. It was after this meeting that Princess Stephanie’s reputation as a spy increased.  After the dissolve of her relationship with Lord Rothermere, Princess Stephanie began another affair with Hitler’s top aid Fritz Wiedemann throughout the 1930s. Time Magazine reported that:

           "Titian haired, 40 year old Stephanie Juliana Princess Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst, confidante of the Führer and friend of half of Europe's great is scheduled to sail from England to the US this week. Since the fall of Austria, Princess Stephanie, once the toast of Vienna, has lent her charms to advancing the Nazi cause in circles where it would do the most good. As a reward the Nazi government permitted her to take a lease on the sumptuous Schloss Leopoldskron near Salzburg, taken over from Jewish Max Reinhardt after Anschluss. During the Czecho-Slovak crisis she did yeoman service for the Nazi campaign. When Mr. Chamberlain sent Lord Runciman to gather impressions of conditions in Czechoslovakia Princess Stephanie hurried to the Sudetenland castle of Prince Max Hohenlohe where the British mediator was entertained."

Towards the end of 1938, Hitler and Princess Stephanie’s relationship began to change; once Hitler found out about his aid Wiedemann and the Princess relationship. Some say it was due to Hitler’s knowledge that Stephanie was half Jewish; however, Hitler had known of her Jewish ancestry since 1934. So after their falling out Wiedemann left for the United States and Princess Stephanie would later follow him to San Francisco, traveling back and forth for London and the U.S, until the outbreak of World War II.  Roosevelt and the FBI did not like Stephanie and her occasions in the U.S. Roosevelt is quoted saying that Princess Stephanie’s activities made her “worse than 10,000 men.”  She was detained in 1941 by the U.S and sent to a detainment camp in Texas until she was paroled in 1945. After the end of the war she returned to Germany and the lifestyle, men and social life to which she was accustomed. Nothing for Princess Stephanie changed during or after the war; she lived until the age of 81.

 

 

 

Recommended Books:

Schad, Martha. Hitler’s spy Princess: The Extraordinary Life of Princes Stephanie von Hohenlohe. Sutton Publishing , 2004.  

Wilson, Jim. Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stpehanie von Hohenlohe.  The History Press, 2011.  

 

References:

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum ; safe files- box 3 folder titles list Hohenlohe, Stefanie von Index October 28,1941. http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box3/folo31.html  (accessed February 13, 2014).

 

Girl Spy, Stephanie von Hohenlohe. February 4, 2011. http://girlspy.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/stephanie-von-hohenlohe/ (assessed February 13, 2014).

 

Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Spartacus Educational. Simkin, John, September 1197-October 2013. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Stephanie_von_Hohenlohe.htm (accessed February 13, 2014).

 

Women in the late 30's and early 40's found themselves in a unique position. Because men off were fighting in the War, women found themselves needing to contribute like never before in history. One particular occupation that was common in Great Britain during the War was the Women’s Land Army. A division of the Women's Land Army was established in America during World War II  and known as The Woman's Land Army Of America from 1943 -1947. The Woman's Land Army in Britain and Whales was an important agricultural resource during World War I and World War II. Original established in England and Wales during the first World War to help keep food on the plates of British civilians while the men were away serving in the war the Land Girls, as they were best known would work the fields of big and small estates around the countryside's of Britain. Women would work 50 hours a days 5 1/2 days a week. Women wanting to join the Women's Land Army were interviewed and given medical examinations in order to qualify. Most of the women working on the farms came from cities and industrial areas of England and Wales, and they were mostly single an between the ages of 20 and 30. Farmers preferred young female workers to work their farms.

Even though the Women’s Land Army was not a military force they,  still were required to wear uniforms comprised of brown corduroy, brown brogues (brown shoes), fawn knee-length woolen socks, green V-neck pullovers, a fawn shirt, a brown cowboy style hat and badges depicting a wheat sheaf which was the symbol of their agricultural work. Common jobs consisted of lambing, milking cows, digging ditches, gathering crops, ploughing, managing poultry, catching rats, and carrying out other farm maintenance work. Another form of occupation Land Girls attended to was Timber Corps, which was comprised of chopping down trees and running sawmills. Most of the women were untrained and so they learned by trial and error. Wages were paid weekly by the farmers themselves, not directly by the state. Because of this, wages were not always properly distributed in the appropriate amount designated for the girls. Each district had its own representative who was in charge of ensuring that the Land Girls were being treated fairly well and that they were working effectively. With the boys back home from the war jobs  were in high demand and the men were reengaged into their former roles in the fields, so without the need of  its services, The Women’s Land Army program was discontinued in 1950. While the job of a land girl was not always the most glamorous, many of the women stated that they would not have changed their experiences during that time, and that through it all they formed lifelong friendships.  

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Land_Army

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/womens_land_army.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash

http://www.womenslandarmytribute.co.uk/

Recommended Books:

Women's Land Army by by Jesse Russell (Editor),Ronald Cohn (Editor)

The Women's Land Bob Powell,NigelWestacott