"I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year," he said.
Wake, who’d gotten stuck in the tree after parachuting from a B-24 bomber, was armed with classified documents. On her way to the local maquis resistance group, she had no time for Tardivat’s asininity.
"Don’t give me that French shit," she said as she untangled herself from the tree.
Tardivat realized at that moment that if there was one thing Nancy Wake was not, it was a damsel in distress.
Trained in hand-to-hand combat, espionage, sabotage, and able to drink almost all of her male counterparts under the table, Nancy Wake was known as one of the most fearsome French Resistance fighters during World War II. By 1942, the Gestapo had put her at the top of their most wanted list, offering a five million franc prize for her capture, dead or alive. They referred to her as the "White Mouse," as she had managed to evade capture several times throughout the war.
Wake’s resistance had begun in 1933. While working as a freelancer for a Parisian newspaper, the Australian expatriate was asked to travel to Vienna to interview the new German Chancellor — a man named Adolf Hitler. In Vienna, Wake witnessed firsthand the horrific treatment of Jewish men and women at the hands of devoted Hitler followers. Immediately, she vowed to oppose Hitler by whatever means necessary.
Video - The "White Mouse": How Nancy Wake Became Gestapo's Most Wanted (60 minutes in length)