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According to an article by Carolyn McDowel, when Nancy Wake was 16 she ran away from home. She had no prospects, she had to choose between becoming a journalist or a prostitute.
"Nancy said that in her mind both professions were basically the same and that she had found it hard to choose. However in the end she decided to become a journalist because it offered her opportunities for travel, which she was always very keen on doing."
Nancy Wake worked for Hearst Newspapers as a European correspondent based in Paris. In Vienna, she saw Nazi brutality at its worst as she witnessed the torture of Jews in the streets.
This was back in the days when journalists had ethics and supported their countries in war for the cause of freedom, and Nancy Wake decided to do something to stop the Nazis.
As a journalist of uncommon character and startling beauty, she became a courier for the French Resistance, and established communication and supply routes.
McDowel writes, "When parachuting into France from England she put on her best dress, made sure her make up was intact and took her stilettos. Once she reached the outskirts of the village nearby where they landed she could put them on. That way if the Germans encountered her tottering down a country lane they would think she was a prostitute offering her services nearby. She operated on the notion that you cannot see sometimes what is right in front of your nose. And, she added naughtily with a twinkle in her eye, in that way I did get to embrace both professions after all."
