Re: The Lady Who Saved POWs

Date: March 08, 2004

"Nancy saved WA airman
By GRAHAME ARMSTRONG

BOB Jones owes his life to Nancy Wake – widely considered to be the bravest women to have fought in World War II.

Mr Jones, now 87, was a fighter pilot in the war and became a prisoner of war after being shot down. He escaped near the Austrian border while being transferred in a truck from Italy to Germany.

He and nine others ran, rolled and crawled into a cornfield with German machinegun fire around them.

He spent days climbing mountains and crossing rivers before reaching Switzerland, then crossed into France where he was put in touch with Ms Wake's unit of the Maquis, an arm of the French Resistance.

For four months, Ms Wake's organisation clothed and fed Mr Jones, protecting him from the nazis in the town of Annecy. Mr Jones then helped the group in sabotage and ambush operations on German military targets.

When eventually the group helped him to get out he went to Britain, was promoted to Squadron Leader and spent the rest of the war in Intelligence, helping other RAAF escaped prisoners.

Nancy Wake was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but grew up in Australia from the age of two. She was in France at the time of the war and became a spy.

Her activities made her a No. 1 target of Germany's secret police, the Gestapo, who named her "The White Mouse".

This week the frail Ms Wake, in a wheelchair, was guest-of-honour at Australia House, London, as Governor-General Michael Jeffery invested her as a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Mr Jones, who flew Kittyhawks with 3 Squadron RAAF, told The Sunday Times he owed his life to Ms Wake, whom he described as a delightful, attractive and interesting woman and a great Australian.

He said there was no question that he and thousands of other servicemen owed their lives to her and he would forever be grateful to her.
"I'll never forget her," he said. "She was the one that got me out and back to our lines again."
©The Sunday Times"