NZ fails AGAIN!
Another kiwi hero has died, with no acknowledgement or official thanks!
Nancy Wake (one of the most highly decorated Allied secret agents of WWII) died this week in London just before her 99th birthday.
Born in NZ and raised in Australia, she helped hundreds of Allied personnel escape from occupied France. In 1940 Mrs Wake became a French Resistance courier and later a saboteur and spy, setting up escape routes and destroying German installations. The Gestapo named her the "White Mouse" because she was so elusive and, at one point, she was top of their most wanted list.
She was Australia's most decorated servicewoman; France awarded her its highest honour, the Legion D'Honneur; she also received Britain's George Medal, and the US Medal of Freedom. In 2004, she was made Companion of the Order of Australia. [She was also the inspiration for the book and the film Charlotte Gray.]
All her life, she maintained she would always be a NZer. How ironic then, that she has never been formally honoured by the very country she was so patriotic about. The BBC even headlined her death with "Australian WWII heroine dies".
Here, war veteran Pat Hickton (who was saved by Nancy Wake) says he's tried for years to have her recognised and recently hand-wrote a four-page letter to PM John Key urging him to take action - nothing happened. He says Veteran Affairs Minister Judith Collins promised that Mrs Wake would be recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list last year - nothing happened. Hickton says Nancy Wake deserved the Order of NZ, our highest honour...but, just like with the 60th annvsy of the Battle Of Kap'yong, the Crete veterans, our soldiers with Agent Orange birth defects - nothing.
Her Awards:
* Australia: Companion of the Order of Australia; George Medal
* Commonwealth of Nations: 1939-1945 Star; France and Germany Star and bar
* UK: Defence Medal and bar; War Medal 1939-1945
* France: Legion d'Honneur; Croix de Guerre with two palms and a star; Medaille de la Resistance
* USA: Presidential Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm
* NZ: Royal NZ Returned and Services' Assn.Badge in Gold.
* But from the NZ Government...nothing. SHAMEFUL!
New Zealand time:
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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