www.voicesofwar.co.uk
the Pyrenees into Spain. Nancy credited her escape from France
on her ability to irt with the Germans she encountered, but even
this wasn’t fail-proof. She was picked up as part of a group arrested
in Toulouse during her escape, but was released four days later.
It was Pat O’Leary who intervened, and using a fake ID card of a
French Millice was able to persuade the Germans that she was his
mistress and they were trying to hide this from her husband. The lie
was accepted and she was released.
After ve failed attempts to cross the Pyrenees, Nancy nally made
her way to Perpignan by train along with other allied evaders. The
train was halted and a railway ofcial informed them it was a train
check. Nancy immediately jumped from the train window, with gunre
from the now alert Germans following her. Nancy had to leave her
handbag on the train with her ID cards and jewellery, as well as her
walking boots. Luckily she still had money so she boarded a train to
Nice and the safe-house of Mme Sainson - a risky choice as there
were generally airmen and soldiers their waiting to escape, over thirty
at any one time. The household was well used to checks though -
on a previous raid of the house, the twelve-year-old daughter took
the incriminating radio transmitter from the house, placed it in a box
of rubbish and took it outside to the bin right under the nose of the
Gestapo agents.
1
Nancy nally escaped, crossed the Pyrenees after two days of
constant hard climbing, and returned to London in 1943. Tragically
she was never to see her husband again - he was questioned by
the Gestapo after she ed, and as he refused to give her up, he
1 WWII Escape Lines Society website, accessed 24th February 2024.