Code Name Hélène

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes a discussion of sexual assault, wartime violence, and torture.

The book begins with Nancy Wake, under the codename Hélène, in a Liberator bomber airplane on February 29, 1944, preparing to parachute into Nazi-occupied France. On the plane with her is a British pilot, an American dispatcher, and her British partner, John Farmer, codename Hubert. Nancy is very nervous and hungover. The pilot offers her a sandwich and coffee to calm her stomach, which she takes, but later vomits up. They reach the drop point and Hubert jumps out first. Before she jumps out, Nancy takes a second to apply Victory Red lipstick, which she describes as “her armor” to the confused dispatcher.

She jumps and her parachute gets caught in a tree. An unknown Frenchman appears and climbs up to cut her down. She is worried that he might be a “German sympathizer about to slit my throat,” but she has no choice but to follow him (11). The Frenchman expresses wonder at how she came to be in this situation.