The official historian of the SOE, M. Foot , said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her". By the s, Wake was living in Marseille with her French industrialist husband, Henri Fiocca, when the war broke out. As a member of the escape network, she helped Allied airmen evade capture by the Germans and escape to neutral Spain.
In , when the Germans became aware of her, she escaped to Spain and then went to the United Kingdom. Her husband was captured and executed. In the aftermath of the battle, a defeat for the Maquis, she claimed to have bicycled kilometers to send a situation report to SOE in London. In the s, she worked in Paris and later for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent.
She witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement and "saw roving Nazi gangs randomly beating Jewish men and women in the streets" of Vienna. She was living in Marseille, France when Germany invaded. During the war in France, Wake served as an ambulance driver. In reference to Wake's ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the "White Mouse. This gave the Germans and the Gestapo unrestricted access to all parts of Vichy France and made life more dangerous for Wake.
When the network was betrayed that same year she decided to flee France. Her husband, Henri Fiocca, stayed behind. He was later captured, tortured, and executed by the Gestapo. In early , in the process of getting out of France, Wake was picked up with a whole trainload of people and was arrested in Toulouse , but was released four days later. Until the war ended, she was unaware of her husband's death, and she subsequently blamed herself for it. After reaching Britain , Wake joined the Special Operations Executive and was trained in several programs.
Vera Atkins , who was the senior female in the SOE overseeing the agents going into France, recalls her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well. She was noted to "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character.
