Richard Moore: Grey hair and Resistance

Some years ago there was an interview on the telly that fascinated me.

It was with a grey-haired old lady who would have looked quite at home knitting with other elderly grans, or bringing a tray of scones out of the oven.

The reporter asked her a question and I have to say I fair choked on the answer.

He said: "What is your biggest regret about World War II?"

I was expecting that she'd lost her husband/brother/son in combat, but that wasn't the case.

No, this little old dear looked at him and replied: "I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more."

It was said so matter-of-factly, so quietly and so believably that I've been scared of old women ever since.

Of course, few of them are like war hero Nancy Wake, one of the bravest, toughest fighters of WWII.

Born in New Zealand, Wake was 2 when she moved to Australia, where she lived most of her life.

Rebellious and with a feisty temper, Wake left at 16 for London where she studied journalism and then moved to Paris in 1938.

She met a French industrialist, they married, and were living in Marseilles when the Germans conquered France.

Marseilles became part of Vichy France, with a collaborationist government allied to Germany.

Wake joined the French Resistance.

Betrayed and consequently hunted by the Nazis, she fled to Spain and then to England to train as a secret agent of the Special Operations Executive.

She parachuted back into France and eventually led a 7000-strong group of fighters in central France.

Wake is credited with saving thousands of Allied lives - shot-down airmen and escaped soldiers - through her escape routes.

In France, she is a national hero and the recipient of the Legion d'Honneur and three Croix de Guerre awards.

Known as The White Mouse, she topped the German Gestapo's most-wanted list in occupied France.

And no wonder, apart from her underground railway for escaped Allies, she led a huge attack on the German headquarters at Montlucon.

Before the D-Day landings in 1944 Wake commanded 7000 French fighters against 22,000 Germans.

She lost 100 men, the Germans 1400.

On her return to her home, she discovered her husband had been captured and tortured to death by the Germans.

No wonder she hated them.

Australia's Returned Services League national president Rear Admiral Ken Doolan said: "To be a young woman behind enemy lines, doing what she did, having the courage of her convictions, it's not something that most people could do. What she did was remarkable."

But Wake regularly didn't always see eye to eye with the RSL and governmental authorities and was never given an Australian military award.

For decades she refused official decorations from Canberra.

She told them "where to stick them", but softened in 2004 when she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.

At 88 she moved back to England to live out her last years with former comrades.

She died of a chest infection recently, aged 98.

The world has lost a great, brave character.

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There are only three words to be said about the Great adidas Debacle over the price of All Blacks shirts and that is: "GET OVER IT!"

They are rugby jumpers, nothing more, nothing less.

They are not mystical, magical talismans of virtue, they are manufactured items to be sold for a profit - $220 in New Zealand, less than half of that overseas.

It is fair to say that the adidas bosses were complete idiots in the way they have handled the situation but, one also has to say the feral cries from many within these shores are just mind-bogglingly pitiable.

If you don't like the price of sporting apparel, don't pay it.

It isn't a right to own it, despite that apparently widespread belief.

What should be of more concern to New Zealanders is the fact that a group of our biggest employers - retailers - cannot afford to match the prices that online sellers can. Whether it be All Black jumpers, books, games, or CDs.

Retailers in stores have to pay rent, power and GST - online traders don't.

The more people buy online, the more shop closures there will be and the more staff joining the dole queues.

There is so much more at stake than just the cost of a rugby jumper.