April 28, 2004
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/thisfrenchlife/2004/04/
Eurostar tribute to war hero
The Michel Hollard Eurostar was officially unveiled by VIP guests including Sir John Holmes, the British Ambassador, at Paris Gare du Nord station this morning.
Michel Hollard was a French businessman who was one of the most courageous spies of the war and was credited as ‘the man who saved London’.
After the ceremony the train set off for London Waterloo International station , with around 100 guests on board including family and friends of Michel Hollard.
During the war Michel Hollard smuggled documents from France to the British intelligence service in Berne, showing the site of 104 launch pads for the world's first unmanned weapon, the V-1 flying bomb.
He made a scale model of the launch pads from the sketches that enabled the RAF to successfully identify and bomb the sites in northern France.
Hollard had brought the sketches, which had been copied from a master plan left in the coat pocket of a German engineer, across the Franco-Swiss border to the British Embassy in Berne.
In total he crossed the border 98 times at great personal risk.
Hollard had built up his ‘Agir’ network of agents - recruited among civilians and especially SNCF railwaymen - in important locations who helped him to convey vital information about Nazi activities to the British authorities.
One of Michel Hollard's sons, Vincent, said: "My father acted with such courage. He would have been very proud to have a Eurostar named after him and those who helped him.
“I hope that the many thousands of travellers who use the Eurostar service will now become familiar with the name Michel Hollard and appreciate the importance of his services to both Britain and France."
Paul Charles, director of communications, at Eurostar, said: "In the centenary year of the Entente Cordiale, there is no better time to name one of our trains after Michel Hollard.
“It is a long overdue tribute to the courage and bravery of this extraordinary man, and railway workers across France, who did so much to save London in the war."
