Eurostar tribute to WWII hero

Relatives of spy Michel Hollard travelled on the train to Waterloo

Eurostar has named a new train after a French hero credited with saving London from total devastation during World War II.

The Michel Hollard engine was unveiled in a ceremony at Paris' Gare du Nord station, attended by British ambassador to France John Holmes.

Mr Hollard smuggled documents to British intelligence services that allowed them to bomb the launch pads for Germany's V-1 flying bomb.

Guests including Mr Hollard's family travelled on the train to London.

Great risk

Mr Hollard, who was born in France in 1898 and died in 1993, was decorated in the late 1940s by the British and French Governments but did not receive wide public recognition.

A businessman and spy, he made sketches showing 104 launch sites for the V-1 bomb from a masterplan left in the coat pocket of a German engineer.

He then smuggled the sketches across the Franco-Swiss border to the British embassy in Berne, making 98 trips in total at great risk.

His scale model of the launch pads enabled the RAF to identify and repeatedly bomb the sites in northern France.

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 Paul Charles, of Eurostar Profile: 'Man who saved London'

From December 1943, more than 100 V-1 launch pads were damaged in RAF raids, preventing what could have been devastating air attacks on southern England.

Mr Hollard built up the Agir network of agents, recruited among civilians and particularly French railwaymen, to help him pass important information about Nazi activities to the British.

Eurostar communications director Paul Charles said on Tuesday: "In the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, there is no better time to name one of the Eurostar 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," Mr Charles added.

About 100 people, including friends and family of Mr Hollard, were invited to join the train to London's Waterloo station.

One of the spy's sons, Vincent Hollard, 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."

The Queen unveiled the first Eurostar to be named - the Entente Cordiale - during her state visit to France earlier this month.