Michel Hollard

Michel Hollard was a member of the French wartime resistance and engineer, who founded the espionage group Réseau AGIR during World War II.

His contribution was recognised by the British by the award of the Distinguished Service Order for having "reconnoitered a number of heavily guarded V-1 sites and reported on them". Hollard's efforts included 49 trips smuggling reports to a British attaché in Switzerland.

Life
Initially serving in World War I, Hollard subsequently became an engineer and was employed by Maison Gazogène Autobloc, a manufacturer of wood gas generators. Hollard founded AGIR in 1941.

Following his capture in February 1944, he was tortured and imprisoned first at Fresnes Prison and in June 1944 as a forced laborer at the main Neuengamme concentration camp (prisoner "F 33,948"). In 1945, as a result of Swedish intervention Hollard was one of a group of prisoners transferred to the ship Magdalena after being evacuated on April 20 on the prison ship Thielbek. The Thielbek was sunk on May 3 by a Royal Air Force attack on German shipping.

After the war, Hollard "was given the rank of Colonel" and, despite the V-1's destruction of over 80,000 English houses between June and September 1944, Sir Brian Horrocks called him "the man who literally saved London".

A high-speed train that operates Eurostar's high-speed rail service between Britain, France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel was named after him.