Why Villers-sur-Mer means 'Valour-on-sea'

Today's Michelin Guide describes Villers-sur-Mer on France's Jurassic Coast as "an elegant seaside resort." But this charming town, with its Casino, sparkling plages and rolling wooded hills, was once the scene of as much heroism as any of the Normandy landings. Ahead of the 66th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, I followed the trail of Glider Pilot Regiment's Staff-Sergeant Bramah whose daring exploits on that day have just hit the headlines. French TV Cameraman Jacky Roginski's book "Forbidden Coastal Region," not only describes the pilot ‘Jock' Bramah's epic adventure, but highlights the heroic deeds of the unsung Villersois, who at war's end, put their lives at risk to come to the aid of their British allies.

Villers-sur-Mer
I took LD Lines (www.ldlines.com; 0844 576 8836) Portsmouth-Le Havre ferry. At Villers I checked in at Villa Castellamare, a wartime launchpad for German midget subs and once home to the family of LD Lines President, Philippe Louis-Dreyfus.
Before my lunch with Mayor Gerard Vauclin and a Sud-Ouest journalist, I walked up to the St.Martin's Church, famed for its stained glass windows. Opposite is a Garden of Remembrance where I counted the names of 15 British servicemen among 64 Frenchmen from Villers who lost their lives in this coastal resort bang on the Greenwich Meridian, yet generously this War Memorial is called "Jardin Anglais." It is just one of many links of friendship between Villers and Britain.

Lunch with the Mayor at Le Celtic
While Gerard Vauclin and I discussed tourism, my mind was still half on WW11. The mayor's great-grandfather, Noel Vauclin, took de Gaulle's June 18, 1940 BBC broadcast "to fight on" literally. When the Germans marched into town the next day, he was seen parodying the goose-step, and turning up the volume on BBC broadcasts. Celtic's restaurant owner, Francois Honore, who cooked the tasty Coquilles St.Jacques, escaped by inches a German bullet that hit his pram.Lucien,his father, forced labourer working in a tunnel, hid in a recess and survived an Allied 500 lb bomb that killed the 43 Germans alongside. After a lunch, I visited Daniel Bagot, Villers leading real estate agent. His secret agent uncle, Fernand Bagot, gave MI6 via Trouville, Rommel's Atlantic Wall details. He died at the hands of the Gestapo.
I next drove to Villers chateau above town, where Bramah, left for dead after surviving an ambush, collapsed at war widow Madame Boisbluche's farm. His punctured lung was tended by mid-wife Marie-Louise Lefranc who brought the Scot to Villa Lucie, 11 rue de Verdun, where his hostess was mother of two, Renee Bouvot, 22. After a tip-off, a German patrol crashed down the front door but Bramah enacted his revenge by taking out 3 soldiers and from the top floor, escaping with Renee by sliding down an overflow drainage pipe.

A distant memory
Today in Villers, the war is a distant memory.The youngsters are more concerned with the annual June Festival of the Dinosaur, represented by a spectacular life-size floral replica opposite the Ministry of Tourism. On the esplanade the Union Jack, German flag, and French Tricolour are side by side - which is as it should be.
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