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 THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Wednesday, March 16, 2005 "A Man Tied to France" Herbert Brill will get nation's highest award, the Legion of Honor. By Tom Berg Corona Del Mar - Good luck catching Herb Brill without a tie. He wears it grocery shopping. To the gym. Washing the car! But once, he lived in a hole in the ground. Blowing up trains and electrical pylons. Signaling in plane-drops of arms by flash-light. And listening to nightly broadcasts of the BBC news for the phrase: "Mr. Smith has a long mustache." For this, he will be given the highest honor bestowed by the nation he helped. This July, in Nontron, France, - a town he helped save during World War II - Brill, 84, of Corona del Mar will be admitted into the French Legion of Honor. "Let me tell you this," he says of the nine months he aided the French Resistance in 1944, "since the end of the war, there has never been a day I haven't thought about it. It's affected me that much." Brill didn't have to help. In fact, as a navigator aboard a B-17 bomber, he was told to remain passive if his plane crashed, even over Nazi-occupied France. Just get back to safety were his instructions. But after Brill's plane went down December 31, 1943, and he was hidden by the local villagers, he didn't have the heart to say no when they asked for help. "His story is extraordinary," said Oliver Plancon, deputy consul general at the French Consulate in Los Angeles. "When he was shot down, he did not know a single word of French. He'd never been to France. But he stood up with other French men to defend our country." Brill didn't know he'd end up defending France when his B-17 was shot down near the southwestern village of Experimont. The crew split up in pairs. Four walked south and escaped over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. Four were captured by the Germans. And two - Brill and turret gunner Bill Weber - walked east. All they really wanted was shelter from the Nazis and passage out of the country. But after encountering a string of villagers who fed, clothed and housed them at risk to their own lives, Brill began to feel a tug of indebtedness to the resisters whose numbers had grown to about 35,000. When asked one night to help signal in a parachute drop of guns and explosives, Brill replied, "Of course." Soon, he was working with the SSS, a special sabotage section of the Free French Resistance, headed by Capt. Jacques Nancy at the request of Gen. Charles de Gaulle. They blew up electrical towers, detonated rail lines and bombed German-run factories. Every night they listened to the BBC newscast for code phrases like, "Mr. Smith has a long mustache," and "Uncle Pierre has died of congestion." "If our code came over, it meant we were getting a drop that night," Brill says. They'd march miles into the countryside and signal in low-flying planes by flashlight. "I was glad to," he says. "Every week they'd say, 'We're going to get you out. We'll get you to Spain.' In the meantime, I said the best thing I could do is volunteer." Throughout, Lt. Brill wore his tie, as he had since cadet school. He wore it aboard the B-17 because the plane was so cold and it kept his neck warm. Then it came to feel like a good luck charm as he found shelter in French farmhouses, tents, an old chateau - even a hole in the woods where he slept for three weeks in May of 1944. "It was my security blanket," he says. Here, Brill's story veers off from most veterans' stories. And it can be traced not to the nights of sabotage but to the long days in between. During these lulls, Brill befriended several families. He studied French with their children. He did chores on the farm. He acted as a surrogate dad to one family, whose father was in a POW camp. Long after the war, they stayed in touch. The children he once knew grew up and raised children of their own. They welcomed Brill to commemorations of the Battle of Javerlac, which he fought in, and the Liberation of Angouleme, which he fought it, and even to the scene of his plane crash, where the mayor gave him a radio salvaged from the cockpit. So close did he become with his old friends that in 1989, Brill and his wife, Millicent, bought a home in Nontron, a town of about 4,000 where they spend their summers." "We see them every year," says Millicent. "We eat with them. They come to see us. They leave fruits and vegetables on the windowsill or behind the shutters. Once they left a pumpkin with Herb's name carved on it." The July ceremony will put Brill in rare company. Only 150 living Americans hold the medal for military action. An additional 300 hold it for deeds in science, music, literature and other fields. The order was begun by Napoleon Bonaparte, recognizing eminent service to France. Brill chose to receive his medal as a chevalier (knight) in the town he now summers in and once helped save.  Being awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honor On July 24, 1945, a company of Germans marched on Javerlac and Nontron. Six weeks earlier, they'd sacked the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, killing 642 of its 740 citizens. Resistance leaders called for help, and Brill responded, joining in a guerrilla attached that killed 56 Germans, forcing their retreat. "Every year, I go back on July 24th," says Brill. "We go to every tomb where guys are buried and place bouquets of flowers. Then we walk back along the road. It still affects me." Author Don Lasseter of Anaheim has written about the battle in his book, "Their Deeds of Valor," which includes chapters on 50 American aviators who were helped by locals after crashing in or parachuting into France. "Herb was my favorite story of all," says Lasseter. "I went to France, and he introduced me to many families. He took me on long drives all over the countryside to little farms. They love him. They regard him as a hero." Which is why Brill asked to be awarded his medal in France. The ceremony will be formal. The crowd large.  The Medal of Honor shortly before it was awarded to Herb Brill. And one thing's for sure. When the white enameled star on a wreath of leaves in pinned to his lapel, as he has been the custom for nearly 200 years, Herb Brill will be wearing, as usual, a tie. Legion of Honor Napoleon Bonaparte created France's highest honor, the National Order of the Legion of Honor, in 1802. Unlike the U.S. Medal of Honor, it is given to citizens from all walks of life, not just veterans. Members of the Order rise through five ranks: chevalier (knight), officier (officier), commandeur (commander), grand officier (grand officer) and grand croix (grand cross). The ranks now include 113,000 chevaliers, 10,000 officiers, 1,200 commandeurs, 250 grand officiers and 75 grand croix. All members must first be nominated, then recommended by a Legion of Honor chancellery to the French president, who approves each appointment. About 20 Americans receive the honor each year.
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