IN the annals of Worcestershire’s military history, the name Gheluvelt is writ large.

Annually much fuss is made – and rightly so – of the bravery of 380 members of the 2nd Battalion, the Worcestershire Regiment, who, on October 31, 1914, bayonet charged 1,200 German soldiers across 1,000 yards of open ground in north-west Belgium and changed the course of the First World War.

But Vernon in France? A lot less well-known. Yet there, after the D Day landings in 1944, the bravery of the county regiment’s 1st Bn also changed the course of the Second World War.

In torrential rain and faced by withering machine gun fire, its soldiers clawed their way up a vertiginous gorge and forged the first crossing of the river Seine, across which the Allied tanks rumbled into northern France and on towards Brussels.

The townsfolk of Vernon, which is 50 miles north-west of Paris, have never forgotten the exploits of the Worcestershire Regiment and each August they place wreaths on the graves of the 26 men who died there.

However, back home things are rather different. Vernon has not etched itself into folklore like Gheluvelt. Maybe a public park needs to be named after the battle? That would certainly be one more step in a growing campaign to raise the profile of Vernon, which has been gaining pace since the millennium.

It was in 2000 that “the Worcester’s layby” – as the site had become known by the French locals – first came to prominence. Bill Edwards, secretary of a veterans’ association, who had been a stretcher bearer with the 1st Worcesters on that dangerous day, organised a one-and-a-half ton block of Malvern stone with a plaque to be taken across the Channel and placed beside the road as a memorial to his fallen colleagues.

Donated by Malvern Hills Conservators it was transported on the back of his truck by David Plant, a groundworks contractor from Malvern and a former member of the regiment.

But everything moved up a gear in 2005, following a completely chance visit by retired historian Peter Rogers, who now lives in Malvern and is a member of Worcester Twinning Association.

He was in nearby Le Vesinet – Worcester’s twin town in France – when he decided to drop in on a friend living in Vernon.

He said: “It was the first time I had been there. So I was taken around the town on a sight-seeing trip. It was then my friend began to talk about the Second World War and the liberation. He kept talking about the Worcestershire Regiment and took me to the road that leads out of Vernon, up a steep wooded side of a valley. I had no idea what was to come.

“In a clearing by a layby, slightly off the modern day route, I found the Malvern rock, which had been placed there in 2000.

“It was on the site of the battalion’s headquarters and regimental first aid post that the Worcesters had set up as they fought for control of the area on that day in 1944. It is such a peaceful, tranquil place now, it is hard to imagine the horrors it must have seen back then.”

The 1st Bn had been in the vanguard of the Allied advance towards the Seine and were given the task of forcing a crossing of the river at Vernon, where it is about 250 yards wide. All the bridges had been smashed by Allied air raids, so a new one would have to be built, capable of taking the tank corps that was on its way.

The actual crossing of the river was unopposed, but as the Worcester’s moved up the steep road on the other side, they came under brutal enemy fire.

The infantrymen should have been supported by the first wave of tanks, but these didn’t arrive in time, so it was left to the foot soldiers to fight yard by yard up the densely wooded terrain.

The following day, with the battle won and the enemy having retreated, the wounded were all accounted for. It was then discovered that in an amazing humanitarian gesture, the Germans had dressed some of the Allied injured before they pulled out.

Peter said: “This place has so many memories and yet it seems largely forgotten by all but the people who live there.”

Within a couple of years of his discovery and supported by the twinning association, he was instrumental in setting up a Friendship Pact between Worcester and Vernon, signed by both mayors.

He said: “The issue that came to me was how to bring it to the surface of Worcester and the only way was to bring people to it.”

The first official city group to see the memorial was during a day trip as part of a twinning visit to Le Vesinet, during which Vernon organised a wreath-laying to its liberators.

Peter said: “I found it very moving that every August 26 they put wreaths on the graves of all the soldiers who are buried in the cemetery. They dress the graves and yet we’ve forgotten them. I thought: ‘This mustn’t stay like that’. Those men were the first battalion of the British Army to cross the Seine and that’s historic.

“Within 10 days of making this bridge they were in Brussels; every tank went through this point and I realised you shouldn’t let this go.”

Since 2006 there have been two visits from Vernon to Worcester, that have enabled the townspeople to once more meet some of their now aging liberators.

The next group Peter Rogers took to France was Worcester’s Elgar Chorale and, in 2007, members sang in tribute at a memorial service at the side of the piece of rock.

Such was the success of that trip that the choir and its director Dr Donald Hunt returned earlier this year for an extended stay.

In a moving ceremony, the Chorale sang a lux aeterna – a communion chant – set to Sir Edward Elgar’s Nimrod, a tune indelibly linked with any British service of remembrance.

It may have been 65 years after the event and many of the people present were a generation or so removed from those who died at the spot, but no one is in any doubt about the importance of keeping alive the memory of what happened that day in a little corner of France that will be forever Worcestershire.