World War II
With the outbreak of World War II, Villiers was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1940. He served in Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk; as Stukas dived in on the weary troops, a great variety of British vessels evacuated the troops across the Channel.
Villiers was assigned to a convoy of 24 LCI(L)'s, or Landing craft, Infantry (Large). Ordered to deliver them across the Atlantic, with a 40 percent loss rate expected, Villiers got all but one safely across. He commanded "flights" of LCI(L)'s on D-Day in the Battle of Normandy, the Invasion of Sicily, and the Burma Campaign in the Pacific. By the end of the War, Villiers had been promoted to Commander, awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross, and made a Commander of the Portuguese Order of St. James of the Sword for his gallant conduct.
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