Visit Stanley Hollis Hut D-Day Memorial, Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

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Aerial photographs taken before the landings showed what looked like a small German fortification at La Rivière, adjacent to Gold Beach. CSM Hollis later recalled: “As we were coming in I lifted a stripped Lewis gun off the floor of the landing craft and pelted a pillbox with a full pan of ammunition”. Only on advancing over the beach did the men discover that it was ‘only a bloody tram-stop’. Stanley Elton Hollis VC (21 September 1912 – 8 February 1972) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He had the distinction of receiving the only Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day (6 June 1944). Hollis was 31 years old, and a Warrant Officer Class II (Company Sergeant-Major) in the 6th Battalion, The Green Howards, British Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC: in Normandy on 6 June 1944 Company Sergeant-Major Hollis went with his company commander to investigate two German pill-boxes which had been by-passed as the company moved inland from the beaches. "Hollis instantly rushed straight at the pillbox, firing his Sten gun into the first pill-box, He jumped on top of the pillbox, re-charged his magazine, threw a grenade in through the door and fired his Sten gun into it, killing two Germans and taking the remainder prisoners. Later the same day... C.S.M. Hollis pushed right forward to engage the [field] gun with a PIAT [anti-tank weapon] from a house at 50 yards range... He later found that two of his men had stayed behind in the house...In full view of the enemy who were continually firing at him, he went forward alone...distract their attention from the other men. Under cover of his diversion, the two men were able to get back. Wherever the fighting was heaviest...[he]...appeared, displaying the utmost gallantry... It was largely through his heroism and resource that the Company's objectives were gained and casualties were not heavier. ....he saved the lives of many of his men.

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