The Green Howards

Hollis Hut, Ver-sur-Mer
Inset: CSM Hollis and his VC

In 2006 a train stop on a Normandy beach, mistaken for a German pillbox on D Day was unveiled as a memorial to Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis VC and the men of the Green Howards.

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'.

During the fighting on D Day, CSM Hollis won the only Victoria Cross to be awarded that day. He gained it for two actions of supreme valour, firstly for clearing a pillbox and trenches north of Ver-sur-Mer, and secondly for rescuing his comrades under fire in the village of Crépon. His citation ends:

"Wherever fighting was heaviest, CSM Hollis appeared and, in the course of a magnificent day’s work, he displayed the utmost gallantry and on two separate occasions his courage and initiative prevented the enemy from holding up the advance at critical stages. It was largely through his heroism and resource that the Company’s objectives were gained and the casualties were not heavier: and by his own bravery, he saved the lives of many of his men."
Read the full citation

The hut, mistaken for a gun emplacement on D-Day, stands on Gold Beach
at the junction of the tracks now named Voie de la 50 Div and Voie du Debarquement.