In the village of Crépon, a bronze statue of a British soldier taking a moment's rest has been erected to pay tribute to the men of Green Howard who landed in the Gold sector on June 6, 1944. A plaque on the base pays special tribute to Sergeant Hollis, who died in England in 1972.
Stanley Hollis was 32 when he landed on Gold Beach on June 6, 1944. He joined the 4th Battalion of Green Howards in 1939. When the war broke out, he was mobilized and joined the 6th Battalion of the same unit. He took part in the 1940 French campaign with the British Expeditionary Force, then in North Africa at El Alamein and Tunis with the 8th Army, and finally in Italy, where he was wounded for the first time. He reunited with the Green Howards and landed with them on Gold Beach. Behind La Rivière, the Mont-Fleury battery with its four 122mm guns was neutralized by Allied bombardment before it could fire a single cannon shot. The 6th Green Howards were tasked with seizing it. Sergeant Hollis led the assault, capturing or killing its occupants. A little later at Crépon, Hollis?s company met stiff German resistance in the village. Hollis succeeded in freeing two of his comrades who had been trapped in a house under enemy fire. For these two acts of bravery on the same day, Stanley Hollis was awarded the Victoria Cross by King George VI in October 1944, the only one awarded to a British soldier on D-Day.
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