Company Sergeant-Major (CSM) Stanley Hollis VC
Stanley Hollis – Early days
Stanley Hollis serving in the Merchant Navy
Stanley Hollis was born in Middlesbrough on 21st September 1912.
In 1926, his parents moved to Robin Hood’s Bay, where they ran a fish and chip shop. In 1929, Stan joined the Whitby Shipping Company and trained as a Navigation Officer sailing the routes to Africa. He contracted blackwater fever and had to return to Middlesbrough, working as a lorry driver, and later marrying Alice, with whom he would go on to raise a son and a daughter.
Stan Hollis – Military service prior to D-Day
Stan had already seen service with the Green Howards as a Territorial Soldier prior to the outbreak of war and readily signed on for War Service, joining the regiment’s 6th Battalion. He went to France in April 1940, working as a Despatch Rider and was evacuated from Dunkirk. On his return to the UK, he was immediately promoted from Private to Sergeant, an indication of how senior officers viewed his leadership potential.
He went on to see action in the Western Desert and in the invasion of Sicily. In November 1943, he returned to the UK to prepare for the invasion of France, training in Scotland and on the south coast.
Stan Hollis and comrades after being wounded in Sicily. Stan Hollis is far left with bandage around his head.
Stanley Hollis – D-Day
On 6th June 1944, Stan along with the men of the 6th Battalion, climbed into their landing craft and headed for Gold Beach. On the way in, Stan saw what he thought was a German bunker. He fired at it with a machine gun and, having emptied a drum of ammunition, he grabbed the barrel of the gun in order to put it on the deck of the landing craft; the hot barrel burnt the skin off his hand. According to Stan, this was the worst wound he received during the war.
(The Green Howards Association bought the Tram Stop and it is now the centre of the commemorations held on Gold Beach on 6th June every year.)
The Tram Stop Stan Hollis attacked which he believed to be a German bunker.
The objective of the 6th Battalion was a German artillery position called the Fleury Battery, situated in the village of Ver-sur-Mer. The battery was protected by a series of pillboxes, one of which Stan went to investigate. As he approached, the German inside opened fire on him. He immediately charged the pillbox, firing his Sten gun from the hip as he ran. He managed to get on top of the pillbox, threw grenades in through the gun slits and then kicked in the door taking the surviving Germans prisoner. He then followed a communication trench that led to a second bunker and also attacked that bunker – alone – with equal success.
The Fleury Battery which Stan Hollis charged down single-handedly to secure his battalion’s objective.
Later that day in the village of Crepon, Stan was told to go and investigate reports of a German artillery gun firing from within a farmhouse. Seeing the gun, Stan, along with two men, approached and attacked the farmhouse with an anti-tank weapon called a PIAT (Projectile Infantry Anti-Tank). The PIAT landed short, alerting the gun crew to the presence of Stan and his men, and they opened fire. Stan managed to get clear but, on realising that his comrades were trapped, he picked up a Bren machine gun and charged back into the fray, drawing enemy fire upon himself but allowing the trapped men to get clear.
At the end of 6th June, Stan and men of the 6th battalion were further inland than any Allied unit.
Map showing the advance of the 6th & 7th Battalions, Green Howards from D-Day through to the end of the campaign.
For this action and the earlier action at the Fleury Battery, Stan was recommended for the award of the Victoria Cross.
On 11th June, in the advance on the village of Cristot, Stan heard a dog barking. Asking himself why the dog might be barking, he followed the noise and saw that the dog was barking at the men in a German machine gun position, hidden in a sunken lane. Without thinking of his personal safety, Stan charged the position and, as he charged he threw a grenade (having first removed his spare socks from his ammunition pouch(!)). However, in his excitement, he had forgotten to remove the pin. Although no detonation occurred, it was sufficient to scare the German gun crew into a panic which allowed Stan to close and take the position.
Stan’s VC Citation reads:
Stanley Hollis 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 a German 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.
Stan was decorated with the Victoria Cross by His Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace on 10th October 1944.
Stan Hollis VC Medal Group
When asked why he did what he did, Stan always said, ‘because I was a Green Howard’ and when asked about his proudest moment, he replied ‘When I was promoted to warrant officer, as I was then a man to be reckoned with in Middlesbrough’. Both show his feelings for his hometown and his regiment.
You can find out more about what the Green Howards Museum are doing to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day here.
Stanley Hollis – the post-war years
Gravestone of Stan Hollis at Acklam Cemetery, Middlesbrough
Wounded a number of times and suffering from both the after-effects of malaria contracted on active service, and the blackwater fever he contracted when in the Merchant Navy, Stan left the Army and became (among other things), a publican running The Albion Pub in North Ormesby, later renamed The Green Howard.
Without doubt, Stan had a natural aptitude for battle, but never in a foolhardy way. He was a natural leader who felt a great responsibility toward his men – the action at Crepon illustrates this. In Stan’s own words, he ‘took the men in, he would get them out’.
Stanley Hollis died on 8th February 1972 and is buried in Acklam Cemetery in Middlesbrough.
There is also a memorial to Stan at Crepon, details of which can be found here.
A statue of Hollis was unveiled in his hometown of Middlesbrough in 2015.