THE D-DAY VICTORIA CROSS Today is the anniversary of Operation Overlord, more commonly known as D-Day. 76 years ago, Stan Hollis was Company Sergeant Major of one of the first battalions to reach Gold Beach on D-Day. He was no stranger to combat. By 1944, he'd fought at Dunkirk, El Alamein and the Battle for Primasole Bridge. Hollis was thirty-one years old on D-Day. He was in charge of three machine gun and three mortar teams. He was one of the most experienced men in his unit, and many younger soldiers looked up to him. It was at a house that overlooked the beach where Hollis performed the first of two heroic acts to win him the Victoria Cross. When the lead platoons passed the house, they came under fire from a machine gun hidden in a pillbox. In response, Hollis charged around thirty yards over open ground whilst under fire to attack the pill box. He took the surviving occupants prisoner and discovered a slit trench leading away to a second pillbox in the garden of the house. He advanced down the trench alone, captured the fortification and all those in it. In all, he captured 30 Germans single-handed. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBGmQyJgZZT/?igshid=2szlugtsy7n