Normandy 2011 - Part Four

Gold Beach

Steve woke – without a bell being rung. The campanologists could have been banging out the opening bars of “Smoke on the Water” for an hour and he would not have heard a peep. The first few days in Normandy had been an Indian summer, so seeing that Steve hates being warm (it would melt his heart of ice) he had to have his window in the gite wide open all night for the first few nights. Great for star gazing, drifting off as the heavens moved. Watching shooting stars from his bed. But the weather had turned a bit, so the windows and the wooden shutters, well, were shut (hence the name) so he had a peaceful nights sleep. Waking to his alarm, going down stairs and put on coffee – at his own designated getting up time, this was the life. Today was the day when we visited the first of the British beaches. Gold.

The seaside town of Arromanches-les-Bains (or, simply Arromanches) is a strange place to visit, totally different now from how it was on D-Day. Yes that is stating the obvious, but it has become almost a provincial seaside town that you’d see in the UK – not quite a Blackpool, but more a Scarborough. The town is where the British forces landed on D-day and, sadly it has become the touristy of traps. Not wish to offend the good people of Arromanches, but it is in places quite tacky – no saying that there are any “kiss me quick hats” or “win a cheap tray” bingo places – but it is crammed with fast food shops and souvenir shops. The place was busy and heaving with tourists (many different nationalities) and school kids and the take aways and the souvenir shops were doing a roaring trade – Although why anyone would buy a D-Day “Tea towel” or a Lighter the shape of the Mulberry Harbour is beyond the NMBS.

The NMBS plotted themselves down at a fast food place – The Café American. And sorry to say it was dreadful. Kevin had a burger that claimed to be a half pounder – well maybe a half pounder in zero gravity, and it was the size and the thickness of a rich tea biscuit. Indeed a rich tea would have filled Kevin up more. He also informed us that it tasted disgusting. Steve had some anaemic chips, sorry frites (although its Café American it could have been fries); Stuart and Gerry had a Croque Monsieur – more like a Croque Verypoor.

Lance was clever and sneaked off to another place and got some nosebag there. Even if it was a pot noodle or a cuppa soup it would have been haute cuisine compared to the rubbish the other four had eaten and paid (a not cheap) price for. So, seeing this website is a place of top tips for any Battlefield Tourists – take a packed lunch to Arromanches and if you do wish to eat in a café – pay the high prices of the many restaurants and avoid the cheap burger and fast food places. Yes, the NMBS have mentioned the surly French barmen before. Smoking Giantes, Tutting when you ask for something etc etc, but it seemed they have branched out into running fast food places too.

Gold and the Mulberry Harbour

Although sat at the Café American did provide much amusement for the NMBS lads. As mentioned Arromanches was packed with tourist from all over the globe, including Americans. Steve has a good friend called Dalton, who is an intelligent and articulate man, who has a vast knowledge of D-Day and the 101^st (Band of Brothers) Regiment. Indeed he has written a fantastic book on D-day and the liberation of Europe and is well on the way to doing a follow up. He would have equally have shaken his head in disbelief at the sayings of his fellow countrymen (and women). One woman asked her husband “Where are we” – meaning the place and he replied with utter confusion and chaos “I don’t know!” – His voice was a pitiful screech. Steve and Gerry looked at each other. He’s obviously over here touring the D-Day Landing beaches. He’s at the centre of the landings, at the Epicentre of Operation Overlord and he didn’t have a Scooby Doo where he was. Yikes, Shaggy!

Next a group of Americans walked past and saw the Ice Cream sign at the Café American. “Oh my word, they sell Ben and Gerry’s” one screamed with delight. “Gee, they have Magnums too” cried another. Yes Luv and we have Electrickery, Democracy and Flushing Toilets (well, maybe not in France). But to be fair to our American cousins, a Party of people from Essex were just as bad.

Sitting down next to us in the Café American they faffed and mithered about what they would eat (I wouldn’t recommend the rich tea on a bun) the mum was saying to the daughter (who looked like she had been dipped in glue and thrown through H. Samuels) and her husband “you’re hungry, I aint – so you get something and I will have a Magnum” (the Americans nodded their approval) She continued “but if you ‘ave a burger, like, (for burger read rich tea) I will have ‘arf” the husband then said – “Well I would want a full one, so we shall buy two” a big sigh and one of those looks that wives give their poor husbands before a shriek of “but I only want ‘arf a burger and a few chips, so there is no point in getting a full one is they?” This witty Essex banter continued well after the NMBS had left the Café American, we are guessing that they maybe still sat there arguing over a burger that to be frank won’t be a burger and certainly won’t be a burger would either splitting in half or arguing about.

We should have been excited about Arromanches - This is the town where the British Forces landed on D-Day! The very heart of Gold Beach, the home of the "Mulberry Harbour" a fantastic feat of civil engineering, But it was a bit of a let down. So much so that we avoided the museum and left the town, again not trying to be unfair to Arromanches a few other websites have complained about the place and the museum for example: “I found that the best stuff here was outside the museum, with the smaller items inside not being worth the entrance fee. I also found the staff abrasive. This however is my opinion based on my last visit in 2007”. We haven’t named the site who we have quoted from, but we guess he’s not wrong.

As we left Arromanches we visited the Sherman Tank overlooking the beaches. Whilst we was there we met an American couple, and to counterbalance the American tourists earlier, they were friendly, pleasant and educated. They chatted all about D-Day and other battlefields of Europe. We missed the Arromanches 360 cinema and museum and looked at the memorials nearby.

We next headed to Longues-sur-Mer. This was a more pleasant experience and not a burger or a cheap tacky Soap on a rope D-Day tank in sight. The German artillery battery situated at Longues-sur-Mer is a classic example of the Atlantic Wall fortification, the actual guns are still in place and the visitor can go into the case mates which house them. The whole area is very similar to Pointe-du-Hoc (although not as blown to bits), with a forward observation bunker overlooking the cliff top.

Looking out of this Steve and Kevin quoted the film “The Longest Day” where Major Werner Pluskat says “You know those five thousand ships you say the Allies haven't got? Well, they've got them!” Although, if the NMBS was being anal, we were doing it on the wrong beach and wrong bunker. Pluskat was the first German officer who saw the Allied invasion fleet on June 6, 1944, heading toward their landing zone at Omaha Beach. His men fired their guns on Omaha Beach until they ran out of ammunition.

The battery was completed by April 1944. Although constructed and manned initially by the Kriegsmarine, the battery was later transferred to the German army. The site consisted of four 152-mm navy guns, each protected by a large concrete casemate, a command post, shelters for personnel and ammunition, and several defensive machine-gun emplacements

The battery at Longues was situated between the landing beaches Omaha and Gold. On the night before the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, the battery was subject to heavy bombing from allied air forces. The bombing was followed from 0537hrs on the morning of the landings by bombardment from the French cruiser Georges Leygues as well as the U.S. battleship Arkansas. The battery itself opened fire at 0605hrs and fired a total of 170 shots throughout the day, forcing the flagship HMS Bulolo to retreat to safer water. Three of the four guns were eventually disabled by British cruisers Ajax and Argonaut, though a single gun continued to operate intermittently until 1900hrs that evening.

The crew of the battery (184 men, half of them over 40 years old) surrendered to the 231st Infantry Brigade the following day. The heaviest damage was caused by the explosion of the ammunition for an AA gun, mounted by the British on the roof of casemate No.4, which killed several British soldiers.

Longues-sur-Mer

The German artillery battery

We moved up the coast and visited Ver-sur-Mer. The reason that Ver was on the map was a fine Sexton armoured vehicle. This place was named "Robert Kiln" who was officer in the 86th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment Royal Artillery. The Sexton armoured vehicle was offered by the son of Major Kiln.

The Sexton armoured vehicle was built in Canada from 1941 and was fitted with the chassis of the M3 American tank. It was used as self propelled artillery and was armed with an 87.5 mm howitzer and a six men crew. Around the vehicle several boards tell about the history of the 86th Field Regiment Royal Artillery, and the landing on Ver-sur-Mer beach. Opposite was a bar (Called the Sexton), so it was only polite to have a beer – and Get In! The bar man was really nice (although he was wearing very inappropriate short shorts) and It’s well recommended if you are there. The food (we didn’t have any, but we noticed as he was serving) looked very nice.

The Sexton

Tank and Cafe

We moved on to Crepon and the Green Howards Memorial. This is a beautiful memorial and the figure of a solider is haunting. James Butler, the sculptor captures the look on the face of the solider perfectly. There is a sorrowful look, of a man who has seen the horrors of war.

On the 26th October 1996 His Majesty Harold V, King of Norway unveiled a new memorial to commemorate the Regiment's role in the Second World War and the 6th and 7th Battalion’s Normandy Campaign in particular.

The Mayor and the people of Crépon kindly provided a superb site and opposite is a information board regarding the Green Howards and also for Stanley Hollis, who won a VC nearby.
Stanley Hollis was born in Loftus, (present day Redcar and Cleveland) North Riding of Yorkshire where he lived and attended the local school until 1926 when his parents (Edith and Alfred Hollis) moved to Robin Hood's Bay where Stan worked in his father's fish and chip shop. In 1929, he became an apprentice to a Whitby shipping company to learn to be a Navigation Officer. He made regular voyages to West Africa but in 1930 he fell ill with blackwater fever which ended his merchant navy career.

Returning to North Ormesby, Middlesbrough he got a job as a lorry driver and married Alice Clixby with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1939 he enlisted as a Territorial Army volunteer in 4th Battalion, The Green Howards. At the outbreak of World War II he was mobilised and joined the 6th Battalion, The Green Howards and went to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940 where he was employed as the Commanding Officer's dispatch rider. He was promoted from Lance Corporal to Sergeant during the evacuation from Dunkirk. He then fought from El Alamein to Tunis as part of the British 8th Army in the North African Campaign. Hollis was appointed Company Sergeant Major just before the invasion of Sicily in 1943 where he was wounded at the battle of Primosole Bridge.

On 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France, Hollis was still a company sergeant major with the Green Howards, who were one of the assault battalions at Gold Beach. As the company moved inland from the beaches after the initial landings, Hollis went with his company commander to investigate two German pillboxes which had been by-passed. He rushed forward to the first pill-box, taking all but five of the occupants’ prisoner and then dealt with the second, taking 26 prisoners. Then he cleared a neighbouring trench. Later that day, he led an attack on an enemy position which contained a field gun and Spandau machine guns. After withdrawing he learned that two of his men had been left behind and told Major Lofthouse, his commanding officer, "I took them in. I will try to get them out."

Taking a grenade from one of his men Hollis carefully observed the enemy's pattern of behaviour and threw it at the most opportune moment. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to prime the grenade but the enemy did not know this and kept their heads down waiting for it to explode. By the time they realised their mistake Hollis was on top of them and had shot them.

In September 1944 he was wounded in the leg and evacuated to England where he was decorated by King George VI on 10 October 1944.

After the war, he spent several years as a sandblaster in a local steelworks. He later became a partner in a motor repair business in Darlington before becoming a ship's engineer from 1950 until 1955. He then trained as a publican and ran the 'Albion' public house in Market Square, North Ormesby: the pub's name was changed to 'The Green Howard'. The public house was demolished in 1970 and he moved to become the tenant of the 'Holywell View' public house at Liverton Mines near Loftus.

Hollis died on 8 February 1972 and was buried in Acklam Cemetery Middlesbrough.

The Green Howards Memorial

His Citation read: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 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 Hollis 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.

Company Sergeant-Major Stan Hollis, VC

Next was the Royal Engineers monument at Tierceville. The Monument built in August 1944 by the 179th Special Field Company Royal Engineers. The Statue looks like the Eros Statue at Piccadilly Circus and the amazing fact has been mentioned earlier. It was built in August 1944! Up the road, the battle of the Falaise Pocket, (12–21 August 1944), was still being fought. Typical British reserve of “yeah, I know there is a war going on, but we want a memorial and we want one now!”

Fast forward to 2011 and if some council wanted a sculpture put up in Suburbanshire it would takes ages with H&S regulations and builders faffing about drinking chipped mugs of PG Tips, putting cones out and showing large amounts of cracks in bum. Yet, this stunning memorial was done within 6 weeks of D-Day and up the road (and we mean very close by) one of the most, if not the most decisive battles during the Normandy campaign was going on. Fair play to the 179^th! Maybe we should hire the 179^th to do the pot holes in the roads of the UK.

Royal Engineers monument at Tierceville