Dan Snow's History Hit - D-Day Heroes: The Green Howards

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

There was only one Victoria Cross awarded on the 6th June 1944, D-Day. It went to Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis of the 6th Battalion of the Green Howards. Alongside the 7th Battalion of the same regiment, the 6th were to advance 7 miles inland on the first day of Operation Overlord, the furthest of any other forces from Britain and the United States.To explore the actions of the individuals from the Green Howards who made this advance, including the 180 who lost their lives in doing so, James spoke to Eric Le Doux-Turnbull. Eric runs D-Day Landing private tours and is one of the contributors for the History Hit TV special on the D-Day landings.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History. I've got an episode of Warfare for you today. It's our special military history podcast. Go and subscribe wherever you get your pods. Presented by Dr. James Rogers. It covers, well, warfare from the early modern period, but particularly First and Second World War. So recently we've been doing a lot on Ukraine as well. It's fascinating stuff. It gets great guests. Enjoy this episode. It's an eye-opener. Today marks 78 years since D-Day. That day when the spearhead of Operation Overlord, around 156,000 Allied troops, landed along five beaches in Normandy, France to begin the liberation of Europe. But while we often focus on the decision-making of great generals like Eisenhower and Monti or the overall battles and strategy, we rarely focus in on the experience of the men

who fought and lost their lives. I'm your host James Rogers, this is the Warfare Podcast and to tell the individual stories of soldiers on D-Day we've chosen to focus in on the 6th and 7th Green Howards. A remarkable battalion who fought their way off Gold Beach, won the only VC on D-Day and managed to make it over 10km inland further than any other British or American unit. Now I spent the last week in Normandy tracing the steps of the Greenhowards from Gold Beach and along every battle inland for our new history hit TV documentary which is out today. And while I was there I met with battlefield historian Eric Turnbull. Eric is one hell of a character who knows all those amazing little details you want a battlefield historian to know. So I invited him on the podcast to tell us about the mighty Green Howards.

If you want to access the new film, then head over to HistoryHit.com and follow along on my journey through Normandy on Instagram and TikTok at JamesRogersHistory. But now, here is Eric Turnbull on the Greenhowards. Enjoy. Hi Eric, welcome to the Warfare podcast. How are you doing? Good morning James, very well. Typical Norman day, unfortunately. But yeah, all very good. Thank you very much. Good. Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I last saw you and we were trudging up and down in that gale force sandstorm that was sweeping across Gold Beach. It wasn't much fun weather-wise, was it? It was a delightful day, full of the

greenhowers. It was a real good experience for everybody. Well, that's it. That's exactly what we're going to do. And we're going to be following the Greenhowards in this new documentary. But I wanted to get you on the podcast as an expert on this section of the beach and to talk to us a bit about the Greenhowards. Give our listeners a bit of an indication of what to expect in our new D-Day special out on June 6th. So take us through the events on Gold Beach. As troops started to land, what were they faced with? They're flanked by two positions, WN-33, WN-35.

D Company and A Company doing the main assault. Very rough weather conditions on Gold Beach. Widest beach I would have said. Because of that, none of the tanks were really launched at sea. They were driven close in. And it ended up with an incredibly good landing for the Greenhowards. Assault tanks, you know, Churchill AVREs, what we call Hobart's Funnies, etc. Assault engineers, infantry assault companies, amphibious Shermans driven more or less straight

onto the beach, all landing within a few minutes of each other. There was quite a few problems just to their left for a few minutes as the Germans had an 88 anti-tank gun angled down the beach from WN-33. Luckily that was knocked out quite quickly. The beach, you know, it's a big wide area, Gold Beach, it's the widest beach to land on. A lot of movement to cover. D Company made very, very quick progress through what we called the train stop, where A Company met quite heavy resistance as they approached WN35. The following companies were landed very, very quickly.

Ada Churchill AVREs and a couple of Shermans quickly put pace to WN35. WN33 caused a little bit of problem, especially for the supporting battalions. But D Company, they were off the beach very, very quickly and progressing. Germans had mined a lot of the areas round about, obviously. There was quite a lot of fire coming down on the beach. Naval bombardment had done really well to the German artillery positions along Mauvais Ridge. Quite a few of them were abandoned on D-Day by the Russian troops or East European troops who were manning them. Well, take us through that, Eric, because they've managed to get off the beach by the sounds of it relatively quickly.

And that is down to the fact that the Greenhowards are one of the few who land pretty much in the right place. But they've also, like you mentioned, they've got that really important tank support and they're kind of coming up in a combined arms manoeuvre. How long does it take them to get off the beach in total? D Company? They would have been moving in, sure, within about 20 minutes. About the same time as C Company were coming in behind them.

A Company? You know, they meet quite a lot of resistance as they try to work their way quite a few hundred yards along the beach they had to swing around the back of wn35 b company were coming offering a bit of assistance pushed up the hill behind them once the tanks arrived at wn35 that also fell quite quickly you know you would look at that going within kind of half an hour or so we're landed we're literally right on top of them an hour or so of landing so that is pretty swift off this beach and that's one of the remarkable things about the green howards and the sixth and seventh who we follow is that they do manage to move off the beach and then continue to move inland remarkably quickly despite the fact they have some pretty fierce objectives in their way

what is the first objective that meets the green howards apart from getting off the beach of course beach was always a big problem just before we move on to that i would have said you know as the units that landed it was probably the best combined landing on d-day you know all the way right on the right spot as you said right, right place, right time. But the naval bombardment having been effective along the ridge behind. First objective was the Montfleury gun battery. The Greenhowers were ordered to move fast and avoid opposition for D-Day. Circumvent stuff, you know, push as quickly as possibly and land on D-Day.

Cut the Bayeux-Conne road. Paris-Cherbourg. Trunk Road, the main road in France, you know, Normandy to Paris. Got very close to it as well by the end of the day. So off the beach, we're looking, moving up the two tracks from the train stop in WN35. They were dispersed along the ridge to take out the local gun batteries. Didn't meet much to opposition there.

C&D Company, or C Company, will first brush the Montfleury gun batteries. Didn't meet much to opposition there. C&D Company, or C Company, will first brush the Montfleury gun battery. We have the famous action by Stan Hollis, you know, because they'd bypassed a couple of forward bunkers down by what we call the Laventry Pound Villa. Hollis charged them,

destroying the first one, second one surrendering. You know, that could have caused them lots of problems if that had been left in the rear. So it was incredible action for Hollis. The gun battery had been heavily shelled all around. Didn't offer too much opposition. Guns were really out in the open at Montfleur. You know, it was still being built. Only two casements were actually finished.

Didn't really hold them up for too long. You know, by midday they were're circumventing Crepon. That's quite a few miles inland. So they're doing really well, bypassing Crepon, heading up towards Saint-Gabriel. You know, we have a link up with the Canadians with the 7th Battalion quite early on D-Day, about 11-ish. But was it after they left Crepon and moved inland that they started to face slightly heavier resistance as they came through. And Hollis is a recurring feature in this story because he's quite a remarkable man, isn't he, Eric? I describe him as a bit of a warrior. And he looks it as well.

Do we know much about his background? To be honest, I've read it, but it was absolutely donkey's ears. Probably about 70 years ago, I read a little bit of his. Sovereign want to make errors. probably about 30 years ago i read a little bit it's sovereign want to make errors i believe he came out with dunkirk and he was a leader he's a man of action hollis no messing around and that was obvious as soon as he was on the way down to the beach you know he sees what he thinks is a pillbox and straight away starts shooting that with a lewis gun or something and then the action to take the two pillboxes absolutely incredible incredible. You know, straight off, in there.

No messing around. Just the type of guy you need on D-Day to kind of motivate your troops and keep them going. And of course, when they got up to Crepeau, the rest of the battalion went round and through Crepeau very, very quickly, just leaving D-Company. We were kind of following up behind at that point. And they check out Crepeau.

And then Hollis has the action at the pavilion farm see what they think is a gun battery behind the hedges and he fires the p and it misses almost gets his head taken off by a round you know everybody's meant to escape security team had been shot in the orchard and then he gets back and he's going yeah yeah yeah yeah and all you hear is the sound of brent's going off and he's going, oh, bugger it, you know, I've left them behind. So he runs straight up the road again. Apparently runs straight in the middle of the field where the three other guys have got killed,

and he's shooting at the Germans, going, get the bloody hell out of there, you know. Very successful, you know, he is a man of incredible character. He's a good person to do a tour about, yeah. So he quite literally runs back into the firing line, back into the heat of battle to save his men. Yeah, he's just one of those characters, kind of nothing stops him. And he had another famous action quite later on, on June 11th at Crusoe,

when they were stuck in a lane with a German machine gun, 50, 60 yards in front and they're all lying down, heads down. And he blew him off throws a grenade but forgets to take the pin out so he ran at the germans oh wow knowing that they would see the grenade and panic for a few seconds and he managed to knock out the machine gun position he's just one of those characters stan hollis yeah somebody you want on your side yes certainly someone you want on your side. But, you know, the Greenhowards were able to continue to push inland despite this resistance getting more difficult

and despite the heroic actions they've seen. So as we follow their story through, how far do they manage to push towards their final objective of the day, Eric? As they're pushing in throughout the afternoon, it took the Germans a bit of time to react on, did it? Part of the 352nd, the 915th, what we call Kampfgruppenmeier, had actually been practising since April, counter-attacking the kind of eastern side of Gold Beach,

but were very badly displaced on D-Day. The German higher command made some really big cock-ups on D-Day about what to do, and so they dispatched them kind of westwards and then brought them back. So by the time Greenhowards and their other supporting battalion start moving around San Gabriel, we're seeing the advanced units of the Kampfgruppe Maier coming into counter-attacks.

And luckily, you know, Dragoon guards, they engaged Stugs. They lost a few tanks. Germans lost a few Stugs. They had to battle about four o'clock in the afternoon. You know, they threw the best part of the Yorkshire's and the Green Howard's into this defeat of the German counter-attack coming in through San Gabriel and Brescia and that really kind of held them up for the rest of the day. The Howard's had to do a flank connection on them. Now we absolutely destroyed them on D-Day. I read a report just a few weeks ago, just after I saw you last time, that the reconnaissance battalion, 350 2nd Division, had only something

like 40 people that reassembled in Ducey-Saint-Marguerite, which is right in advance, straight over the main road from where the Hagwards were hoping to get to on the night. They said only 40 people, about 600 turned up on June the 7th. We absolutely wiped that counter-attack off the face of the earth on D-Day. Now, it obviously delays the Green Howards and their supporting units.

Almost got to the San Langeur feature. By the end of the night, they're going to drop a good defensive line around San Gabriel Bresci. Now, that's a good six-mile push in land by the end of the day. Biggest advances that there are. You know, Gold was an incredibly good lander. Never gets enough press, in my opinion.

I'm Matt Lewis. And I'm Dr. Alan Orjanaga. To be continued... kings and popes, who were rarely the best of friends, murder, rebellions and crusades. Find out who we really were by subscribing to Gone Medieval from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. Well Eric, you say that's kind of the best landing and the furthest inland. Furthest inland compared to what? How far do the Greenhowers get inland? Are they the furthest out of kind of the British and the Americans on D-Day? Yeah, they probably did have the furthest shrug. They can take that accolade. Yeah, the British did really well. They can take that accolade. Yeah. The Brits did really well.

All of them pushed really well in land. The advance from Sword was a very good advance. Delayed throughout the day, obviously. We had a lot of problems at Sword. The Canadians had a really good landing. They probably pushed. By the end of the night, they'd drawn up a defensive line, about five and a half, six miles in land with various units.

Winnipeg Rifles and First Desires. The following units, they pushed probably about five and a half miles inland as well. There's a little dip in the centre of the Canadian line because they had problems in Corsos, but a very good advance. And gold, yeah. Really, I would say they pushed the furthest. You know, there's not going to be too much in it. We'll have some big arguments about exact yardage probably. yeah for any unit that went straight inland the greenhowards and meeting the opposition that they did you know kind of late afternoon and very good kind of six mile push inland and they're relatively still intact as a unit as well aren't they they are you know casualties greenhowers not many at all i never

actually looked up the real battalion figure but they're more or less as an intact unit for the morning of june the 7th when the whole of gold beach clears up all of its dd objectives on june 7th in preparation for the 8th armor brigade bush south on june the 8th so the green harrods you know by the 7th they'll be on top of the Saint-Lazare feature. So the whole brigade, you know, 69th Brigade's up there, 8th Armoured Brigade's pushing up there with their mobile artillery from the Essex Yeomanry. And so from there onwards, the advance,

until the arrival of the Panzer Leer, who were pulling in on June the 8th, kind of stopped the 30th Corps advance, quite dead for a few weeks. A very, very good unit, Panselaire, you know, Rommel's old chief of staff from North Africa, Berlin. And you see the counterattacks by them

in Dubai on June the 9th, and the 8th Armoured Brigade advance for Hill 103. And then you kind of see the Greatenhowards in actions around Ducey-San-Marie-Garique, where I used to live late on June 7th. Another problem that was coming in on their flight was the very, very famous 12th SS. So lately within a day

or so of that Allied landings if we look where the British and Germans are deploying very, very quickly we're seeing the brunt of the Germans advancing the British sector at that point. We have the 21st Panzer Division on D-Day. We have 12th SS coming in. Some of them arriving very early, June the 7th,

stop the Canadian advance on Carpe K. The rest of them are pulling in throughout the day and the next day. Panzer Leia is on its way. All have been slightly held up by Allied air support and all the rest. Literally within three days of landing, we're sitting with three Panzer Divisions right in front of us. And you really call them some of the cream of the cream of the Germans 12th SS were probably the most difficult Germans ever to fight against in Normandy and the Panzer Lehr, you know, that's the cream of the Wehrmacht at that point

so we're not going to go far you know, if you look at what happened in front of the Greenhowards the 8th Armoured Brigade managed to push down on June the 8th. And we fought in the village of Odrew on and off for a few days. But we took the hill, Hill 103. We were on the top of that by the night of the 8th. We built up the 8th Armoured Brigade. And we have the massive battles for, you know, 7th Armoured and 56th Brigade

going down in the Thierry-sur-Seoul. But I live here. And they say the town changed towns 23 times. June the 11th to June 23rd. We absolutely destroyed one of the Panzer Leer regiments here. Apparently they leave only 112 people or something

901st regiment. So yeah, the Howards are, you know, the front line at this point. Obviously everybody's not on the front line at the same time but the action of the Howards Ducey Samander and Greek would, you know, right scrap. We weren't very successful in taking it on the night

of June the 7th. And then we pushed down the Dorsets, you know, the tanks into Odrew. And then the Green Howards were coming back into it 10th, 11th. We got a battle at Cruzel. You know, there was one German Panther tank at Cruzel and knocked out, I think it was about 8 out of 10 tanks in about 20 minutes at Kruisele

where the Green Howards were. Some massive action on June 11th. Huge German counterattacks into our 8th Armoured Brigade position along June 10th, June 11th. We pulled back out of Saint-Pierre on the 12th. We were getting battered, both by Panther tanks, Panzermark 4s, you know, Stugs, SP guns. It was a really heavy front line position to hold.

Was anybody up there in the front line? You know, they're seeing the cream of the cream of the Germans at this point in the Battle of Normandy. And even holding our good established defensive positions. And of course, the problem for us is we had really crap weather. You know, the landings and materials and supplies in the first few days of d-day fell really behind schedule you know we suffered that storm you know the weather wasn't good for landing stuff if you look at some of the pictures gold beach you know at high tide

you can see some of the vehicles all swamped out big waves breaking on the beach and there's absolutely no beach to land anywhere on at high tide so because it's huge traffic jams huge build up stuff that should have landed earlier on it's a massive problem everywhere on did it you know it's literally no beach to land on after a few hours and you know when we went down to wn35 you know in that windy day we saw those bunkers yeah absolutely you know they were 30 yards out of the sea that's's how much coastal erosion they've had now. I remember how windy it was when we were there. Yeah, and this is the thing that I think is often forgotten,

is the fact you might have this really long sandy beach as you come in and you have to wade in through 60 metres of shoreline and water. But once the tide is high, you've got no beach left, and so you can't get those supplies in. And, you know, the Mulberry Harbours don't go up immediately to start bringing in millions of tonnes of stuff. So you're pretty much on your own for the first couple of days. And this is what makes the Greenhowards so remarkable.

And it's why we've followed their story. Now, Eric, they don't go unrewarded for this bravery and this achievement. Tell us a bit about one of their final, perhaps most famous accolades. Well, the Victoria Cross for Stan Hollis, isn't it? It's the only Victoria Cross for Dede. And if anybody deserved it, you know, Hollis' actions, from a turquoise point of view, it's one of the best stories there is.

And for the Brits in general, you know, it's one of the biggest accolades. I really think the two most famous bits for the Brits are the first day of Overlord, which we call D-Day. Because you need to look at it as day one. Big campaign, day one. Takes all of the press, as we know.

It's Hollis' actions, of course. And the character deserved it. You know, he was an incredible soldier. And John Howard's action at the Pegasus Bridge. You know, those are really two famous actions for the bridge. Hollis truly deserved the Victoria Cross. His accomplishments that day. And especially, you know, the care of his own men.

You know, there is a real leader for you, mate. A guy who runs back into the middle of the field where he's seen three people cut down in seconds, not caring for his own safety, just for his two comrades. We could call them brothers in arms, I suppose. Yeah, you're not wrong, Eric. And what happens to Hollis after the war?

Do we know? Does he make it through Normandy? He makes it through Normandy. He had a pub up in Northern England, strangely enough, called the Green Harrods. I believe. And then eventually he sold that and retired I believe. And yeah, so he survived. You know, one of our great living

heroes of the war. Stan Hawes. Brilliant story. Brilliant character. And you just need to look at his picture. You can tell he was made of metal. He was a big, proudokester man you weren't gonna mess with him i like his story yeah it's a good one to do mate yeah well eric thank you so much for your time for taking us through some of the aspects of the green howards actions on d-day and beyond and people of course can still follow in the footsteps of the Greenhowards

from Gold Beach all the way up and through towards that final objective. I did it. You are an excellent battlefield guide to take us through all of this. And you can either go and do this with Eric yourself, and we'll put some links down into the show notes so you can contact him. Or to start off with, you can go and check out our new documentary out on june 6th for d-day on history hit tv thank you eric so much for your time thank you james have a wonderful day thanks so much for listening and if you want more, you can now subscribe to our brilliant

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