Compared to the numbers of visitors to the memorials and monuments on the landing beach areas, those inland get far fewer visitors. But there are equally poignant memorials to be viewed, including this one which pays tribute to The Green Howards at Crepon.
Crepon is a small, beautiful village just a few kilometres inland of the Gold Beach landing areas around Ver-sur-Mer where the 6th and 7th Battalions of the Green Howards landed in the first assault wave.
Almost 2,000 men set foot in France with this ‘Yorkshire’ infantry regiment, and the statue here remembers those men who, by nightfall had liberated Crepon and surrounding villages, and all those who lost their lives in the fight to free Europe.
One of those men, Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions that day – the only VC to be awarded on D-Day. He survived the war, passing away in February 1972.
The bronze statue was unveiled on October 26, 1996, by His Majesty Harald V, King of Norway and Colonel-in-Chief of the Green Howards.