$73,000 for Victoria Cross

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 26

$73,000 for Victoria Cross

NZPA London A Victoria Cross won for “magnificent” bravery on a D Day beachhead, plus seven other, medals, has fetched a record $73,600 at auction in London. The Victoria Cross, won by Company > Sergeant-Major Stan Hollis, of the Green Howards, was the first World War ,IL Victoria Cross to be offered at auction. It went to a buyer who made his bids by telephone.

Sotheby's said it was certain the medals would stay in Britain. The auctioneer, Mr Michael Naxton, said the buyer wanted to remain annoymous but said he was a private collector who lived in England. The Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth’s highest award for gallantry, was the ninety-ninth of World War II but the only one awarded for an action on D Day. June 6,

1944, the invasion of Europe by American, British, and Canadian forces. Hollis was awarded the medal for his part in the assault on t'he Normandy beaches, just north of the Cherbourg Peninsula. Single-handed, he braved machine-gun fire to rush and capture a German pillbox. Later that day, he led a team to destroy a field gun that was pinning down his company of the Green Howards.