MR CHARLES HILL – AWARDED THE LEGION D’HONNEUR

 

Charlie Hill was born in Sheffield on 9 May 1925; Charles Hill is a D Day veteran. At the age of 19, at 0730 hours on 6th June 1944 he landed with the 6th Battalion Green Howards on Gold Beach at Vers-sur-mer. He fought alongside WO2 Stanley Hollis VC at the Mont Fleury battery and later that day at Crépon. Further on in the Normandy campaign he received a minor head wound which caused him to be evacuated to England.  

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Returning to France, he transferred to 1sr Battalion Gordon Highlanders continued the fight against Germany, taking part in Rhine crossing, reaching the town of Bremerhaven. He finally returned home in 1948 and took up work in a cutlery factory.

 

He has been back to France ten times to remember his comrades who did not return and, to quote his words “to appreciate the peace and freedom I helped to bring to France. The death and destruction I saw has had a lasting effect on me, but we had to defeat Hitler and the Nazis”.

 

Last week Charles Hill marked his 91st birthday. He is married, a father and grandfather, and lives in Sheffield.  Today he is accompanied by his sister and grandson and his family, as well as by Mr Graham Askham, Secretary of the Sheffield Branch of Normandy Veterans Association.  Next month he will be back in Normandy, visiting Gold Beach and Crepon.

 

In December 2015 he was appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government.

On 15th May on Green Howards Synday he was presented hisLegion d’honneur by Colonel De Loustal, French Military Attaché in London, himself a member of the Legion d’honneur,  The Colonel will be joined by Brigadier John Powell, the last Colonel of The Green Howards, and Monsieur Jean-Pierre Dupont MBE, who does so much for the regiment in Ver-sur-mer.