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’Britain at War’ Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA | contact@britainatwar.com
The Taking Of Hillman
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Dear Sir
I am writing to thank you for the superb piece by Steve Snelling on the ‘Taking of Hillman’ (Britain at War, Issue 122, June 2017) from which I was deeply moved to read how Cpl. Stares lost his life. I came across Cpl. Stares’ grave at Douvre Military Cemetery, Normandy, shortly after the 50th anniversary of D-Day when I also visited the location of Hillman which I then found to be a little run down and neglected.
As a result of my visit, I wrote a letter to Major Hugh Merriam, formerly of the Suffolk Regiment, who was there on D-Day. He told me that the site of Hillman was being used as a rubbish dump before the 40th anniversary of D-Day when the idea of its preservation first came about. Major Merriam wrote to say how kind the people of Colville had been to their liberators on 6 June each year with many veterans staying in family homes in the village. I now treasure Major Merriam’s letters because so few of the Suffolk Regiment veterans are now surviving and I’m told how very popular he was with…
