THE daughter of a D-Day hero who single-handedly thwarted two German attempts to halt the British advance, filled up with tears as her father was officially commemorated in his home town yesterday.

Pauline Armistead was surrounded by her family as the Last Post was played in memory of her Victoria Cross hero father, Stanley Hollis, a man who also captured 25 German prisoners by himself on the same day.

A commemorative plague was unveiled at the war memorial in Loftus, east Cleveland, after a parade by members of Mr Hollis's regiment, The Green Howards.

Mrs Armistead told the story of what her father, a sergeant major, who died in 1972, did on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

She said: "He always said his inspiration was simply to survive. There were two pillboxes on the beach. Three men had already been shot trying to get to them and it was his turn next. He was under machine gun fire but managed to throw a grenade in the slit. If he hadn't, the men behind him might have ended up being killed, as well as himself."

Mrs Armistead said that her father then moved along a communications trench to the neighbouring pillbox, where he came across 25 well-armed Germans and captured them all. Later in the day, after hiding in an orchard with a young boy caught up in the events, he took on a 75mm field gun and its German crew, who were also armed with machine guns. He charged them to cover the escape of two of his own men.

Mrs Armistead met the boy on a recent trip to France. Her father was decorated at Buckingham Palace by King George VI on October 10, 1944.