IT is just a ramshackle old hut standing forgotten by a French beach - but it is about to be unveiled as a memorial to one of the region's most renowned wartime heroes.

Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis, of the Green Howards, was the only man to win the Victoria Cross (VC) during the D-Day landings in Normandy in June, 1944.

Aerial photographs taken before the landings showed what looked like a small fortification at La Riviére, by Gold Beach, where the Green Howards were to land.

And Sgt Maj Hollis, from Middlesbrough, took no chances.

He fired an entire drum of ammunition from his machine gun at the building as his landing craft approached,

He recalled afterward: "I lifted the stripped Lewis off the floor of the landing craft and I belted this thing with a full pan of ammunition."

In doing so, he sustained his only wound of the day - a large blister on his hand - when he lifted up the machine-gun and he only stopped shooting when someone shouted: "It's only a bloody bus shelter, Sergeant Major."

In reality, it was a small train stop serving a light railway running along the coast but Sgt Maj Hollis later went on to storm two genuine machine gun nests, saving his company and winning the VC. He died in 1972 aged 59.

The bullet-scarred stone hut still stands and was bought by the regiment for £3,000 last year during a visit to their memorial in the nearby village of Crépon.

It has since been re-tiled and water-proofed and interpretation boards are being set up to explain the significance of the hut to local residents and visitors to the beaches.

The 9ft by 6ft hut will be unveiled as a memorial to Sgt Maj Hollis and his men on June 4 by his son, Brian.

Veterans and local dignitaries will also attend.

The Colonel of the Green Howards, Brigadier John Powell, said they were grateful for the help of local people with the important project.

He said: "The hut is not only a fitting memorial to CSM Hollis and the Green Howards who fought, but also a reminder of the warm friendship that binds our people."