Hillman Fortress

 Second World War 1939-1945, fortification, historic landmark

Hillman was one of a group of German strongpoints that were all D-Day targets, named Hillman, Morris, Daimler and Humber by the British. Hillman was a command and observation post and the headquarters of the 736th Regiment Grenadiers. Located up on the ridge behind the beaches, it had a great view of the landings on the beaches in front. To the Germans, it was Wn 17. Closer to the shore, and slightly to the north east of the position (looking toward the sea) were the gun positions that were labelled 'Morris'. The Morris site has been built over by residential development.

The site was made up of 18 concrete bunkers buried to a depth of 4 m and linked by a complex network of trenches. It was surrounded by mine fields and barbed wire. It was defended by guns, machine guns and armoured gunposts. On June 6th, the 1st Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was given the difficult mission of capturing Hillman. They attacked the German Gun position "Morris" at around 13:00 and moved onto attack "Hillman". This attack was repelled by the Germans and a second attack, using tanks from the Hussars was successful. By nightfall the command post surrendered with forty Germans being taken prisoner.

This delay in taking "Hillman" allowed the Germans time to reinforce their positions further inland and some historians claim that if "Hillman" could have been taken earlier in the day, Caen itself might have fallen in days rather than weeks.