Le Paradis massacre. 85 years on, we will remember them.

[Ray B]

Soldiers of the Scots and Norfolk Regiments were told to slow the German advance to Dunkirk to allow the evacuation of troops, no reinforcements will be sent.

German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS troops committed numerous atrocities during the invasion of France in the spring of 1940. Waffen-SS soldiers, deeply indoctrinated in Nazi ideology and eager to cultivate a reputation of ruthlessness, were particularly prolific murderers and often did not discriminate in their choice of victims. They inflicted one of their worst atrocities on May 27, 1940, when soldiers of the SS Totenkopf Division murdered 97 British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment who had surrendered to the Germans near the French village of Le Paradis.

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, had become isolated from their unit. They occupied and defended a farmhouse against an attack by Waffen-SS forces in the village of Le Paradis. After running out of ammunition, the defenders surrendered to the German troops. The Germans led them across the road to a wall where they were murdered by machine guns. Ninety-seven British troops were killed. Two survived with injuries and hid until they were captured by German forces several days later.
Both survived the war. Private Albert Pooley was in a German hospital for three years, on being repatriated in the summer of 1943 he reported the massacre to the British authorities, who at first did not believe him, thinking it was unimaginable that the Germans could carry out such an atrocity .
It was not until Private O'Callaghan was liberated from a POW camp in 1945, and his confirmation of Pooley's story, that the British started an investigation into a war crime.

I

[Onelife]

Good on you for posting this Ray…whilst these accounts of war can be found in the history books, it is good to be reminded of the horrific ways in which many of or brave soldiers met their deaths. I have often wondered how we teach history in schools and wonder if school children would bennift more if they were taught not just about the sacrifices that were made but also the graphic details of how they met their deaths. Perhaps this way children would fully understand what sacrifices were made and a better understanding of "lest we forget".