After the massacre - sent by Congress Verlag, an East German publisher, to Cyril Jolly, author of 'The Man Who Missed the Massacre'

After the massacre
      Le Paradis Massacre
27 May 1940		      

The cemetery today
original photograph © Lynda Smith
Click photographs to enlarge

1940 Le Paradis Photograph after the Massacre   An unmentioned survivor Robert William Brown   A Trip to Paris in 1940 by Ernie Strips Farrow   Bill Dudley, a Younger ex-Royal Norfolk, visits Le Paradis   Bill Dudley My Second Visit to Le Paradis   Bill O’Callaghan Dereham Flats   Bob Brown tells of his escape   Colin Coote   Edward Scallon's Story   Le Paradis and Radio Norfolk   Le Paradis helmet comes home   Le Paradis Massacre and trial of Hauptsturmfuehrer Fritz Knoechlein from Mackillers site   Obituary Ernie Strips Farrow   Pte 5773229 JW Raybould One of The 97   Rail ride to Freedom by Strips Farrow   SS Panzerdivision photograph of Le Paradis   Sue Christensen asks about her uncle Martin Christensen 5770839 Pte 2 R Norfolk   Sue Christensen receives a reply from Bill Holden about her uncle Martin   Ronald Edgecombe missing after Le Paradis   Translation of chapter of book published in Austria by Herbert Brunnegger, one of the Waffen SS soldiers present   Video of 'Pte Pooley's Revenge' is sought   Film Review of Pte Pooley's Revenge   Why no Le Paradis memorial in Norwich?   William Curson of 2 R Norfolk   How do we verify that Robert Scase was a survivor of Le Paradis ?   Film Review of Pte Pooley's Revenge
May 27th commemorates a very sad day in the history of the Norfolk Regiment. In May 1940 the evacuation from Dunkirk began and during the rearguard action some Royal Norfolk Regiment soldiers, including some wounded, were captured by the Germans, lined up against a farmhouse wall and machine-gunned to death, a total of 97 men.
Bert Pooley (died 9 Feb 1982) and Bill O'Callaghan (died Nov 1975 aged 61) were the only survivors.

Click photographs to enlarge

Towards the end of May 1940 the 2nd Bn of The Royal Norfolk Regiment were stubbornly holding Le Paradis and the neighbouring hamlets of Le-Cornet Malo and Riez-du-Vinage against overwhelmingly superior forces, trying to block the enemy's road to Dunkirk. On May 27th, their ammunition expended, and completely cut off from their Bn and Bde HQ, 97 officers and men of 2 R Norfolk surrendered to No 4 Coy of the 1st Bn of the 2nd SS Totenkopf (Death's Head) Regt. They were disarmed, marched into a field, mowed down by machine-guns, finished off by revolver shots and bayonet thrusts and left for dead.

By a miracle, two of them, Bill O'Callaghan and Bert Pooley, escaped death, hid in the neighbouring farm of Madame Duquenne-Creton. At great risk to herself, the brave Frenchwoman cared for and fed the 2 injured men. But Bert's leg wounds were severe so they gave themselves up and became prisoners of war, Bert being repatriated in 1943. His story of the massacre was not believed but in 1946 he returned to Le Paradis and set in motion the wheels of justice which, on 28 Jan 1949, brought to the gallows the German officer who gave the command for this massacre, Fritz Knoechlein.
It also led to the publication in 1956 of 'The Revenge of Private Pooley' by The Late Cyril Jolley.
Right, Bill and Bert arriving in Hamburg.

A day or two after the atrocity the local people, under orders from the Germans, buried the dead where they fell, just behind the memorial, below right.
In 1942 the bodies were exhumed and buried behind the little church in Le Paradis, just down the road. This part of the Le Paradis churchyard is now the war cemetery. Only half of the bodies are identified.


Mass Grave site 1940		 The cemetery today - original photograph © Lynda Smith
The cemetery today
The Cross of Sacrifice
The barn site today with the wall tablet, inserted in 1970

Lestrem Memorial - original photograph © Lynda Smith
Lestrem Memorial


The memorial stone was erected on the 55th Anniversary of Dunkirk, in 1995
The original photographs 'The Cemetery Today' and 'Lestrem Memorial' are © Lynda Smith and must not be copied without permission from rollofhonour@fastfreenet.com

Bill O'Callaghan died in Nov 1975 aged 61 and Bert Pooley died on 9 Feb 1982.

From Roll of Honour - Overseas - Le Paradis, France www.war-memorials.com
‘A company of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, trapped in a cowshed, surrendered to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, SS 'Totenkopf' (Death's Head) Division under the command of 28 year old SS Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Knoechlein. Marched to a group of farm buildings, they were lined up in the meadow along side the barn wall. When the 99 prisoners were in position, two machine guns opened fire killing 97 of them. The bodies were then buried in a mass grave on the farm property. Two managed to escape. Privates Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan emerged from the slaughter wounded but alive. When the SS troops moved on, the two wounded soldiers were discovered, after having hid in a pig-sty for three days and nights, by Madame Castel of Le Paradis who then cared for them until they were captured again by another Wehrmacht unit to spend the rest of the war as POW. In 1942, the bodies of those executed were exhumed by the French authorities and reburied in the local churchyard, now part of the Le Paradis War Cemetery. After the war, the massacre was investigated and Knoechlein was traced and arrested. During the war he had been awarded three Knight's Crosses. Tried before a War Crimes Court in Hamburg, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, and on 28 Jan 1949, the sentence was carried out. Married with four children, his wife attended the trial every day.’

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Le Paradis - an unmentioned survivor - from Sonia Roberts (Dec 04)
I have just read your article on Le Paradis and I feel I must point out that there was a survivor that has gone unmentioned. My Grandfather Robert William Brown was fighting at Le Paradis on the fateful day of the massacre. He has written about his experience from when he joined up until the day he returned home after being a prisoner of war for 5 years, although it has not been published anywhere. He has in the past done an interview with a radio station and is also helping someone with information who is writing a book. Yet every article I have read about Le Paradis mentions the 2 survivors Bert Pooley and Bill O’Callaghan. After reading my Grandfather's version of events I believe he too was a survivor of the massacre. I will briefly explain what he has written and if you would like to know more I would only be too happy to help, likewise I am sure my Grandfather would be happy to help as he is alive and well today.

Just before the 2nd Bn of The Royal Norfolks were captured, the CO, Maj Ryder, told the men that if any of them thought they could get away they may do so.
My Grandfather and 2 of his friends, Bill Liffen and John Hagan (both now deceased), went out of a side door of the house and into a ditch. They thought if they kept themselves in the smoke from the burning house they might make it. The remainder went out of the cowshed door onto a field. At first they were met by a hail of bullets then at the second attempt the Germans came rushing out shouting. They were knocked about by rifle butts and kicks, then taken across to some more buildings and searched. After a while they were marched across a road to a farm and as they marched along side a building two machine guns opened fire and mowed them down. The Germans then walked along and shot anybody that moved. This is where the two survivors Bert Pooley and Bill O’Callaghan were lucky to escape death.

As my Grandfather made his escape out a different door just before the massacre, I believe he also was a survivor of Le Paradis yet in all the stories I have read he never gets a mention. He and his friends were soon caught by the Germans and were prisoners of war for 5 years. As he was so close to being one of the massacred with the others I think he deserves to be recognised as a survivor of Le Paradis.

I think my Grandfather is probably too modest to point this out to anyone or maybe it is just me who, after reading about his memories of the war, feels he is a hero who deserves recognition.

Click here to read Bob's full account of his escape and capture. Thanks Sonia for typing it.

Contact Sonia via the Norfolk Section Editor or RHQ, Britannia House, TA Centre, 325 Aylsham Rd, Norwich, NR3 2AB, Tel 01603 400290. B&C 104

Sources, references, acknowledgements and thanks :

With apologies to anyone omitted. Please e-mail Major JL Raybould TD with any additional credits required.

LE PARADIS HELMET COMES HOME

Dawn at Le Paradis - Col Jean-Pierre AE LegrandIn 2004 Col Jean-Pierre AE Legrand wrote from France: ‘I've had a British helmet for a long time. I've just discovered your web site and think the best place for the helmet could be in your regimental museum. It's highly probable that this helmet belonged to a British soldier either killed in action or massacred at Le Paradis on May 27th 1940. This helmet was given to me by my brother who lived in this hamlet where my mother still lives, 3/4 of a mile from the place where the Norfolk soldiers were massacred. If you wish to have it, please let me know the address where to send it.’
He also sent the photograph, right: 'Dawn at Le Paradis', adding: 'The hamlet can be seen in the background, the place where the Brit soldiers were murdered is on the right, near the water tower.'
He added: 'I’m a military museum curator and founded the SEA museum. Year after year the names of the British comrades in le Paradis cemetery are becoming familiar to me. My mother settled in 1968 in le Paradis and each time I visit her, being myself a soldier, I go to the cemetery to bow to the British comrades and pray for them.’

Naturally, the Norfolk Editor replied: ‘Yes please’, saying the news of the helmet 'coming home' was great news. Added was: ‘You will perhaps have read on my B&C site pages that a namesake, Pte JW Raybould, was among the '97' murdered at Le Paradis in 1940. It doesn't matter whose helmet it was but your gift will be a tangible memory to all those who fought, and died, in the retreat to Dunkirk, from whatever Regiment.’
The helmet was presented to Kate Thaxton at our Norwich Regimental Museum. They have limited display space and while it cannot be guaranteed a permanent place of display it would be brought out for the frequent displays of particular periods of the history of the Royal Norfolk Regt.
B&C 105 Dec 05

Click photographs to enlarge

LE PARADIS PHOTOGRAPH
Rob Snowball informs us of a photograph at http://members.aon.at/dbundsch/sspd3.htm, a site about 3 SS-Panzerdivision 'Totenkopf'.
Le Paradis is written below the 4th picture on the left, shown here on the right. The detail is poor but has anyone any information about it?
B&C 105 Dec 05

The Norfolk Editor has been attempting for years to find something about his namesake Pte JW Raybould, Royal Norfolk Regt, one of the 97 at Le Paradis. Through this quest he met 'Strips' Farrow and a friendship developed. We 'appeared' on Radio Norfolk in 1997 for which I had to get MoD clearance! A plan to join the 1998 visit by the Dunkirk Veterans to Le Paradis was curtailed by extended service in Bosnia but the journey will be made. Sadly, though, not with Strips, who died while I was serving in Bosnia. Missing his funeral was regrettable.

Le Paradis inscription

 © Sgt Vic Turner TEM Thetford Pl, A (R Norfolk) Coy, 6 R Anglian.

5773229 Private JW Raybould
The Royal Norfolk Regiment
27th May 1940 Age 19

Editorial Rule
 To qualify for inclusion in the B&C there is only one rule - something described must have been said to have happened. 
The authority is the Editor, British Army Review No 114 Dec 96, `If the facts don`t fit the legend, print the legend’.

However, the rules of good taste, respect and confidentiality are always applied.

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Editor, Norfolk Section, The Britannia and Castle
 B&C Norfolk Editor