The story of 144 Brigade’s defence of Wormhoudt and Bambecque must rank in importance alongside the defence of Cassel and Hazebrouck by 145 Brigade. Brigadier Norman’s composite brigade was the final piece in the jigsaw of defence on the western flank of the Dunkerque Corridor; it held the line south of Bergues, containing the attacking German units at great cost, until the perimeter at Dunkerque had been established. The defence of Wormhoudt has long been associated with the massacre of British servicemen after they had surrendered. The events in the barn at La Plaine au Bois will always be considered one of the most appalling acts of the Second World War, carried out by elements of the Liebstandarte Regiment; almost second nature to these fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler. They found no easy victory at Wormhoudt, in an encounter that saw their regimental commander, Gruppenfuhrer Otto ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, taking shelter in a ditch away from the fury of the Cheshire machine gunners. Overshadowed by the events in the barn are the murders of civilians and British soldiers that took place as the Germans overwhelmed the fragile defence of the Warwicks. Their Medical Officer, marching into captivity, went past the bodies of men of A Company who he was sure had been murdered. An officer of the Worcesters wrote in his diary that all the wounded of his Company were shot by a commander of the Liebstandarte. There is little other evidence to support the deaths of these men but there is little doubt that many British soldiers met a violent end after they had surrendered in the fields and on the pavements of Wormhoudt and Bambecque. AUTHOR: Jerry Murland is a retired headteacher who has written over twenty books and guidebooks coverering the events of the First and Second World Wars. His first book, Aristocrats Go To War, was published by Pen and Sword in 2010 and since then he has gone on the write a number of others, including the Battlelines Guidebooks to the Western Front, co-written with Jon Cooksey. He is currently writing an account of the Battle of the Ypres-Comines Canal 1940, part of eight Battleground Europe books which cover the France and Flanders campaign of 1940.
100 b/w illustrations
