Le Paradis Massacre - A Magazine Article
Photographs from the past and the present. The first four are of the massacre and the resultant graves. These are followed by various memorials to the massacre and also one of a gathering of pilgrims at the annual memorial service.
The following article was written by Commemoration Group member John Head and has appeared in a number of Norfolk-based magazines
LATE in the afternoon of 27th May, 1940, 99 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment, the 1st Battalion Royal Scots Regiment and other units of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) surrendered to the enemy in the French hamlet of Le Paradis.
They were marched across a field where they were divested of parts of their uniforms and, in many cases, their dog-tags (identification tags). They finally crossed a road and by the wall of a barn owned by Louis Creton they were massacred. This atrocity was carried out by the 3rd Company 1st Battalion 2nd SS Totenkopf Rifle Regiment under the orders of SS-Haupsturmführer Fritz Knoechlein on the day of his 29th birthday. Only two soldiers survived, Privates. Bill O’Callaghan and Bert Pooley.
The ending of the Second World War saw many pilgrimages to Le Paradis, initially led by the Dunkirk Veterans Association, to commemorate those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on that fateful day.
Together with the residents of Le Paradis and the town of Lestrem, poignant annual services of remembrance are held at ‘Louis Creton’s Barn’ and at the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery to the rear of the church at Le Paradis where, following exhumation at the barn in May 1942, ‘our boys’ were finally laid to rest.
Sadly only 49 soldiers of the 97 scythed down were identified, 44 being from the Royal Norfolk Regiment. The rest are buried in ‘unknown’ graves in the cemetery at Le Paradis with their names being included on the Dunkirk Memorial to the Missing.
On 26th February, 2023, I received a message from Jean-Charles Dufour, the owner of ‘Louis Creton’s Barn’, stating that he had discovered two ‘English’ helmets whilst clearing the barn pending sale. These were kindly offered to me as a gift. Jean-Charles also attached a photograph of the helmets which you can view on the next page.
I notified the other members of our Le Paradis Commemoration Group comprising of Dennis O’Callaghan (son of Bill O’Callaghan one of the two survivors of the massacre), Nick Smith (historian and photographer) and Peter Steward (the editor of this e-magazine and owner/web-site architect of Hell in Paradise which can be viewed at www.leparadismassacre.com.
A photograph of the helmets was immediately forwarded to Neil R Storey, renowned local historian and author, for formal identification as these could have been helmets from the First World War as the same ground was fought over in the two wars.
Neil quickly came back with the answer as follows thanks to his vigilant eyes;
“I am delighted to be able to confirm the helmets will certainly be those of British soldiers present at Le Paradis in 1940. The British Army had stocks of WW1 period 'Brodie' helmets that they refitted with new liners in 1938/39. It would be easy to say these are WW1 helmets because in effect they are BUT they are refitted AND if you look where I have ringed in red you will see the fittings that held the chin straps have 1938/1939 dates.”
However, it still needed to be established whether these helmets belonged to the Royal Norfolk Regiment especially two of those 99 soldiers who entered the ‘killing field’ at Le Paradis.
Meanwhile our group decided that in order to further the bond between us and Le Paradis, one helmet would be donated to the small museum in Le Paradis (pictured at the bottom of this page) where it has now been agreed to be housed in a glass display case. The other helmet to be displayed in an appropriate place in Norfolk which is still under discussion.
With the barn ‘up for sale’ there was now concern how we could retrieve our selected helmet at the earliest as our next pilgrimage to Le Paradis is not due until May 2024.
By a remarkable piece of luck Peter Steward had been informed by one of his ‘bloggettes,’ Biddy Fisher, that she would be visiting France, together with her family, in June 2023 to pay their respects at a family grave located at Beaumont Hamel. Biddy kindly agreed to make a detour to visit Jean-Charles to obtain the helmet on our behalf.
Behind the scenes our group worked to co-ordinate the success of the meet up between Biddy and Jean-Charles. Stéphane Gomane, the Deputy Mayor of Lestrem and the annual Le Paradis Commemoration Co-ordinator, ensured Biddy had access to the small museum in Le Paradis and Jean-Charles agreed to open his field for Biddy and her family to pay their respects at the barn where the massacre occurred.
On 20th June, I was visiting Harewood House in the heart of Yorkshire when I received a phone call from Biddy stating she had safely received the helmet and also confirming that she had undergone a very emotional experience with her family whilst at Le Paradis. Biddy sent through photos of the helmet where it was noticed there was a small yellow oblong on the side of it. Again, this was forwarded to Neil Storey for his comments.
After a short while Neil responded as follows;
“I suspect the yellow oblong once had a black up the centre of it before the years took their toll. I have a 1940 helmet in my collection with the same decal. It is an allusion to the old puggaree flash the Officers and men of the Norfolk Regiment wore on their pith helmets - yellow for the yellow facings of the regiment, the black line as ever in mourning for Sir John Moore, who the drummers of the 9th Foot buried at Corunna”.
The 9th Foot evolved into the Royal Norfolk Regiment and you can read about the burial of Sir John Moore in the poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna (1817) ‘by Charles Wolfe.
Thanks to Neil we had now established the helmets belonged to soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. We finally needed to establish whether these helmets were on (or close to) the wooden crosses on the temporary graves in front of the barn prior to exhumation.
I again referred to Jean-Charles for more historic research through previous owners of the barn and on 17th July I received the message that our group was hoping for;
Dear John,
These helmets have found their place, and so much the better!
Yes, they were certainly among the wooden crosses on the temporary graves.
The farm and the barn have been sold.
The new owners are young people in their thirties and they are aware of what happened and have agreed to welcome you to the next commemoration.
I wish you all the best
With kindest regards
Jean-Charles
It was a very bittersweet moment for us all.
A Final Thought
The helmet is probably one of the few artefacts, if any, that has returned home from those who never returned from the atrocity that occurred at Le Paradis.
Photographs
Royal Norfolks being ‘rounded up’ (photographer Herbert Brunnegger). The massacre aftermath, The tending of the original graves; from the Dennis O’Callaghan Collection.
The initial photograph of the helmets being displayed upside down – Jean-Charles Dufour.
The photographs of Biddy Fisher and Jean-Charles Dufour together with the helmet displaying the yellow oblong and the chin strap modification; – from the Biddy Fisher collection.
The photograph displaying the helmet with the black strip running through the yellow oblong; – from the Neil Storey Collection.
All other photographs; from the John Head/Le Paradis Commemoration Group Collection.
Post Script
Neil Storey has an affinity to Le Paradis as his Great Uncle, Sgt Verdun Storey, was also in the 2nd Battalion the Royal Norfolk Regiment fighting a few miles south of Le Paradis at Locon. Acting under his commanding officer’s instructions, Sgt Storey was told to make good his escape from the area. Sadly, he was captured and placed in captivity until the end of the war.
They were marched across a field where they were divested of parts of their uniforms and, in many cases, their dog-tags (identification tags). They finally crossed a road and by the wall of a barn owned by Louis Creton they were massacred. This atrocity was carried out by the 3rd Company 1st Battalion 2nd SS Totenkopf Rifle Regiment under the orders of SS-Haupsturmführer Fritz Knoechlein on the day of his 29th birthday. Only two soldiers survived, Privates. Bill O’Callaghan and Bert Pooley.
The ending of the Second World War saw many pilgrimages to Le Paradis, initially led by the Dunkirk Veterans Association, to commemorate those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on that fateful day.
Together with the residents of Le Paradis and the town of Lestrem, poignant annual services of remembrance are held at ‘Louis Creton’s Barn’ and at the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery to the rear of the church at Le Paradis where, following exhumation at the barn in May 1942, ‘our boys’ were finally laid to rest.
Sadly only 49 soldiers of the 97 scythed down were identified, 44 being from the Royal Norfolk Regiment. The rest are buried in ‘unknown’ graves in the cemetery at Le Paradis with their names being included on the Dunkirk Memorial to the Missing.
On 26th February, 2023, I received a message from Jean-Charles Dufour, the owner of ‘Louis Creton’s Barn’, stating that he had discovered two ‘English’ helmets whilst clearing the barn pending sale. These were kindly offered to me as a gift. Jean-Charles also attached a photograph of the helmets which you can view on the next page.
I notified the other members of our Le Paradis Commemoration Group comprising of Dennis O’Callaghan (son of Bill O’Callaghan one of the two survivors of the massacre), Nick Smith (historian and photographer) and Peter Steward (the editor of this e-magazine and owner/web-site architect of Hell in Paradise which can be viewed at www.leparadismassacre.com.
A photograph of the helmets was immediately forwarded to Neil R Storey, renowned local historian and author, for formal identification as these could have been helmets from the First World War as the same ground was fought over in the two wars.
Neil quickly came back with the answer as follows thanks to his vigilant eyes;
“I am delighted to be able to confirm the helmets will certainly be those of British soldiers present at Le Paradis in 1940. The British Army had stocks of WW1 period 'Brodie' helmets that they refitted with new liners in 1938/39. It would be easy to say these are WW1 helmets because in effect they are BUT they are refitted AND if you look where I have ringed in red you will see the fittings that held the chin straps have 1938/1939 dates.”
However, it still needed to be established whether these helmets belonged to the Royal Norfolk Regiment especially two of those 99 soldiers who entered the ‘killing field’ at Le Paradis.
Meanwhile our group decided that in order to further the bond between us and Le Paradis, one helmet would be donated to the small museum in Le Paradis (pictured at the bottom of this page) where it has now been agreed to be housed in a glass display case. The other helmet to be displayed in an appropriate place in Norfolk which is still under discussion.
With the barn ‘up for sale’ there was now concern how we could retrieve our selected helmet at the earliest as our next pilgrimage to Le Paradis is not due until May 2024.
By a remarkable piece of luck Peter Steward had been informed by one of his ‘bloggettes,’ Biddy Fisher, that she would be visiting France, together with her family, in June 2023 to pay their respects at a family grave located at Beaumont Hamel. Biddy kindly agreed to make a detour to visit Jean-Charles to obtain the helmet on our behalf.
Behind the scenes our group worked to co-ordinate the success of the meet up between Biddy and Jean-Charles. Stéphane Gomane, the Deputy Mayor of Lestrem and the annual Le Paradis Commemoration Co-ordinator, ensured Biddy had access to the small museum in Le Paradis and Jean-Charles agreed to open his field for Biddy and her family to pay their respects at the barn where the massacre occurred.
On 20th June, I was visiting Harewood House in the heart of Yorkshire when I received a phone call from Biddy stating she had safely received the helmet and also confirming that she had undergone a very emotional experience with her family whilst at Le Paradis. Biddy sent through photos of the helmet where it was noticed there was a small yellow oblong on the side of it. Again, this was forwarded to Neil Storey for his comments.
After a short while Neil responded as follows;
“I suspect the yellow oblong once had a black up the centre of it before the years took their toll. I have a 1940 helmet in my collection with the same decal. It is an allusion to the old puggaree flash the Officers and men of the Norfolk Regiment wore on their pith helmets - yellow for the yellow facings of the regiment, the black line as ever in mourning for Sir John Moore, who the drummers of the 9th Foot buried at Corunna”.
The 9th Foot evolved into the Royal Norfolk Regiment and you can read about the burial of Sir John Moore in the poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna (1817) ‘by Charles Wolfe.
Thanks to Neil we had now established the helmets belonged to soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. We finally needed to establish whether these helmets were on (or close to) the wooden crosses on the temporary graves in front of the barn prior to exhumation.
I again referred to Jean-Charles for more historic research through previous owners of the barn and on 17th July I received the message that our group was hoping for;
Dear John,
These helmets have found their place, and so much the better!
Yes, they were certainly among the wooden crosses on the temporary graves.
The farm and the barn have been sold.
The new owners are young people in their thirties and they are aware of what happened and have agreed to welcome you to the next commemoration.
I wish you all the best
With kindest regards
Jean-Charles
It was a very bittersweet moment for us all.
A Final Thought
The helmet is probably one of the few artefacts, if any, that has returned home from those who never returned from the atrocity that occurred at Le Paradis.
Photographs
Royal Norfolks being ‘rounded up’ (photographer Herbert Brunnegger). The massacre aftermath, The tending of the original graves; from the Dennis O’Callaghan Collection.
The initial photograph of the helmets being displayed upside down – Jean-Charles Dufour.
The photographs of Biddy Fisher and Jean-Charles Dufour together with the helmet displaying the yellow oblong and the chin strap modification; – from the Biddy Fisher collection.
The photograph displaying the helmet with the black strip running through the yellow oblong; – from the Neil Storey Collection.
All other photographs; from the John Head/Le Paradis Commemoration Group Collection.
Post Script
Neil Storey has an affinity to Le Paradis as his Great Uncle, Sgt Verdun Storey, was also in the 2nd Battalion the Royal Norfolk Regiment fighting a few miles south of Le Paradis at Locon. Acting under his commanding officer’s instructions, Sgt Storey was told to make good his escape from the area. Sadly, he was captured and placed in captivity until the end of the war.
The Repatriated Helmet. The photographs include son of one of the survivors Dennis O'Callaghan and Biddy Fisher with Jean-Charles Dufour.
