THE MASSACRE AT LE PARADIS - HELL IN PARADISE - MAY1940.
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             Sgt Verdun Storey

A brief account of 5771726 Sgt Verdun Storey, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment by his Great Nephew Neil R. Storey. 
 
Sergeant Verdun Storey (1916-1998) was born in the rural Norfolk village of Worstead in 1916. As a young man he had worked on local farms. He had not intended to join the army but had gone along to offer a bit of moral support for his pal Jack Forrest when he went to enlist in May 1934.

The Recruiting Sergeant did a good job and both Jack and Verdun ended up joining together. Verdun was allocated to serve in 2nd Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment. A good sportsman and outstanding soldier he was soon promoted and was known as a no-nonsense senior NCO, a man who could be relied upon, a man who would never expect any of his men to do anything he had not done or could not do himself. He was the sort of man who made the backbone of any battalion.
 
The 2nd Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment has the distinction of being the first complete infantry Battalion to the British Expeditionary Force to land in France in September 1939. They were greeted as heroes as they marched through towns and villages to take up their defensive positions beside the Maginot Line. The troops dug in and then waited week after week, but no attack came. Indeed, the orders were if German soldiers were spotted, men of the BEF were not to open fire. In some areas of the line things became quite amicable and British and German soldiers waved to each other as they went about their duties. Through the bitterly cold winter of 1939-40 American newspapers began to talk of a 'Phoney War' and even  British newspapers struggled to keep interest in what at the time was a stagnant campaign that seemed very distant to the British public. All of that changed on 10th May 1939 when Hitler launched his Blitzkrieg on Belgium, France and the Netherlands. 
 
The BEF was knocked on to its back heel from the Belgium border and The 2nd Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment was soon providing the rearguard for a fighting retreat. Sgt Verdun Storey was one of the last defenders of the perimeter of  Le Paradis. On 28th May 1940, battalion HQ had fallen, the enemy were closing in, the last defenders had spent their ammunition and Verdun's officer ordered his remaining few troops to make their escape as best they could.

Verdun and one of his comrades followed a hedgerow to a field, they knew the enemy were close by so Verdun and his pal decided one was to go one way and one go the other. Verdun ditched his webbing and  ran across the field. As he did so there was a burst of machine gun fire. He heard the bullets zip around his head, he recalled they sounded like bees. Expecting to be hit at any moment but by some miracle he was not wounded so he stood still and raised his hands. The German troops who were pursuing him soon caught up and Verdun could see they were SS.
 
Verdun's captors ordered him to kneel down, take off his helmet and remove his dog tags. Verdun would recall it seemed like a lifetime he was kneeling there as he gazed at the tags in his hand, he threw the tags in his helmet and faced his would-be executioners. Suddenly he heard  a German voice shouting Halt! Halt! Verdun saw the man calling the halt was a more senior officer who reprimanded the gunmen for what they had been preparing to do and Verdun was taken prisoner of war.
 
Others had been taken prisoner elsewhere, many had also been killed in action, only 150 men out of the entire 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment would make it back to England from Dunkirk.
 
Verdun was first removed to a POW camp in Danzig, then to Camp XXA at Thorn (Torun) in Poland. Finally he was removed to Camp 383. He encountered a few of his comrades from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment while in captivity but Verdun was struck how few there were, he assumed they were probably in other POW camps. At that time he had no idea of the fate of his 97 comrades who had been massacred at Le Paradis and would only discover their fate after the war.
 
After his release in 1945, Verdun returned to his home village of Worstead and married Myrtle and they went on to have two children. Verdun was a man well loved by his family and well liked in his village; he was known as the sort of man who would always help his neighbours if he could. Always a proud ex-regular army soldier he wore his Royal Norfolk Regiment tie with great pride and was a familiar face at Regimental Association and ex-POW gatherings.

​After Verdun passed away, the photographs of the Worstead men and women who served in two World Wars were re-framed in his memory. Verdun is still remembered with pride, respect and great affection by all his family.


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