Wormhoudt massacre
| Wormhoudt massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Wormhout, France |
| Date | 28 May 1940 |
| Target | Nearly 100 British and French POWs |
| Attack type | War crime |
| Weapon(s) | Grenades Automatic weapons |
| Deaths | 80 |
| Injured | 15 |
| Perpetrator(s) |  Waffen-SS-Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler |
The Wormhoudt massacre (or Wormhout massacre) was the mass murder of 80 British and French POWs by the Waffen SS during the Battle of France in May 1940.
Contents |
[edit] Fighting
As part of the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force towards Dunkirk, the 48th Division was holding the road which runs southward from Bergues through Wormhoudt, Cassel and Hazebrouck to delay the German advance.
British units at Wormhoudt were overrun by advancing German forces. The troops at this point surrendered assuming that they would be taken prisoner according to the Geneva Convention.
[edit] Massacre
After their surrender, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the Cheshire Regiment, and Royal Artillery as well as French soldiers in charge of a military depot were taken to a barn in La Plaine au Bois near Wormhout and Esquelbecq on 28 May 1940. When there were nearly 100 men inside, up to 12 soldiers from the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, threw stick-grenades into the building killing many POWs. Two groups of five survivors were taken outside and shot in the back as the grenades had failed to kill everyone.
A total of 80 men were killed, 15 men were eventually found by a regular German Army unit. Their wounds were treated before they were sent to prisoner of war camps in occupied Europe.
[edit] Legacy
The Waffen-SS-Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was under the overall command of Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich. It was alleged from post-war testimony that it was specifically soldiers of the 2nd Battalion under the command of then Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Mohnke that carried out the atrocity. However, Mohnke never had to face a trial for any alleged part in the war crimes based on these hors de combat killings. Mohnke strongly denied the accusations against him, telling author Thomas Fischer, "I issued no orders not to take English prisoners or to execute prisoners."[1] Mohnke died in August 2001.
In 1988, after a campaign by British MP Jeff Rooker, the case was reopened but a German prosecutor came to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.
The incident was re-enacted in the 2004 BBC television docudrama Dunkirk.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Fischer, Thomas. Soldiers of the Leibstandarte, J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc. 2008, p 26. ISBN 978-0-921991-91-5.
- Wormhoudt Massacre Written Q&A in Hansard 13 February 1989
- Wormhoudt Massacre Written Q&A in Hansard 13 December 1990
- Wormhoudt, May 1940
- Wormhoudt Massacre Site
- Wormhoudt survivor
- Massacre on The Road to Dunkirk. By Leslie Aitkin. ISBN 0583129382
