Modern/Post-War Photos

"We will remember them."

British Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Le Paradis War Cemetery, formerly part of the Le Paradis parochial cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France. In the latter stages of the Battle of France, 1940, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, fought a delaying action in conjunction with troops of the Royal Scots Regiment at a farmhouse at Le Paradis, as part of the ordered withdrawal of British and French troops towards Dunkirk. While aware of the fact that they were cut off and could not expect support, the Norfolks (as British regular infantry, among the best troops available to the Allies in the sector) put up spirited resistance in defending the farmstead, surrendering only when they ran out of ammunition. Subsequently, the surviving Royal Norfolk prisoners who fell into the hands of 14 Company, 3 SS Division "Totenkopf" were machine-gunned at the order of Company commander Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritz Knochlein, with the intention of killing them. Of the 99 prisoners concerned, 97 were killed by the machine-guns, or finished off with pistol or bayonet. Two survivors - Privates Pooley and O'Callaghan - managed to hide from the "follow up action", were rescued by the farm owners, and subsequently taken prisoner by a Heer unit. After the war, they were instrumental in securing the trial, conviction and execution of Knochlein for the crime. The bodies, originally buried informally in a mass grave, were subsequently exhumed and buried in the parish churchyard, which is now part of the War Cemetery. They lie there now, along with a small number of additional casualties. It is possible that some of these were Royal Scots prisoners murdered separately; it is impossible to confirm this. The Le Paradis massacre took place on 27 May, 1940 - 71 years to the day from the date of this posting. With sadness, JR.