Day 1
On Friday, we set off at 07:00 am to drive down to the Eurotunnel in Folkestone and arrived around 10:00 am. We did both the English and French passport control before boarding the train.
Overall, the crossing took 40 minutes, and because we went through the French passport control before boarding, we could drive straight off to our first stop: the Wormhoudt Massacre site Memorial. It took around 25 minutes to drive to the Memorial. The site was very remote, and after parking on the side of the road, we had to walk down a track along some fields to get there.
The Wormhoudt Massacre was a mass murder of 81 British and French troops in May 1940. The 2nd Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were asked to hold the village of Wormhoudt at all costs so they could buy time for the evacuation, but on May 27th, they were dive bombed by Stukas, and many of the houses in the village got set alight.
The next day, the remnants of the battalion, who were all exhausted and out of ammunition were surrounded by Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment and were forced to surrender. They were interrogated, then stripped of anything that might identify them including letters, and photographs of wives and loved ones. They were then marched in extremely hot weather to Esquelbecq, about a mile away with any stragglers being shot.
The remaining prisoners (around 90 of them) were pushed by rifle butts into the cowshed. Captain James Frazer Lynn-Allen banged on the bolted door and complained that there was nowhere for the wounded to lie down. A German officer laughed and replied: “Where you are going, there will be plenty of room.” A couple moments later, stick grenades were thrown into the barn. With great bravery, two NCOs, Sergeant Moore and Company Sergeant Major Jennings, threw themselves on top of the grenades to shield the explosion. However, after this, the machine gunners opened fire.
The Wormhoudt Massacre
Lieutenant Colin Leslie Harrison shows the perforations of the bullets fired by the SS at the British prisoners. (Photo taken in October 1945)
The cowshed that the massacre took place at. Photos taken in October 1945 by the British War Crimes Investigation of Inquiry.
Before that, though, the explosions from the grenades had caused the Germans to fall back. In all the confusion, Lynn-Allen saw a chance to make a run for it. He grabbed hold of Albert (Bert) Evans, whose arm had been shattered, and they managed to stagger around 200 yards to hide in a pond. Seeing them trying to escape, an SS officer followed them. He shot Lynn-Allen in the head point-blank, instantly killing him. Evans was then shot in the neck and he slid into the pond where he was left for dead. He was later found by regular German soldiers who took him to a field hospital where a doctor amputated his right arm. Despite all this, Evans survived and lived until 2013. Lynn-Allen’s body was never found, so when the pond was dug out, all of the dirt was put into a memorial.
The path Lynn-Allen and Evans took to get to the pond before being shot
After the war, Evans made many pilgrimages back to Esquelbecq and to the memorial to pay respects to Lynn-Allen until his death on October 1st 2013.
His ashes were spread near the pond at the foot of a lilac bush presented by his neice.
The pond as it is today
Lynn-Allen's Memorial
Thursday 30th May 1940, Survivors of the massacre being treated by the Germans
The Site Today
Today, a new barn stands in the place of the old one, and was built in 2001 by the French and British. Inside, there are wreaths of poppies and crosses to commemorate for the British and French troops.
40 Oak trees were planted in memory to those who died in or near the barn. The trees were grown from seed in the Birmingham area.
A list of all those who had oak trees planted in their name.
This statue was made on 28th May 2010 for the 70th anniversary of the Operation Dynamo and the 10th anniversary of the Franco-British association of La Plaine au Bois. The three hands represent the three nations that were present during the massacre. The dove in flight symbolizes the peace and friendship that the three nations will now send to people all over the world.
We looked around the memorial site for around an hour looking around the information, and trying to understand what the soldiers went through back in 1940. This really helped us sympathize with the soldiers, and understand better than what we would be able to do in a school lesson.
Sources
The Airbnb
It took us about 10 minutes to drive from the massacre site to 'Rue du Sud', the road we were staying on. There was a car park right by it which was useful, and meant we didn't have to walk far.
We got very lucky with the Airbnb, as it was really cheap, spacious, and the host Magali was very accommodating (she even left us some French gaufres as a welcome treat!). For the 3 of us for two nights, it totaled £135.81. As we had spent quite a while in a car, we decided to spend a few hours to rest before going out.
Photos from the Airbnb listing
A little bit later, we went out to buy the ingredients to cook Boeuf Bourguignon as one of our aims on this trip was to learn about the French culture and try to cook a French dish. Whilst we were out, we bought some other bits to make sandwiches for lunch for the next 2 days.
(Outside the butchers)
Overall, the trip to the shops cost £55.16 (for lunch ingredients and the Boef Bourguignon ingredients (for 5 people). Once we got back, we got straight to preparing everything and getting it cooking as it takes a few hours.
In the end, it turned out really nice, the meat was really tender and had a lot of flavour.
Afterwards, we all sat down and watched the movie 'Dunkirk' as we thought it would help us understand what happened on the beaches better before we went and walked along them.
This is the end of day 1.