Wormhoudt Massacre - Massacre

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. The Allied troops had become increasingly alarmed at the brutal conduct of the SS soldiers en route to the barn which included the shooting of a number of wounded stragglers. On arrival at the barn a British officer protested, but was immediately rebuked by an SS soldier. The British officer was then shot.

When there were nearly 100 men inside the barn, soldiers from the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, threw stick-grenades into the building killing many POWs. The grenades failed to kill everyone, largely due to the bravery of two British NCOs, Sergeant Moore and CSM Jennings, who hurled themselves on top of the grenades using their bodies to suppress the force of the explosion and shield their comrades from the blast. Upon realising this, the SS called for two groups of five to come out. The men came out and were shot. Despite being shot, Gunner Brian Fahey survived, unknown to the SS men at the time. Concluding, that method was too slow, the SS troopers simply fired into the barn with their weapons.

Several British prisoners were able to escape, while a few others, like Fahey, were left for dead. A total of 80 men were killed. After a couple of days, Fahey and several others were found by regular German Army medics and taken to hospital. Their wounds were treated before they were sent to prisoner of war camps in occupied Europe.