The story of 144 Brigade's defense of Wormhoudt and Bambecque must rank
in importance alongside the defense of Cassel and Hazebrouck by 145
Brigade; however, what is often forgotten in the uncertainty that
surrounded Wormhoudt and Bambeque is the heroic defense of West Cappel
and Vwyfeg (les Cinq Chemins today) by the Welsh Guards and the 1/Fife
and Forfar Yeomanry (1/F&F Yeomanry). Brigadier Norman's composite
brigade was the final piece in the jigsaw of defense on the western
flank of the Dunkerque Corridor and, after the last stand of the 2/Royal
Warwicks and the 8/Worcesters, Norman's Brigade, held the line south of
Bergues, containing the attacking German units at great cost, until the
perimeter at Dunkerque had been established. He and the remnants of his
brigade left Yvfweg just as the Germans were entering it from the south.
The full story of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkerque can be read
in Battleground Europe: The Dunkerque Perimeter and Evacuation 1940.
The defense of Wormhoudt in 1940 has long been associated with the
massacre of British servicemen after they had surrendered and been taken
prisoner. The events in the barn at La Plaine au Bois will always be
considered one of the most appalling acts of the Second World War,
carried out by elements of the Liebstandarte Regiment, in what looked
very much like revenge; a massacre that was almost second nature to this
group of fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler. Up against the regular
troops of the 2/Warwicks and their supporting units, the Liebstandarte
found no easy victory at Wormhoudt in an encounter that saw their
regimental commander, Gruppenführer Otto 'Sepp' Dietrich, having to take
shelter in a roadside ditch away from the fury of the Cheshire machine
gunners. Then again, what is often overshadowed by the events in the
barn is the series of other murders of civilians and British soldiers
that took place as the Liebstandarte overwhelmed the fragile defense of
the Warwicks. Captain 'Tony' Crook, the Warwicks' Medical Officer, draws
attention to just one of these incidents as he was marched into
captivity past the bodies of A Company men, who he felt sure had been
murdered in cold blood. Another incident involving the Worcesters at
Bambecque is related by Lieutenant Roger Cleverley of C Company, who
writes in his diary that all the wounded were shot by a commander of the
Liebstandarte. Apart from hearsay and diary entries, there is little
other evidence to support the deaths of these men but, in the opinion of
the author, there is no doubt whatever that many British soldiers met a
premature end after they had surrendered in the fields and on the
pavements of Wormhoudt and Bambecque.
