Those tours also took in aspects of the First World War. One of the main reasons for going was to visit the small hamlet of Le Paradis in Northern France where on May 27th, 1940, 99 soldiers from the Royal Norfolks, the Royal Scots and other regiments surrendered to the Germans. Instead of being made prisoners of war they were marched to a barn, lined up against a wall and machine gunned. Any survivors were then bayoneted.
Ninety seven died but, miraculously, two survived - Privates Bill O'Callaghan from Dereham and Bert Pooley from London. The German unit involved consisted of a group of Nazi soldiers who were trained at Dachau Concentration Camp. The order to fire was given by Fritz Knoechlein later described as "one of the worst kind of Nazis."
O'Callaghan and Pooley survived, the former spending the rest of the war as a prisoner and the latter being repatriated due to the seriousness of his injuries which later led to the amputation of his legs.
After the war the two soldiers helped to track down Knoechlein who was tried for war crimes and hanged.
A number of years ago a group of five people (myself included) set-up the Le Paradis Commemoration Group to research and remember the 97 who lost their lives and also to tell the story of the two survivors. We set up a web site entitled "Hell in Paradise" at
www.leparadismassacre.com
We like to think that this web site is the most authoritative account of the massacre available. It also looks at the fighting around the area at the time and focusses on many of the individual's fighting there and their families.
The commemoration group consists of two of us from Hethersett - myself and John Head - along with Bill O'Callaghan's son Dennis, and historians Nick Smith and Rob Edwards. Most of the group are also trustees of a campaign to set-up a permanent memorial to the memory of the 97 in Norfolk. There are already something like six memorials to them in France but none in the UK. Negotiations on a prominent site for the memorial are well advanced and it is hoped to have it in place sometime next year.
Following yesterday's blog, John Head, who many people in the village will know from his association with the parish church and as part of the band at the annual village pantomime, sent us some photographs.
You can view these at the top of this page. They were taken at the grave of Wilfred Owen. The lovely family photo shows John with wife Ros, daughter Faye (who was educated at Hethersett High School) and grandson George. Many thanks to John for sending the photographs and allowing me to use them in this blog.