大象传媒

What follows is the poignant story of a man, still alive and now a citizen of honour of my french town.
He miraculously survived the killings of british prisoners not far from my parents'house on May 28th 1940. It was the same barn where Alf TOMBS'story took place (seen in the 1st drama of "Dunkirk").
"I was a gunner in the R.A. when I was captured at Wormhout, after being seriously wounded in the left leg......
Those who were escorting the prisoners to the rear were S.S., but I did not realise it at the time. They made us run for more than a kilometre across the fields towards ESQUELBECQ, killing those who were too weak to go further.

Wounded like I was, I was helped by two other british who supported me shoulder to shoulder to stop me falling.
It was beginning to rain; it was the first rain to fall since May 10th. I was so na茂ve at that point that when I saw the barn, I thought the S.S. were taking us there to shelter...
With about a hundred of us squeezed together as we were in this dilapidated barn, the germans lost no time and threw in stick grenades. It was pretty clear that they were trying to wipe us out.
Then I remember a German NCO shouting "five men outside!" and every one of us knew what was going to happen.
Outside the barn we could hear the SS counting the prisoners :"one!, two!, three!, four!, five!". There was a shot after each of the numbers and I saw my countrymen falling one by one...
Then the SS came back to the barn and ordered five more to come out to die.
I volunteered because I knew that we would all have to go through it, and it was no use prolonging our last moments of life.
I thought at that time that this was what happened when you were taken prisoner: the lad next to me who was very young shook my hand and spoke to me, saying "I don't know who you are but I need to shake hands with you". That was when I thought about my mother and I was very sorry for her.
As I marched along to the spot they chose, I also thought that the war would soon be over for me...
The nazi NCO lined us up facing his men.
There were five of them, each one with a rifle. Facing the executioners, I was number five, and I heard the first four numbers called out, the shot which followed, and my comrades falling, one by one, beside me.
I began to think about the futility of war, and to wonder why this was happening to young men like us, for no reason.
The SS shouted "five!" and I heard the shot, felt the bullet strike, pierce my back and pass through my chest. I fell down instantly and felt my blood spouting; then I passed out.

When I came to, the SS had gone.
I had a terrible pain in my leg and realised I was not dead. I felt around for my glasses.
My tunic and shirt soaked with blood, I began to crawl towards the barn, using the limbs that were not injured: my left knee and my right arm. It took me a good three hours to do the twenty or so yards between me and the barn where the dead lay with the dying. With my head propped on a lifeless body, I finally fainted.

All this happened on the Tuesday evening.
We stayed there all Wednesday, all Thursday.
During this time, the wounded were continuing to die. I remember one of them who had managed to sit up against the wall of the barn and had found two cartridges in his jacket. He was trying to kill himself by holding one against his forehead and trying to trigger it with the other!
I think that by then we all wanted to die.
One of the worst things I can remember was the thirst which tormented us. For me it was worse even my wounds..

On Friday morning we heard sounds and thought the Germans who were coming were there to finish us off.
Instead they spoke to us, but we could not understand. One of them spoke in french, and summoning from my schooldays, I was able to manage a conversation.
He was dumbfounded!
"Why are there no weapons, or helmets or guns here?" he asked as he looked at the number of dead.
Then he gave his own answer:"you were captured by the SS, they don't take prisoners!"
They move us out of the barn, took off their jackets and put them under our heads. In my case one of them took off his shirt and made a compress to put on my chest.
I was given morphine at Camiers near le Touquet and spent the whole of the war in a POW camp, making two attempts to escape.
story extract from the book : May 1940 in Flanders "the forgotten massacre" ESQUELBECQ-WORMHOUT-LEDRINGHEM 陇 Guy ROMMELAERE

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.