La Plaine au Bois Memorial Site - Wormhoudt Massacre - Esquelbecq

The Plaine au Bois Memorial site is locate between the villages of Esquelbecq and Wormhout.
Here, at the end of the afternoon Tuesday May 28th 1940, the S.S. of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler with the Obergruppenführer Sepp DIETRICH in charge and specially his 2nd Battalion controlled by the Hauptstürm führer Willem MONHKE, had killed in spite of the Geneva Convention, many dozens of British prisoners of the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Cheshire Regiment and Royal Artillery as well as a French soldier in charge of a military depot in a nearby farm.
Before being made prisoners and brought to the retired cowshed by force, these martyrs fought bravely against superior nazis forces, protecting the place of Wormhout and so helping the evacuation of the Allies troops in Dunkirk.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge