Le Paradis 27 May 1940

As our troops tramped in retreat to La Panne, who was it who held the enemy back? The Royal Norfolks were part of the plan to hold the line against German attack till the last man and the last round was spent. In Duriez Farm holed up, surrounded, exhausted, many wounded, in torment with no means of escape they surrendered. The Totenkopf lined them against a wall, ninety-seven gunned down, piled in a pit. Yet Pooley and Callaghan survived to crawl from that heap – years on in a court to sit and bear witness to this massacre crime which led to the hanging of Fritz Knoechlein.