Duisans British Cemetery - Battle Damage WW2

[CROONAERT]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

Which unit was involved there...?

260th Battery, 65th Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. ; one platoon of 151st Brigade Anti-Tank Company ; 8/Durham Light Infantry and 7/RTR.

dave

[Paul Reed]

Interesting Dave - have you researched this?

[51highland]

Nice photos Paul,Interesting, hows your ww2 cemetery site coming on?

[CROONAERT]

Originally Posted by Paul Reed

Interesting Dave - have you researched this?

Not in any major depth (yet) - still concentrating on the fighting at Ypres at the moment - but I've brushed on this (it was the battle that ended my grandad's involvement in the war) and am planning to go deeper.

The above was a generalisation of units in the area - for accuracy, the AT unit involved around the cemetery was the 260th battery, 65 AT Regiment RA. The area of Duisans was held by 2 troops from this and 2 Coys of the 8/DLI. Their opponents were the 7th IR and (some) elements of the SS-Totenkopf who were in the neighbourhood. For armour -the 25th Pz Rgt was also in the vicinity.

Dave

[Paul Reed]

Thanks for that Dave - have come across very little on this, so this is great.

[marcus69x]

Hi Paul. Do you think the bullets will still be in the holes?

[Paul Reed]

Suppose they could be! I will check next time.

[Owen]

HyperWar: The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940 [Chapter VI]

Maroeuil was being shelled when the right-hand column moved off at half past two, and rifle fire was coming from a nearby wood. They had to fight Duisans and French tanks moving forward on the right reported enemy tanks advancing further west—these were part of the German 7th Armoured Division (25th Armoured Regiment).[14] Two companies of the 8th Durham Light Infantry and two troops of the 260th Anti-Tank Battery were left to hold Duisans and to deal with the prisoners captured, and the column pushed on towards Walrus. Here again the enemy was found in possession, but the village was cleared and some prisoners taken. Berneville was then captured and an advanced guard of the 8th Durham Light Infantry with some of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment pushed on towards the Doullens road.[15] But here they met the leading units of the German 7th Infantry Regiment and troops of their S.S. 'T' (Totenkopf) Division which had been concentrating in the area on the previous night and were now resuming their advance.[16] They were pinned down by heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, while enemy aircraft made a twenty-minute attack on the main body. Having lost heavily, the advanced guard withdrew to Walrus. Enemy tanks then attacked both Walrus and Duisans, and though they were held off they established themselves astride the road between the two villages. Our right column could do no more

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<DT> <DT>

<DT>Right Column <DT> 7th Royal Tank Regiment
8th Durham Light Infantry
365th Battery, 92nd Field Regiment, R.A.
260th Battery, 65th Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A.
One platoon 151st Brigade Anti-Tank Company
One scout platoon 4th Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (Motor-cycle)
</DT><DT>

</DT>
<DT>

This article mentions "a cemetery" , could well be a civilian one though.

BBC - WW2 People's War - Private 4455304 Joseph Summerbell Wilkinson 7th and 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry and the 7th Battalion Green Howards

After much training and maneuvers in France and advances and retreats up and down the French-Belgium border the battalion saw its first major action near the village of Warlus and Duisans On the 21st May 1940 the battalion Split into 2 units, supported by a few French tanks they attacked a cemetery where over a hundred Germans had taken refuge. The French tanks raked the cemetery with machine gun fire and when the infantry advanced only 18 of the hundred were left alive and taken prisoner.

Just been Googling around with "Duisans 1940".
We can forget the quote in this post as being the CWGC Cemetery but a whole new topic appers here in connection wiith the above quote and the killing of German prisoners..
Axis History Forum :: SS murdered by the British in 1940 see post by michael mills he quotes from 8 DLI History.

The official history of the DLI has this to say, in its account of the advance of the Eighth Battalion:

"C" Company, in company with some French tanks, then attacked a cemetery near Duisans where some hundred Germans had taken refuge from the Royal Tank Regiment. When they occupied it, they found only eighteen alive and the French stripped them to the skin and made them lie face down on the road until it was time to take them away.

This brief account can be interpreted as supporting the German allegation (see page 89) that large numbers of men of the SS Totenkopf Division had been massacred after surrendering to the British

further edit.
I see this subject has been discussed before and it's a myth.
Axis History Forum :: SS murdered by the British in 1940

Found the book - "Myths and Legends of the Second World War", by James Hayward, Sutton Press, 2003. Further to the above, it appears that @ 18 Germans survived the attack by French tanks, and it was one of these survivors who shot a British soldier.

Hayward dissects Harman's allegations, viz: "Harman's allegations concerning the massacre of an unknown - but apparently "large" - number of German prisoners by both 6 and 8 DLI were based in part on "personal interviews" with 2 former DLI men, one an office and the other a warrant officer. Neither has ever been identified, and in February 2002 Harman told this author that he had mislaid all relevant papers and forgotten their names." Quite! No German reports of murdered prisoners were ever made, no bodies of murdered Germans were ever found, nor did Kochlein ever use this "massacre" in his defence in 1949.

</DT>

[CROONAERT]

Interestingly, there is also evidence of bullet damage on the inside of the entrance (ie from the cemetery looking out), on the Cross of Sacrifice and also on several headstones (which was, admittedly, a surprise to me)...

Dave

[CROONAERT]

the advanced guard withdrew to Walrus. Enemy tanks then attacked both Walrus and Duisans

,

Goo goo ga joob! Maybe it was the egg-man who was shooting at them?

Dave