Wormhout Massacre/Battle Related Research Questions

I think the Bde HQ is documented on here as not being at Wormhout and to the east of the town before the fighting started. One of the Warwicks Companies (C Company?) was taken out of Esquelbecq on the 27th I think to act as Bde HQ security.

Just going to check a thread I think I posted this info in.

Edit:

Just checked 2 Warwick Bn War Diary and it states that C Company went to Begues to protect 48 Div HQ. on the 27th May at 1600 hrs.

 

The best I can find at the moment is on page 340 of Sebag's Dunkirk Fight to the Last Man that states 144 Bde HQ was on the Wormhout to Wylder Road and he uses the Brigades War Diary as the source of info.

 

OK I take it that move of C Coy to Bergues was to protect Divisional HQ.

So the bulk of the info points to Wylder Road out of Wormhoudt as 144 Bgde HQ.

That means that 14 Platoon Cheshire position is bit more East than I worked out from Kissacks Report.

 

Just came across this old photo of the train in wormhout.

It is clear the train goes across the North end of the Square (now renamed De Gaulle)

 

If I'm not mistaken the Tourist Office is to the right of that picture and the train is heading towards the chateau used by the battalion as a RAP.

 

Here is an account of two soldiers with a reference to a Chateau Maes. A brochure advertising Wormhout also shows some Commemoration at this Chateau.

Any ideas where the chateau is?

And (assuming that my schoolboy french is correct) what is meant by the "signing of the pocket of Dunkirk, 65 years ago ie 1945" - according to the Dictionary Poche can also be translated as paperback book?

4) Account of M. Etienne DEVIENNE. who at that time was living with his parents at their bakery in the Square at Wormhout:
"....on Wednesday May 29th, around 8 o'clock in the morning, we went as we usually did after the weekend to pick up some flour from the store at the ALLAYS bakery.
When we arrived we found an unfamiliar baker's boy: a British soldier as it happened. We warned him not to speak because the place was full of Germans.
The lad took us to the bakehouse, where there was another man with a stomach wound. We went back across the square with the two Britishers carrying 50-kilo sacks of flour like us except that the wounded man was carrying empty ones.
The Germans were watching us go...................... / have never in my life been so frightened.
After we had fed them and given them some clothes, the British explained that they had arrived from Belgium via Herzeele, and that when they got level with the Peene bridge they were machine-gunned from a German tank which was in front of the ruins of the DEJONGHE house. There were twenty or so of them in a Dodge truck, and the survivors scattered except for our two, who dived into the river and climbed out into the back of the bakery, where we found them.
The two soldiers asked us to help them to get to Dunkirk, and when we had fed them and found them a map I took them round the corner of the church to the road junction on the Steenvorde road. As we arrived at the crossroads they were able to see their dead comrades lying scattered over the ground as far as the LEFEBVRE brewery.

They told me they were going to spend the night in the bushes at the MAES
chateau, and so have a better chance of getting away successfully.
As far as the battle is concerned, I can tell you that the Germans were forced to
retreat before the courageous counter-attack mounted on the Tuesday evening. On
the Wednesday morning, the enemy filled two lorries with their dead. As we went
about our business in the Square I was aware of the presence of a machine-gun in
the passage of the GUTTERS cafe. This weapon had the whole square in its sights.
I could also see an anti-tank gun (British) in the ruins of the ACCART place, and an
advance post in a trench in front of the kiosk "

 

I think I've read that account before in a translated French book on the massacre. Ref the Chateau I can't say I've heard of it but the picture looks like the memorial on the church wall at Esquelbecq

 

Thanks Andy
Strange that the chateau is mentioned if the plaque is at Esquelbecq Church.

I was just wondering if Chateau Maes was the same as the "Brigade Chateau"?

The reference to the Bridge and Herzeele makes one think that this was the bridge on the North East side of Wormhout across the Peene Becq and hence (maybe) close to the Brigade Chateau (which maybe 1/2 mile down the Wylder Road?)

Anyway I will just keep ferreting about.

 

It may well be the Bde Chateau-But I wouldn't think it would have a memorial so far from Wormhout when the massacre actually took place in Esquelbeq. It just looks like the one on the church in the town square. There is a bloody big Chateau in Esquelbeq, who's name escapes me, which was used by the SS as their HQ prior to the attack on Wormhout. When I was there last year it was closed to the public and fenced off due to what looked like renovation work.

I'll check 144 Bde's diary for any clues.

EDIT

No joy-The diary is hand written and looks like a Dr's hand with only the odd word readable.

 

Chateau in Esquelbecq is called Chateau de la Place but Rommelaere also refers to it as Chateau Bergerot.

 

Not sure then. The only other one I can think of is Chateau Morael which was the 2 Warwicks Bn HQ and the other one used as the RAP where the old railway line was.

 

What a co-incidence just as Drew reveals himself as Blackadder, I can show him the real thing.

Above is a photo of Major General Blackader (no sniggers - he was a pretty good general) and King George V reviewing the 38th (Welsh) Division at Wormhout, 6th August 1917 prior to the Division being sent into battle at Pilkem Ridge, Passchendaele.

Amongst the troops were my grandfather (15th Battalion Welsh Regiment)and my mother's uncle (13th Royal Welch Fusiliers).

Readers of this thread maybe aware that my father fought LLSAH at Wormhoudt 28th May 1940 - but he never knew that this father had been there before him.

The Troops were stationed at Esquelbecq for rest and training - the road in the photo is either the one to Cassel or Bergues.

 

Hello

I hope this is interesting , the battle plan of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler

 

Many thanks for sharing the map-where does it originate from?

 

You're welcome

The map buy one friend for little money this summer on antiques market .

 

If you see the earlier discussion I was trying to find where the HQ of 144 brigade was in Wormhout.

Bingo - it was chateau Maes! and here is a drawing - it is exactly where I marked earlier on the map of Wormhout but today only the Stables exist.

Once it was a very fine building and besides being the place of last stand of the Warwicks (which was not the chateau Moraels or the Park), it has a more important claim to fame (Also where 14 platoon Cheshire was situated in order to provide protection).

It was here that the Germans signed the surrender of DUNKIRK in 1945.



PS in 1940 it was owned by a Belgian who wa accused of being a collaborator!

 

In an excellent new book "I fought at Dunkirk" by Mike Rossiter there is further information on the Wormhout battle by SId Lewis who was a private in A Coy.2nd Royal Warwicks.

Several facts emerge from his story. most of which cofirm what is already known but some add a bit more to knowledge of what happened that day.

- whilst B coy set up the road block on the Esquelbecq Road, A coy were positioned on the south of the road.

- to the immediate north of SId's position on the north side of the Equelbeq Road (and Sid was about halfway between Esquelbecq and Wormhout) was a large manor and with high walls surrounding it.

- SId was relieved to see tow platoons of Cheshire MG gunners arrive and take up position on the north side of the Esquelbecq Road.(this adds confirmation to 15 and 8th platoons Cheshire arrival).

- at day break on 28th May, about 20 artillery shells went thudding over head and then half an hour later there was machine gun fire from the wood near the manor house and SId wondered how the Germans had managed to penetrate so close to their position. (question - was this when Schutzek's unauthorised attack took place?)

- german cars screamed down the road and were set on fire at the barrier. The two Cheshire MG platoons fired unrelentingly into the Germans and casualties were high.

- the germans sent some light tanks down the road. The tanks slewed off the road and clanked north to outflank the Cheshires and B Coy

- Their bren was now out of ammunition and mortars were landing everywhere

- the Cheshire were under attack from the side and were retreating under heavy fire

- 5 more tanks came up the road and the 2-pounder next to Sid scored a direct hit on the first but now had run out of ammunition

- more german tanks in the wood started to fire into B Coys position

- more tanks came down the road and to SId's amazement his Coy Co Chichester - Constable ran up the nearest tank brandishing a rifle. The tank stop its MG open fire killing C-C (it is possible the C-C who had been a POW in WW1 had no intention of repeating the experience?)

- of Sid's platoon only 4 remained plus the sergeant - they retreated into the main square , found an abandoned truck and drove across a small stream and north to Dunkirk.

Amongst other information it confirms my father's story and the position of the Cheshires
.

-

 

Hello there:

I've started to research the 39-45 casualties of my home town of Bewdley in Worcestershire; at least three are possible Wormhoudt casualties - have colleagues come across many references to 211 Bty.? Who do we think knocked out Deitrich's staff car?

COX, BERNARD ROY

Initials: B R

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Gunner

Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery

Unit Text: 211 Bty., 53 (The Worcestershire Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regt.

Age: 20

Date of Death: 28/05/1940

Service No: 1467116

Additional information: Son of Arthur and Ada Laura Cox, of Wribbenhall. Worcestershire.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 17.

Memorial: DUNKIRK MEMORIAL


GARDNER, JOHN AUSTIN

Initials: J A

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Bombardier

Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery

Unit Text: 211 Bty., 53 (The Worcestershire Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regt.

Age: 20

Date of Death: between 28/05/1940 and 29/05/1940

Service No: 1465393

Additional information: Son of Walter and Fanny M. Gardner, of Stourport, Worcestershire.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Column 17.

Memorial: DUNKIRK MEMORIAL

HARMER, FREDERICK JOHN

Initials: F J

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Gunner

Regiment/Service: Royal Artillery

Unit Text: 211 Bty., 53 (The Worcestershire Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regt.

Age: 22

Date of Death: 28/05/1940

Service No: 1465395

Additional information: Son of George Frederick and Minnie Olive Harmer, of Bewdley, Worcestershire.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Row B. Grave 11.

Cemetery: WINNEZEELE CHURCHYARD

 

According to DR Guttery "the Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars" 1922 to 1956 p 25, it was a gunner from 210 battery that damaged Dietrich's car.

From memory, I think that at Wormhoudt, the full 210 battery was involved and one troop from 211 battery.

 

Is there much in this book on the BEF.?