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Auction: 1008 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 134

A Highly Emotive Group of Three to Private G. Bromley, 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, Who Was 1 of 97 Men of the Battalion Murdered By the S.S. Totenkopf, At Le Paradis, 27.5.1940 India General Service 1936-39, one clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37 (5770361 Pte. G.E. Bromley, R. Norf. R.); 1939-1945 Star; War Medal, minor edge bruise to first, very fine (3) Estimate £ 700-900 57700361 Private George Ephraim Bromely, 2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment, was killed in action, 27.5.1940; on the latter date after a brave last stand 97 men of the 2nd Battalion were massacred by the S.S. at Le Paradis, France; the following extract gives more detail upon this infamous war crime, ´In the early afternoon of 27 May, remnants of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were holding out in a large house in the tiny village. Cut off and lacking ammunition, they decided to surrender. Two or three men emerged from the house holding a white towel in token of surrender, but were shot down. The others, who numbered over 90, came out and their surrender was accepted by the Germans to the accompaniment of cheers. Many of the prisoners had been wounded, but despite their condition, were subjected to rough treatment from the boots and rifle butts of their captors. They had been captured by the men of the S.S. Totenkopf - a sister unit of the Leibstandarte - who were enraged because of the heavy losses they had suffered. Also, their Battalion Commander had been killed. After the prisoners had been paraded on the Rue de Paradis, they were marched towards a farm paddock in which was a large barn and as they entered the paddock, several of the men saw two machine-guns which had been placed about 100 yards from the barn. The barrels pointed towards the building; and the line of prisoners, with their hands behind their backs, straggled the length of the barn wall. Suddenly, the machine-guns opened fire on the prisoners mowing them down from left to right. Those who were further back in the file continued to march into the curtain of bullets... Due to the inefficiency of the machine-gunners, quite a number of the British did not die at once; and these were finally despatched by rifle and pistol fire. Bayonets were also used. A Private Pooley, who had already been wounded in the fighting, was hit by machine-gun bullets; and a Private Bill O´Callaghan was also hit. Miraculously, the two men survived and O´Callaghan carried Pooley to the safety of a pig-sty. Eventually, they were discovered by Madame Creton (the farmer´s wife) who fed them and treated their wounds. When the two men discovered that Madame Creton and her son Victor were likely to be discovered by the Germans, they gave themselves up to a unit which contained the normal type of German soldier and were sent to a P.O.W. camp´ (Massacre on the Road to Dunkirk, L. Aitken refers); Bromley was not so fortunate, nor indeed were the men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who were murdered by another S.S. unit in a barn at Wornhout shortly after this incident occured; Bromley was one of approximately 50 bodies out of 97 soldiers that were found and identified at Le Paradis Massacre site; his body was re-interred by the French villagers in Le Paradis War Cemetery, between 1st-15th May 1942; Pooley and O´Callaghan later gave evidence at the War Crimes Trials held in Hamburg, as a result of which S.S. Obersturmbannfuehrer Fritz Knoechlin was hanged in January 1949. Full details of the massacre of the Norfolks at Le Paradis can be found in The Vengeance of Private Pooley by Cyril Jolly, a signed copy of which is included with the lot.

Sold for
£900