Nearly 100 soldiers massacred after bravely delaying the German advance on Dunkirk have been honoured with a national memorial, more than 85 years on from their deaths.
The slaughter of 97 men, mostly from the Royal Norfolk Regiment, has now been commemorated with a sculpture at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The launch of the memorial was marked with two tribute services attended by the Princess Royal and the soldiers' family members.
It was on May 27, 1940 when the regiment's 2nd division, who had been holding against SS units for hours in Le Paradis, Northern France, finally ran out of ammunition and made the unimaginably difficult decision to surrender.
However, the men were not treated as prisoners. Instead, they were stripped of their weapons and helmets, lined up outside a barn, and machine gunned.
While 97 met a cruel end, two men miraculously survived, and later gave evidence against the commander who ordered their execution.
Private William ‘Bill’ O'Callaghan, from Dereham, and Private Albert Pooley, a Londoner, survived the massacre.
Pvt O'Callaghan, only 5ft 6, had taken his 6ft and injured companion over his shoulder and carried him away to safety after pulling him from the mound of bodies.
Both the massacre and the pair's heroics have gone largely unnoticed in the annals of British history, being overshadowed by the evacuation at Dunkirk.
Pvt Pooley was not believed by Allied troops when he told his story later in a hospital, and the massacre was only officially recognised when Pvt O'Callaghan corroborated it years later.
They later testified at a war crimes court in 1949 which saw the man who carried out the order, Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchlein, executed and the massacre recognised as a war crime.
Since the Second World War there has been a long campaign to secure memorials in the 2nd division's memory.
There have been five memorials unveiled across the Channel, a statue placed in Dereham’s memorial hall and a memorial stone placed outside Norwich Cathedral.
But now, with the unveiling of a new sculpture at the National Memorial Arboretum - a site dedicated to honouring fallen soldiers - the families feel their brave relatives have finally received the memorial they deserve.
“It’s a feeling of elation,” said Dennis O’Callaghan, the son of Pvt O’Callaghan.
“It’s been a journey for me since my father died 50 years ago to get memorials and recognition for the atrocity at Le Paradis, and I now feel that I have achieved that.
“We’ve finally achieved a memorial for future generations to be educated on a massacre that would have gone unrecognised.”
The Le Paradis Memorial Appeal Group has raised more than £70,000 since it was set up in 2021.
Members say that while their primary objective has been achieved, they will continue to carry out lectures around the region to ensure the story of the 2nd regiment is never forgotten.
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