Paradis Lestrem

On Sunday, 26th of May 1940, the 1^st Battalion the Royal Scots and the 2^nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment had moved into the village of Le Paradis, as part of rearguard action.

Regimental Headquarters and the Regimental Aid Post were established in houses and in a farm in the Rue de Derrière. Company positions were in the village around the church. Severe casualties were inflicted by both British Regiments on the SS Totenkopf Division, who were part of the lightning advance of the German Army. On the 27^th of May, the Royal Scots’ positions were overrun after heavy fighting and supervisors taken prisoner.

It was later learned that some 97 soldiers, mostly of the Royal Norfolk Regiment had been massacred following their surrender. The villagers, who had evacuated their village before the battle, returned on 2^nd of June to find their homes destroyed by fire, and the British dead lying where they feel. Pipe Major James Allan and his platoon of drummers were outside the home of Raymond Delassus in Rue de Derrière. The villagers buried the British dead, and in May 1942, the bodies were exhumed, and placed in the cemetery behind the church, which still bears the scars of battle.

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