Narrator: Marchand Steenkamp.
About the story: On 10 May 1940, Germany launched its invasion of France through the Low Countries, and among the advancing forces was the SS unit led by Fritz Knöchlein. Among those left to hold the line were the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment and the 8th Lancashire Fusiliers, who were tasked with defending the French villages of Riez du Vinage, Le Cornet Malo, and Le Paradis. On 27 May, the Totenkopf troops, including Knöchlein’s 3rd Company, attacked the British at Le Cornet Malo, resulting in the deaths of 150 men from both sides. Meanwhile, the Norfolks had set up their headquarters at a farmhouse just outside Le Paradis. The company commanders had been informed by radio that their units were isolated and would receive no assistance. During the battle, the Germans under Knöchlein’s command attacked the farmhouse with mortars, tanks, and artillery shelling, which destroyed the building and forced the defenders to relocate to a cowshed. After hours of fierce fighting, the Norfolks ran out of ammunition, leaving only 99 men under the command of Major Lisle Ryder. Ryder consulted his men and ordered them to surrender. They stepped out of the shed with a white flag. The British captives, most of whom were wounded, were disarmed and marched down a side road from the main street. While they waited, two machine guns were set up by a barn in a farm paddock. The British prisoners were then marched to the barn, lined up alongside it, and shot by two German machine gunners, who continued firing until all of the British had fallen. Knöchlein then ordered his men to use bayonets to kill any remaining survivors. Believing they had killed everyone, the German soldiers left to rejoin their regiment.
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