Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An emotive Army L.S. & G.C. Medal awarded to Lance-Corporal R. P. Battleday, 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, who was almost certainly one of those murdered in cold blood by men of the S.S. Totenkopf at Le Paradis on 27 May 1940

Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue, Regular Army (5764265 Pte. R. P. Battleday, R. Norf. R.), mounted as worn, edge nicks, good very fine £250-300

Robert Philip Battleday, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Battleday of Fundenhall, Norfolk, is verified by his Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry as having died on Monday 27 May 1940 while on active service with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, a date and a unit that leave little doubt that he was among those men massacred by elements of the S.S. Totenkopf at Le Paradis, scene of the Battalion’s gallant last stand. A brief summary of this notorious war crime, committed shortly before men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were murdered by another S.S. unit in a barn at Wormhout, is to be found in Leslie Aitken’s Massacre on the Road to Dunkirk:

‘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 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 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.’

For full details of the massacre of the Norfolks at Le Paradis, see The Vengeance of Private Pooley, by Cyril Jolly, with a foreword by Lord Russell of Liverpool. He and O’Callaghan later gave evidence at the War Crimes Trials held in Hamburg, as a result of which S.S. Obersturmbannfuehrer Fritz Knoechlein was hanged in January 1949.

Battleday, who was 38 years of age, is buried in Mont-Bernanchon Churchyard, Pas de Calais, France.