La Plaine au Bois Memorial Site - Wormhoudt Massacre - Esquelbecq

The Plaine au Bois Memorial site is locate between the villages of Esquelbecq and Wormhout.
Here, at the end of the afternoon Tuesday May 28th 1940, the S.S. of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler with the Obergruppenführer Sepp DIETRICH in charge and specially his 2nd Battalion controlled by the Hauptstürm führer Willem MONHKE, had killed in spite of the Geneva Convention, many dozens of British prisoners of the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Cheshire Regiment and Royal Artillery as well as a French soldier in charge of a military depot in a nearby farm.
Before being made prisoners and brought to the retired cowshed by force, these martyrs fought bravely against superior nazis forces, protecting the place of Wormhout and so helping the evacuation of the Allies troops in Dunkirk.

Commemorative Mound
Inaugurated on 24 May 2004, this commemorative mound was created using material from the original pond and earth excavated to make a second new pond.
From the top here is a panoramic view over the plain and of Mont Cassel, also the scene of fierce defensive fighting by the 144th Brigade (2nd Glosters, 4th Ox and Bucks, 1st Buck) from 27th_30th May 1940.
There is an orientation table showing the British positions and the movements of the Nazi troops.
This belvedere, financed mainly by the Crédit Agricole du Nord is in the center of an enormous cross formed bij the paths leading to it.

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge