Wormhoudt massacre

Wormhoudt massacre
Part of Battle of Dunkirk (Battle of France)
Rebuilt barn (cowshed), Wormhoudt massacre site
Location	Wormhout, France
Date	28 May 1940
Target	British and French POWs
Attack type	War crime
Weapons	Model 24 grenades Automatic weapons
Deaths	80
Non-fatal injuries	15
Perpetrators	Waffen-SS-Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler

The Wormhoudt massacre (or Wormhout massacre) was the mass murder of 80 British and French POWs by Waffen-SS soldiers from the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during the Battle of France in May 1940.

As part of the British Expeditionary Force's (BEF) retreat to Dunkirk, the 144th Infantry Brigade of the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division was holding the road that runs southward from Bergues through Wormhoudt, Cassel and Hazebrouck to delay the German advance.

British troops at Wormhoudt were overrun by advancing German forces. Having exhausted their ammunition supplies, the troops at this point surrendered assuming that they would be taken prisoner according to the Geneva Convention.

After their surrender, a large group of soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 4th Battalion Cheshire Regiment, and gunners of the Royal Artillery as well as French soldiers in charge of a military depot were taken to a barn in La Plaine au Bois near Wormhout and Esquelbecq on 28 May 1940. The Allied troops had become increasingly alarmed at the brutal conduct of the SS soldiers en route to the barn, which included the shooting of a number of wounded stragglers. On arrival at the barn the most senior British officer in the group, Captain James Lynn-Allen, protested but was immediately rebuked by an SS soldier.