LAH murders in France during May 1940

[John P. Moore]

On this day 80 years ago 80 men from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Cheshire Regiment, The Worcestershire Yeomanry, who were defending the Dunkirk corridor, and a French soldier were murdered by the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler in a barn on the outskirts of Wormhoudt.

After putting up a strong defence of the town, and having exhausted their ammunition, those soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force who remained surrendered to the SS troops. From here they were marched to the barn on the outskirts of the town, with those wounded and unable to keep up being shot.

After being herded into the barn stick grenades were thrown in. Two groups of five were then called out to be executed. Again, the SS troops thought this to be too slow so they fired their weapons into the mass of men who remained.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemorates those who died at Esquelbecq Military Cemetery.

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Wilhelm Mohnke was commander of the 5./LSSAH at this time. The murderer Mohnke was promoted to Stubaf. a few months later. Not surprisingly, Mohnke had several hundred Canadian POWs shot in Normandy during 1944 while a commander in the "HJ" Div.

[Charles Trang]

Guy Rommelaere (Assistant of the Mayor of Esquelbecq) wrote a very detailed study of the LAH murders and massacres in Esquelbecq, Wormhout and Ledringhem. It is a privately published book so it is very hard to find. The reference book on the subject is Leslie Aitken's "Massacre on the Road to Dunkirk". Rommelaere's work contains a good number of additional testimonies, in particular those of the French witnesses.

[Peter]

Remembering the lads who were murdered. RIP

[Peter]

When the grenades were thrown in amongst the British soldiers two of their senior NCO's threw themselves on top of the grenades before they could explode in an attempt to save the lives of their men. One of these was Company Sergeant Major Augustus Jennings, Royal Warwicks.

This is Augustus Jennings

[Sheldrake]

The German company commander Wilhelm Moenke got off the charges because no one could prove he was there. The LAH had a poor reputation in the war for ill treating their prisoners. Arguably this merely put into practice the fundamentals of Nazi belief, that might was right. This wasn't the first incident on the Western front involving the LAH as there were accusations of using Dutch PW as human shields to capture key positions on the Grebbeburg.

Visiting the site with senior British civilian and military policemen their conclusion was that the LAH could get away with shooting unarmed prisoners if they thought they were a threat. Its what we argued on several occasions in Iraq. The modern reality is that it is British or American troops who tend to have custody of prisoners.

We used to include Esquelbecq as a stand in the Realities of War tour for British soldiers under training. I used to tell the history, while the training NCOs detracted the modern lessons. 1) One big difference between the LAH and the modern British army is that one of the core values is respect for others. Not a trait recognised by the SS Code of conduct. 2) in the modern era anyone who indulges an impulse for cruelty is likely to be caught on video.

One final observation. The Worcestershire Yeomanry were an anti tank regiment not cavalry, The men who KO's the German tanks were from 211 Anti-tank Battery of 53 (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Regiment RA. Four years and a week or so later they would land in Normandy on D Day as 211 Airborne Light Battery RA, the first British field artillery unit to deploy by air.

[lartiste]

Do not forget, that Mohnke was released from Soviet captivity on October 10, 1955. At that time the will of western authorities to punish war crimes decreased compare to 1945 ... .



Jan

[PATRICK CHARRON]

Hello,
For those interested in this subject, see this link which is a good introduction.
https://www.historyhit.com/the-wormhoud ... ce-denied/See also the book : "Massacre on the Road to Dunkirk: Wormhout, 1940" by Leslie Aitken
Regards
Patrick

[Larry Hayward]

And what happened to Mohnke after WW2? He lived quietly in retirement perhaps?

[lartiste]

And what happened to Mohnke after WW2? He lived quietly in retirement perhaps?

If I remember correctly Mohnke was captured by Russians in Berlin, released from Russian captivity in 1955, and lived then in Barsbüttel, where he died 2001. He was never charged for his war actions, only investigated several times.

[steve248]

Möhnke was subjected to two investigations for "war crimes" by the West German police, but neither went to prosecution. Researchers visiting the Bundesarchiv Ludwigsburg (near Stuttgart) can examine the files:

B162/21498 and 21499 (333 pages between them, covering 1973-1990 the former, 1993-1994, the latter):
Ermittlungen StA Lübeck 2 Js 1698/73 gg. W. Mohnke wegen Tötung von britischen Kriegsgefangenen in
Wormhaut (Frankreich) am 28.5.1940.

B162/28463 (1973-1989):
Ermittlungen nach Anzeige gegen W. Mohnke, Angehöriger der Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" und später
Kommandeur des 26. Panzer-Grenadier-Regiments, wegen der Tötung von alliierten Kriegsgefangenen in der
Normandie

[phillip burke]

Hello all,if you check out this thread theres quite a lot of info about Mr Mohnke ,viewtopic.php?f=6&t=211030

[steve248]

One of the three brass monkeys speaks: