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History

The Royal Norfolk Regiment, originally formed as the Norfolk Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the British Army. The Norfolk Regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as the county regiment of Norfolk. It was formed from the 9th (the East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot (formerly the 9th Regiment of Foot) and covered the local militia and volunteer infantry. It became the Royal Norfolk Regiment on 3 June 1935. The Royal Norfolks were amalgamated with their neighbours, the Suffolk Regiment {12th regiment of Foot}, to become part of the 1st East Anglian Regiment, which in turn became the Royal Anglian Regiment of which "A" company of the first battalion is known as the Royal Norfolk.

Second World War

Le Paradis Incident

During the Battle of France as part of the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, members of the Royal Norfolks were victims of a German war crime at Le Paradis in the Pas-de-Calais on May 26.

The 2nd Battalion was one of the units of the 4th Infantry Brigade covering the retreat to Dunkirk. They were holding the line of the La Bassée Canal. Units became separated from each other. Their HQ company had formed a defensive position based at the Duriez farmhouse. they carried on their defence until the afternoon by which point many were injured and the enemy were shelling the farm. Making a last stand in the open they were outnumbered and surrendered to a unit of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the SS 'Totenkopf' (Death's Head) Division. The commander was SS Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Knoechlein. The 99 prisoners were marched to some farm buildings on another farm where they were lined up alongside a barn wall. They were then fired upon by two machine guns. 97 of them were killed and the bodies buried in shallow pit. Privates Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan had hid in a pig-sty and were discovered later by the farm's owner, Mdme Creton, and her son. The two soldiers were later captured by a Wehrmacht unit and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war.

The bodies were exhumed in 1942 by the French and reburied in the local churchyard which now forms part of the Le Paradis War Cemetery. The massacre was investigated by the War Crimes Investigation Unit and Knoechlein was traced and arrested. Tried in a court in Hamburg, he was found guilty and hanged on January 28, 1949. A memorial plaque was placed on the barn wall in 1970.

Normandy 1944

The 1st Battalion of the Royal Norfolks formed part of the initial landings on D-Day. They were part of the 185th Brigade in the 3rd Infantry Division alongside the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. The battalion landed on Red Queen Beach (on the left flank of Sword Beach) at 07:25. On the 6 August 1944 at Sourdeval, Sidney Bates won his Victoria Cross. The 7th Battalion of the Royal Norfolks was part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division, one of the follow-up units. The 7th Battalion was disbanded after two months in France having played a central role in a number of important actions and its men were absorbed into other battalions.

The 1st Battalion continued in the vanguard of the drive through Belgium and Holland and was finally part of the occupying force.

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Relevant Websites

Royal Norfolk Regiment Museum

Casualties of the Regiment, buried in the Netherlands.

Number of known casualties: 57

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