Dunkirk 80: Remembering Bert Evans

Blesma Member Bert Evans, who died in 2013 aged 92, was one of the last survivors of the massacre at Wormhoudt, near the Franco-Belgian border, during the withdraw to Dunkirk 80 years ago this year. 

Bert was serving with D Company 2^nd Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (2 Royal Warwicks) which, on 19 May 1940, came under a devastating air attack near Tournai, suffering many casualties.   

A week later the Royal Warwicks were ordered to hold the village of Wormhoudt to buy time for the evacuation of thousands of soldiers of the BEF. On 27 May they were dive bombed by Stukas, and many of the houses in the village were set ablaze. The next day the remnants of the battalion were surrounded and forced to surrender. After being interrogated they were stripped of anything that might identify them – letters and photographs – and marched to Esquelbecq, about a mile away. Stragglers were shot and the remaining prisoners, some 90 in number, were pushed into a barn which measured about 10ft by 20ft. Many of them had been wounded during the fierce fighting, and called out for water.

A German solider was seen taking a grenade out of his boot. Capt James Lynn-Allen, the senior officer, banged on the bolted door to protest that there was no room for the wounded to lie down. Crammed against the barn door, Evans lit up a last cigarette. “This is it, Bert,” said of one of his fellow soldiers. “We’re finished.”

Moments later, grenades were lobbed into the barn. With great gallantry two NCOs threw themselves on top of the grenades, but then the machine gunners opened fire. When the firing stopped, the barn door was opened and the survivors were hauled out in batches of five from among the bodies of their dead comrades, and were shot.

Before that, however, the explosions from the grenades had forced the Germans to fall back, and in the confusion Lynn-Allen saw a chance to make a run for it. He grabbed hold of Evans, whose arm had been shattered, and the two men managed to stagger some 200 yards and hide in a pond.

Seeing them trying to escape, an SS officer pursued them. He shot Lynn-Allen in the head at point blank range. Evans was shot in the neck, and slid into the pond, where he was left for dead. He was subsequently found by regular German soldiers and taken to a hospital, where his right arm was amputated. Only a dozen men survived the massacre. In 1943 he was repatriated under prisoner exchange arrangements organised by the Red Cross.   

He worked for Birmingham City Council from 1950 until he retired to live in Redditch in 1986. In 1955, at Northfield Baths, he saw a child in the water who was in serious difficulty. Despite having only one arm and not being able to swim, he jumped in to help. He received a bravery award from the Royal Humane Society.

In retirement Bert thoroughly enjoyed fishing, playing darts, bingo, dancing and foreign travel. He had no children of his own, but his sister in law’s five children were an important part of his life. Bert married, in 1954, Elizabeth Yould, who predeceased him.