On 13 June I will be giving a talk in Buxton about the 1940 campaign. 85 years ago today men of the 2/5th and 9th Sherwood Foresters, as well as others from the Leicestershire Regiment and Durham Light Infantry, all Territorial Army soldiers, fought alongside troops of the French First Army on the Haute-Deule Canal near Douai. Though rarely mentioned in British accounts of the 1940 campaign, the 72-hour delay imposed here on the advancing German army was critical in allowing the escape of the BEF at Dunkirk. The Germans showed their frustration in the following days by massacring around 140 French civilians in the mining towns of Oignies and Courrieres, the first Nazi atrocity in western Europe. Five of the British dead in the battle came from Buxton, which is now twinned with Oignies.
The talk will discuss the campaign, the battle, and the men of the 2/5th Sherwood Foresters who served there. If you’d like to attend, please email email FriendsofOignies@gmail.com for details and so they know numbers to cater for.
