Storey, Neil R. Dunkirk, D-Day, Kohima and the Death Railway

The Royal Norfolk Regiment in the Second World War

The Royal Norfolk Regiment boasted a combat record that was second to none. Five members of the regiment were awarded the Victoria Crossthe highest number bestowed upon a single line infantry regiment during the Second World War. The 1st Battalion landed on Sword Beach on D-Day and fought its way with distinction through France, the Netherlands, and Germany. The 2nd Battalion was the first complete infantry battalion of the British Expeditionary Force to land in France in 1939; members of this battalion received the first gallantry awards of the war. Tragically, in 1940, during the retreat to Dunkirk, 97 men of this battalion were massacred at Le Paradis. The battalion was reconstituted and later fought in Burma, as well as in the hellish Battle of Kohima. The 4th, 5th, and 6th Battalions fought bitterly for Singapore; yet, following the island's surrender in 1942, they spent the remainder of the war as Japanese prisoners of war on the infamous "Death Railway" and in forced labor camps. The 7th Battalion fought in France in 1940. Only fifty men returned; however, the battalion was reformed and returned to the front lines once again in 1944 to fight in Normandy. Based on the diaries, memoirs, and recollections of eyewitnesses, this book stands as a worthy tribute to the brave men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment.