IT was by no means one of the worst outrages of the Second World War, yet the name Wormhout nevertheless resonates down the years as an atrocity that personifies man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

The facts of the case had a brutally stark simplicity. More than 90 soldiers of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were captured after a courageous last-ditch stand near Dunkirk on May 28, 1940. The Germans, infuriated by the tenacity of the British resistance, executed the prisoners in a barn.

It had been believed that the men were exclusively members of the Warwicks. But now - in an amazing new book by London writer Hugh Sebag-Montefiore titled Dunkirk: Fight To The Last Man - it has emerged that not only were there Worcestershire soldiers involved in the action which preceded the massacre, but that the bravery of county men angered the enemy so much that it was decided no mercy would be shown.

Britain regards Dunkirk as a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. Much has been made of the role played by the rescue of thousands of soldiers by the little ships'.

Mr Sebag-Montefiore reveals that to enable the main bulk of the British Army to escape, a number of British regiments were ordered to block the German advance. Their instructions were to stay at their posts and fight to the last man.

"I had been fascinated about what had happened at Dunkirk ever since I read Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose. I saw there was a gap in the market. Lots of books had been written about Dunkirk's little ships and the Navy but not about the last-ditch stands that enabled the evacuation from Dunkirk to succeed," said Mr Sebag-Montefiore.

"Previous books on the subject had included phrases such as the Royal Sussex Regiment fought to a finish', but had not included any inkling as to what had actually happened. This intrigued me, and tempted me to try to find out what had really gone on."

But even more incredible is the suggestion that it might have been the success of the Worcestershire Yeomanry's attack on a German column that could have angered the Germans even more.

County gunners badly shot up a car occupied by Obergruppenfuhrer Josef Dietrich, commander of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Regiment, the infantry leading the Wormhout attack. Dietrich survived but was pinned down in a ditch.

It was the SS troops' inability to free Dietrich that led to the tanks being called in to rescue him - and this would sow the seeds for the tragic repercussions suffered by the British troops.

Mr Sebag-Montefiore gained access to a newly discovered report by a Worcestershire officer - Captain Roger Cleverley - which describes how he was in his turn shot by the Germans after being captured. Along with a handful of other British soldiers, he survived to tell his tale.

Captain Cleverley's report contains the following words about an action at Bambecque, near Wormhout: "Having fought rearguard actions all the way back from Brussels and having had no further orders from HQ, this is where we had to stand and fight.

"Two tanks appeared at the top of the driveway and opened fire. Then infantry advanced under cover of their tanks. We fired with our small arms but had no weapons to stop the tanks.

"I received a bullet through my leg and fell into a trench. One of my platoon next door to me was hit in the stomach and he fell across my legs. I saw that now their tanks had increased to six, so apart from being outnumbered, we had run out of ammo.

"Their policy was that they did not take prisoners. So their commander went round the area and shot all the wounded, including myself, with his revolver. I fortunately survived with a bullet in my lower back."

The county men killed that day lie in cemeteries around Dunkirk - corners of foreign fields that will forever not only be England, but Worcestershire, too.

ANY SURVIVORS

As far as the author is aware, only one Worcestershire survivor of the Wormhout massacre - Bert Evans, from Redditch - is still alive.

Mr Sebag-Montefiore wants to find the families of men who might know of the massacre of Worcestershire soldiers. Call him on 0208 4441684 or e-mail sebags@hsmontefiore.com The paperback edition of Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's book Dunkirk: Fight To The Last Man, below, is published by Penguin priced £7.99.