A war veteran whose arm was blown off as he escaped from a Nazi massacre of unarmed prisoners has condemned a film for portraying the German general behind the atrocity as a 'hero'.

Bert Evans, aged 84, is believed to be one of the last men alive who survived the Second World War crime, allegedly ordered by Nazi Wilhelm Mohnke - who was known as Hitler's 'Last General' because of his loyalty to the Nazi regime.

Mr Evans was one of 85 British unarmed prisoners of war who were rounded up in a barn in the French village of Wormhoudt in 1940 by the elite German guard, the SS, who threw grenades in to kill them - an action supposedly ordered by Mohnke.

Mr Evans, of Redditch, managed to

From P1 / escape together with Alf Tombs, from Hampton Lovett, near Droitwich, and the pair had regularly campaigned to bring Mohnke to justice, having first reported it to the British Government in 1947.

Mohnke is also accused of murdering scores of civiliansand Canadian and American POWs.

He is also thought to have carried out the execution of Hitler's brother-in-law, SS General Herman Fegelein.

Now a German-produced film, Downfall, about the last days of the Third Reich, which has been nominated for an Oscar, has been criticised by Mr Evans and Worcester Second World War historian Dilip Sarkar.

They accuse the film of wrongly portraying Mohnke as a 'humanitarian and hero'.

Mohnke was eventually captured by the Russians, incarcerated for a decade and later led a 'luxury life' in Germany, complete with a war pension.

Despite being investigated, he was never tried and he died in 2001 aged 90.

"How he can be seen as a humanitarian I don't know. He was the worst you could possibly meet - pure evil," said Mr Evans.

"I'm shocked that he could be portrayed in such a way.

"Alf died at the age of 91 last year and he'd have been deeply upset to hear about this film."

Mr Sarkar MBE, aged 43, of St Peter's, Worcester, added: "Mohnke is portrayed as pleading with Hitler to save civilians.

"If you look at history it's clear that's a fabrication.

"I think the problem with a film like this is that so many people don't understand the background, watch this and take it as fact, but it's wholly inaccurate.

"It was the same with Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.

"The generation who know the truth about the Second World War are dying out and it is rapidly escaping from our living memories."

A Downfall spokeswoman declined to comment.

'We were herded into a barn and the Germans threw grenades in'

IT started in Dunkirk in 1940. The Allies in Northern France were in retreat, overrun by the speed of the Nazi blitzkrieg, and were making their way to the coast.

The Royal Navy had organised an improvised evacuation but expected to only be able to rescue 45,000 of the third of a million men stranded in France.

In the War Cabinet back in England, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was advised to make peace with Hitler before the entire Army was lost. He resisted and ordered the evacuation to proceed.

The only way the Army could make it to the coast was by holding open a corridor down which to retreat.

That task fell to men such as Alf Tombs and Bert Evans, of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

The unit successfully resisted the German advance for 48 hours - allowing thousands of British soldiers to escape. But they were captured.

Back in 1994, Mr Tombs, who died last year aged 91, told the Worcester News: "I will never forget it.

"We were herded into a barn and the Germans threw grenades in.

"I dropped on to the ground and two lads fell on top of me, which is how I survived."

Yesterday, Mr Evans recalled the horrific experience.

"A grenade shattered my right arm and the next thing I knew I was being dragged out by my captain.

"He yelled to run as fast as we could and started wading through a stagnant pond with the German guards chasing after us.

"The guard shot the Captain right through the head and I saw him go under the water so I kept running.

"The guard fired again and the bullet ricocheted off a tree into my neck."

Miraculously, Mr Evans made it to safety and survived against all odds, although he lost his right arm. He and Mr Tombs were two of only five survivors of the massacre, in which 80 of their comrades were killed.

WILHELM MOHNKE

SS-General Wilhelm Mohnke was an officer of the Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler (LAH) Division.

His first association with atrocity was the massacre of 85 British POWs at Wormhoudt, France, in May 1940.

Next, as a regimental commander of the SS-HJ Division in Normandy in June 1944, he presided over the well-documented massacre of numerous UK and Canadian troops.

In the December 1944 Ardennes offensive, his troops famously murdered not only surrendered US troops at the 'Malmedy Massacre', but also numerous other surrendered US troops and Belgian civilians.

He was Hitler's 'Last General'.

He was captured by the Russians and imprisoned, which probably saved Mohnke from further prosecution as a war criminal.

The Germans awarded him numerous awards for his war efforts, including the Iron Cross II, War Merits Cross II, German's Gold Cross and the Knight's Cross

By the time he was released to live in Hamburg, tensions between the western Allies and the Soviets had reached a high peak, and charges against Mohnke concerning Wormhoudt and Normandy had fallen by the wayside.

He died in 2001 in Germany after failed efforts by Canadian investigators to have him tried for war crimes.