Dunkirk, D-Day, Kohima and The Death Railway: The Royal Norfolk Regiment in the Second World War

The Royal Norfolk Regiment had a fighting record second to none.Five members of the Regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross, the greatest number to any Line Infantry Regiment during the Second World War. 1st Battalion landed on Sword Beach on D-Day and fought with distinction through France, Holland and Germany2nd Battalion was the first complete infantry battalion of the British Expeditionary Force to land in France in 1939.Members of this battalion earned the first gallantry decorations of the war.Tragically, 97 men of this battalion were massacred at Le Paradis during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940.The battalion was rebuilt and fought in Burma and the hellish Battle of Kohima. 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions fought doggedly at Singapore but after the surrender of the island in 1942, spent the rest of the war as Japanese Prisoners of War on the infamous 'Death Railway' and forced labour camps. 7th Battalion fought in France in 1940. Only fifty men made it back, but the battalion was reb