After the Battle: Capture
Although the Bucks battalion bravely held position for two days it was becoming increasingly clear hour by hour that the Germans were succeeding in taking the town. The order was given to withdraw but without any instruction as to where they should withdraw. So this was in effect every man for himself. Those units that were defending the battalion headquarters near the centre of the town and the nearby convent where the wounded were being treated surrendered on the night of May 28 1940 and from that point were prisoners of war. Of those defending positions away from the centre some did make it to Dunkirk, a few with the help of locals managed to make their to Marseilles and home but most were sooner or later captured. Approximately 100 men were captured with Major Viney when they surrendered and about another 100 were eventually captured attempting to get away. About 300 men managed to get back to Britain. Therefore nearly one half of the battalion were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war.
The Bucks Battalion has been referred to as men of steel. I consider it important to note that their captors behaved with some sense of honour. Personal accounts from Bucks men that I have read recall that those taken prisoner considered they were, at the point of capture, treated reasonably well, although treatment did deteriorate during their progress to the various POW camps in which they were to be held.
Men from other units were not so lucky. There are well documented accounts of captured British priosners being murdered by their captors. Two of the most notorious such instances each occurred within a very few kilometers of the Bucks location at Hazebrouck, A unit from the Warwickshire regiment was murdered at Wormhout just north of Hazebrouck and men from the West Kents were also murdered just a ferw miles south of Hazebrouck at La Motte.
Ironically a party of the Bucks Battalion retreating south from Hazebrouck when the town had been taken, spent timing assisting the West Kents at La Motte. At night as the fighting had calmed the Bucks men move on. In the early hours fighting resumed and the West Kents were overwhelmed. They were murdered by their captors.
Cpl Lawey is buried alongside the murdered West Kent men in a small cemetery at Vieux Berquin, roughly half way between La Motte and Hazebrouck.Cpl Lawley is not mentioned as having been part of the Bucks party at La Motte and it seems his fate was not known until 1941. One must wonder if he was making his way south and overcome by the same SS group that murdered the West Kent men.