[Extracted with thanks from Jane Staniland’s research report: “War Memorial, Holywell-cum-Needingworth: The men who died in the Second World War 1939-1945”]

In Memory of WILLIAM FREEMAN Private 5886153 5th Bn., Northamptonshire Regiment who died on Wednesday, 22nd May 1940. Age 26.
Cemetery: Grave Reference/ Panel Number: HEVERLEE WAR CEMETERY, Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium 1. K. 10.

Bill Freeman’s family were not from Needingworth, but he lodged for several years with Mrs Emma Barker who ran a guest-house in the former ‘Three Horseshoes’ pub at 88 High Street. He worked as a farm labourer at Chivers’ Farm near St Ives where soft fruit and apples were grown for their jam factory in Cambridge. He was fair haired, slim faced and of medium height, and said to be a quiet man who didn’t talk much about himself or his family .
He was probably part of the 5°’ Northampton battalion’s ‘C’ company which came from Huntingdon and St Ives . In January 1940 they were reported as one of the earliest territorial units to join the regulars of the BEF’s 4m Division .

The BEF had fortified the Franco-Belgian border and created two defensive lines incorporating the rivers Dyle, Meuse and Escaut within Belgium . However, when Germany invaded Holland and Belgium on 10 May 1940, and Holland fell after only four days, the whole front began to crumble. With their allies retreating on both flanks, the Dutch and French from Holland on their left and the French army in France on their right, the BEF were forced to withdraw from the Dyle to a defensive position on the Escaut, a retreat which began on the night of 16 May 1940 along roads clogged with Belgian refugees and vehicles, and continually troubled by air attacks and fifth columnist snipers .

At the river Escaut the waters were low as the area had been flooded to impede the Germans, but between 20 and 23 May 1940 the BEF attempted to hold this line in preparation for a withdrawal to their stronger defences on the Franco-Belgian border . The 4th Division defended five miles of the river, with its 11th Infantry Brigade’s three battalion’s defending the important crossing-point at Kerkhove; all three battalions were employed forward along the river bank, with trenches dug in the orchards and fields . It was here that Bill Freeman was killed on 22 May 1940, the events concerning his ‘C’ Company being described as follows:

In the afternoon, half an hour’s heavy bombardment of ‘C’ Company’s area was followed by an attack at 1330 hours; helped by good support from the artillery, the Company put up a stout resistance and the enemy made no progress. Unfortunately, after two hours, Company HQ had a direct hit upon it; the Company Commander, Captain J H Johnson, was killed and there were many other casualties. Realising that ‘C’ Company were now very reduced in numbers, the C.O. ordered the Carrier Platoon up to hold the enemy. They got into position and covered the withdrawal of the remnants of the Company, but suffered severely; any movement of the carriers attracted shelling directed by an aircraft which patrolled the front with impunity at a low height, and during the day the Platoon lost five of its vehicles and seventeen out of its twenty eight men, eleven being killed. Twice in this action carriers found themselves surrounded and out of ammunition, and fought their way clear with hand grenades ….
….The 5m had had a hard time on the Escaut. Eleven officers had been killed or wounded, ‘C’ Company came out less than forty strong and the other rifle companies could only muster sixty or seventy men apiece. The gravest loss was that of their C.O., who had commanded them for more than five years. But, despite their losses, they had shown an enemy who was superior in number and in equipment, and in the air, how a battalion of the British Territorial Army could fight.

Brigadier W I Jervois M C, History of the Northamptonshire Regiment (1953: London), pp. 75-6.

When the German forces reached the French coast on 20 May 1940, effectively splitting the allied forces apart, they swung north to trap the BEF in a pincer movement. From 26 May to 4 June 338,000 of the allied forces were slowly evacuated to safety from Dunkirk, which fell on 5 June 1940 .