The Ballad of Johnny Hopper (the Nerveless Nazikiller)

(born May 1912 King's Lynn, Norfolk; moved Normandy 1924; survived 8 months Gestapo HQ 1942  and 3 years Mauthausen and Dachau 1943-45; East Anglian mushroom farmer, 1945-1991.)

See August issue of BBC History magazine for the full story

Johnny Hopper of Lynn and Normandy,

Forest fugitive, bandit, sinner,

Hit Hitler's Paris in the spring

Took his wife Paulette out to dinner.

"Give me my usual table, boy,

With my back against the wall,

And your two-faced entrance in my sights

And a hand on my trusty pistol.

His 'Resistance' contact  came on time,

A Gestapo and soldiers in tow;

He blew them away as he hit the ground,

Copped a wound, and a crueller blow.

With a fate worse than death closing in,

He shot dead his wounded wife,

"I've relived that fatal moment

Every day of my life."  

'Never give up and never complain'

His old priest in Normandy said.

The only lesson that ever got through

His lone-wolf bullet head

A long horse-face as pale as Death,

The hood life, stripped to the bone;

A wolf with 5000 francs on his head,

As lupine-lean and as lone.

He shot the quisling sheriff of Caen:

He shot the deputy as well

And an SS - "a Nazi piece of goods" -

Beat Dachau, but not his own hell.

With a fate worse than death closing in,

He shot dead his wounded wife,

"I've relived that fatal moment

Every day of my life."