On 11 June 1940, soldiers of the Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland executed around 74 prisoners belonging to the 4e Division d'Infanterie Coloniale of the French army near the town of Cressonsacq in the Oise Department.
[2] On 5 June, when the German forces launched their new offensive across the Somme with the aim of taking Paris, the 4e Division was holding a portion of the frontline in the Oise Department.
From 7-9 June, a large portion of the division, including the 24e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, was encircled in the villages of Angivilliers and Lieuvilliers.
On 9 June the 24e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais launched a successful counterattack at Erquinvilliers which allowed a large number of French troops to escape the German encirclement, with their withdrawal being covered by a 300-strong rearguard of the 24e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, many of whom were already wounded and thus unable to evacuate.
[5] The ranking German officer on the scene called the African soldiers "savages", and refused to afford them the treatment guaranteed to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
[3] In 1941, a local farmer discovered the bodies of the eight French officers along with tirailleurs Tano and Leno, and the remains were exhumed and reburied in the town cemetery of Cressonsacq.