Belgium in the Second World War by Veranneman Jean-Michel

Author:Veranneman, Jean-Michel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100; Bic Code 1: HBWQ; HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473841703
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Allied air raids

Allied bombings of military objectives sometimes caused grievous damage and loss of life to the civilian population in Brussels and Antwerp. In Mortsel, outside Antwerp, the bombing of the ERLA aero-engine factory caused 396 deaths, including 209 children, in April 1943. (In 2009, the US embassy in Belgium recognized its country’s responsibility for this.) German propaganda was quick to use these statistics, for example in posters showing a big four-engined bomber spewing out its load of bombs, with the comment: ‘Liberation is nearing; prepare your testament!’ And when in Brussels in September 1943 another particularly clumsy bombing raid caused about 120 civilian deaths and destroyed more than a thousand homes, all the German top brass came to the collective church funeral of the victims to ‘show their solidarity’ and be seen and photographed. In another of these bombings one prominent member of the Comet Line, the escape route many Allied airmen used to get back to Britain, was unfortunately killed, being at the time detained in a Brussels barracks by the Germans. The Rex party of course also made political capital out of it, especially after the bombings intensified in 1944. The overwhelming majority of Belgian public opinion, however, blamed all these things on the occupying Germans. The long lines of bombers on their way from East Anglia to the German cities, often flew over Belgium and the locals, well informed by the BBC, knew their ominous significance for the Nazis.

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