Brussels Town Cemetery Belgian Airmen's Field of Honor

History Information (Source: CWGC)

Brussels was in German hands from 20 August 1914 to the date of the Armistice. Plot X of the cemetery contains the graves of 54 Commonwealth casualties, 50 of which were prisoners of war whose bodies were brought back from Germany by the Canadian Corps in April 1919. The British Expeditionary Force was involved in the later stages of the defence of Belgium following the German invasion in May 1940, and suffered many casualties in covering the withdrawal to Dunkirk. Commonwealth forces did not return until September 1944, but in the intervening years, many airmen were shot down or crashed in raids on strategic objectives in Belgium, or while returning from missions over Germany. Most of the Second World War casualties buried in the town cemetery died on lines of communication duties after the liberation of Brussels at the beginning of September 1944, but a few date from the brief period that the BEF spent in Belgium in May 1940.


Brussels Town Cemetery Belgian Airmen's Field of Honour

There are over 200 airmen of Belgian Nationality commemorated by headstones in this site. Around 30 headstones among them, marked "disparu", are purely commemorative. There is also a Memorial to Belgian Airmen lost in the Battle of Britain. The 84 named herein are burials of casualties who died as serving members of Commonwealth Air Forces.

 

This Field of Honour is entirely administered and maintained by the Belgian War Graves authorities.

Served with

  • United Kingdom (85)

Served in

  • Air Force (85)