D-Day

Soon after this was June 6th 1944, and the first Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. D-Day had arrived at last. One cannot understate the enormous impact this event had on the people of Belgium. The history books have well documented the desperate battles that raged as the Allied forces pushed the Germans back to Berlin. We waited impatiently for a victorious outcome for our liberators. At first the news trickled through of the heavy battles and slow advance of the American and British forces. Later we noticed German troop convoys in retreat and began to realize the Nazi defeat was imminent. Buildings they had occupied were abandoned; the equipment and furnishings were left behind. Looters moved in and took everything they could lay their hands on. Unfortunately sometimes they arrived too soon and if they were caught stealing by German troops they were shot on sight.

We did not expect our city to be taken by the advancing Allied troops without a struggle. We braced ourselves for a siege. We were prepared if necessary to seek refuge in the reinforced foundations of a nearby unfinished University Hospital building that had been started before the war began. It was just a concrete skeleton structure but was solid and we hoped it would provide the protection we needed from gunfire. Thankfully our city was spared from much heavy fighting and damage. Some bridges were blown up at strategic points to cover the enemy’s retreat. There was however one night of fierce gunfire. We gathered in the hospital that night, but it would have been better to stay home. The loud ear-piercing sound of the gunfire was amplified by the bare concrete structure. Then there was a direct hit on the hospital. It was a deafening explosion and it tore a hole in the thick concrete in the upper section of the building. We thought for a moment we were going to die. The next morning we learned that the Allied Forces had broken through and there was little resistance left from the fleeing Germans.