Plans are in the pipeline to celebrate one of the most “joyous” days in the history of Belgium…. Liberation Day.
It happened on 8 May when the country was liberated from Nazi occupation.
Every year a commemoration has been held, in collaboration with the Royal British Legion, the Walloon municipality of Hotton and veterans, to mark the event.
The commemoration usually takes place on the first Sunday of May (which this year falls on 3 May).
It is not intended to commemorate the Battle of the Bulge, the famous WW2 battle which happened nearby, but, rather, to celebrate what Frederic Antoine from the local branch of the Fédération Royale Nationale des Combattants calls “a more joyous occasion” for Belgium…..Liberation Day.
As part of the commemorations there will be a bilingual Mass at Hotton Church led by Père Herman Kusola and Rev Canon John Wilkinson, Chaplain of the Royal British Legion Brussels branch.
The commemorations in Hotton also honour the 55,000 British and Commonwealth troops who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, the final major German campaign during WW2.
Hotton, located in the province of Luxembourg, was a crucial area during the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 – January 1945). It was where British and American troops fought intensely to halt the German Ardennes offensive.
The village of Hotton was only liberated in January 1945, although the Battle of the Bulge had begun earlier.
On January 4, 1945, it was decided to dig mass graves to bury soldiers from the battles that had taken place in the region. A hill between the villages of Hotton and Menil-Favay was chosen for this.
The buried soldiers all came from Commonwealth countries – the UK, Canada, Australia and New-Zealand plus Poland.
As the years passed, the cemetery started to take on its present shape.The wooden crosses were replaced by headstones and two memorial pavilions were built (one of which housed a register of names).
The cemetery also features the Cross of Sacrifice, a large stone cross with an inverted bronze sword, found in almost all cemeteries with more than 40 graves.
The cemetery consists of 666 graves: 340 soldiers, 325 airmen and 1 war correspondent. There are 526 British, 88 Canadian, 41 Australian, 10 New Zealander and 1 Polish laid to rest there.
Since 1978, a gardener sent from the UK, Jimmy Short, has also been buried at the back of the cemetery (667th plot), which attracts thousands of people every year.
There are some interesting burials at the cemetery including Major Ronald Cartland, MP and brother of English romance novelist Barbara Cartland (also Princess Diana’s step-grandmother), war correspondent Peter Lawless MC, grandfather of ‘Birdsong’ author Sebastian Faulks, and Private Robert Nott, from Brussels, who served with the Welch Regiment.
Dennis Abbott, chair of the Brussels branch of the RBL, told this site, “While the US accounted for the bulk of the Allied forces in the Battle of the Bulge, with around 600,000 American troops engaged, films, TV series and books have tended to overlook the significant contribution of British and Commonwealth forces. For example, the 13th Lancashire Parachute Battalion, supported by the Belgian SAS, won a notable victory at the Battle of Bure in early January 1945.”
Films based on the battle include 1965’s Battle of the Bulge starring Henry Fonda and Robert Shaw and TV series such as Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers starring Tom Hanks, based on the book of the same name by Steven E. Ambrose.
- Photo credit: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
