Most long time listeners have heard me retell stories in my own way. I thought most listeners hated when I did audio dramatic reenactments. I am a fan of history and love World War 2 stories. I received an email from a 11 year old who asked me to do another one.
Normally I don’t take requests but for this kid I think I can make that happen. I hope you guys and gals enjoy it. I am currently working on it. Here is the story of the Belgium Baron.
Baron Jean Michel Longchamps (31 May 1912 – 16 August 1943) was a Belgian aristocrat and RAF fighter pilot during World War II. He is chiefly known for his single-handed attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels in German-occupied Belgium.
At the outbreak of the war, Longchamps was drafted into the Belgian Army, in which he was commissioned as a cavalry officer with the 1er Régiment des Guides. Belgium was on the edge of falling to the Nazi’s he escaped and was able to reach Britain. After purporting to be younger than his age of 28, he was accepted for flight training with the RAF. He was posted to No. 609 Squadron RAF and flying Hawker Typhoons quickly made a name as an able and aggressive pilot.
Immediately upon the fall of Belgium on May 10, 1940, the Gestapo commandeered Résidence Belvédère, a luxurious Art Deco apartment building located at 453 Avenue Louise in Brussels as its headquarters, and tortured prisoners in its cellars.
Longchamp’s father had died under torture at the hands of the Sicherheitspolizei. Longchamps devised a plan to strafe the building, which RAF command repeatedly declined.
On January 20, 1943, Longchamps completed an approved railway strafing mission over Ghent, then ordered his wingman (flight sergeant André Blanco) back to base and set out without approval for Brussels, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the south-east.
Longchamps first flew his Typhoon down the Avenue Louise to make a high-speed pass of the target building, reportedly to have the roar of the Napier Sabre engine draw Gestapo personnel to the unprotected windows.
He then turned to the Avenue de la Nation, using it as a low-level attack path. He continued through the left turn of the connecting Avenue Emile De Mot to an unobstructed and fairly frontal firing position with little risk of collateral damage and raked the target with his four 20 mm Hispano autocannons, resulting in the death of SS-Obersturmführer Werner Vogt of the SiPo, SS-Sturmbannführer Alfred Thomas, head of Abteiling III of the Sicherheitsdienst in Belgium, a high-ranking Gestapo officer named Müller, and others.
Longchamps had a bag of small Belgian flags made by Belgian refugee schoolchildren in London. After the attack, he scattered the small Belgian flags across Brussels, dropped a Union Jack and a large Belgian flag at the Royal Palace in Laeken, and dropped another at the garden of his niece, the Baroness de Villegas de Saint-Pierre.
Upon his return, Longchamps was reprimanded for acting without orders and demoted to pilot officer. However, he was soon after awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. Some resistance sources claimed a death toll as high as thirty, while the Nazis admitted four fatalities and five serious injuries. A bust near the site commemorates Longchamps’ actions.
