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of the secret “Belgian Legion”), François De Kinder of intelligence network “Zéro” (and brother in law of the Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot). During the meeting they prepared a plan to strengthen resistance activities in Belgium. François De Kinder secretly left Belgium and presented the plan to Hubert Pierlot in London.

The Belgian government-in-exile decided to begin military resistance in their homeland. Colonel Bastin was assigned to group all existing movements and activities in cooperation with British SOE and the 2nd Direction (Ministry of Defense) and began reorganizing the Belgian Legion in accordance with orders he received from London.

Jean del Marmol became the Chief of Staff of the new Army of Belgium. In 1943 the Army of Belgium increased its resistance activities, cooperating with the Liberation Army under Pierre Clerdent and the White Brigade under Lieutenant Louette, which was very active in the Antwerp area. Responding to many arrests in the spring of 1943, among them Colonel Bastin, Lieutenant General Pire (alias “Pygmalion) was assigned by London to take over command of the organization. Colonel Bastin was deported to Germany and died in Gross Strehlitz camp on December 1, 1944.

Jean del Marmol was also involved in financing the Army of Belgium. He was able to contact the Secretary-General of Finance and they managed to exploit accounting errors to free 90 million Belgian Francs for the resistance, which was distributed to the five zone commanders.

Operation TROJAN HORSE was set up in cooperation with SOE to prepare for military activities following D-Day. To implement the operation several agents were dropped into occupied Belgium. Between March and June 1944, 769 containers were dropped for the Army of Belgium and several sabotage instructors, organizers and wireless/telegraph operators were sent to coordinate the activities with SHAEF. The strength of the Army of Belgium was raised to 50,000 members.7

Jean del Marmol later joined the Group Brumagne of the Secret Army and took part in the operations to liberate the strategically important port of Antwerp. Lieutenant del Marmol served as a liaison officer between the headquarters of the “Secret Army” and the local resistance groups under the command of Lieutenant Urbain Reniers, who was also awarded the Silver Star for his gallantry at Antwerp.

Awards presented to Jean del Marmol:

Commander of the Order of Leopold II with PalmCroix de Guerre 1940 with Palm Armed Resistance MedalWorld War II Commemorative Medal Silver Star (United States)Military Cross (Great Britain)

Table 2 lists the Belgians who received the Silver Silver Star for their efforts to the Office of Strategic Services.

Table 2: List of Belgians who received the Silver Star for assisting the Office of Strategic Services.

12 JOMSA

Figure 10: Lieutenant Paul J. L’Hoest.

Eighteen Belgian officers, among them Lieutenant General Beernaert, Inspector General of the Troops, and Lieutenant General Baron Victor J.C. van Strydonck de Burkel, Chief of the Belgian Military Mission to SHAEF, received American awards on October 3, 1945 (Figure 11). Léon Mundeleer (Minister of Defence), Adrien van den Branden de Reeth (Minister of War Victims) and Joseph Van de Meulebroeck (Mayor of Brussels), congratulated the recipients during the ceremony led by General Paul Williard Stewart, Deputy Chief of Staff

for Personnel, G-1, SHAEF. Generals Beernaert and de Burkel were awarded the Legion of Merit, Degree of Commander.

The Silver Star to the Belgians were presented “for gallantry in action while serving with the Office of Strategic Services, as members of a special mission that contributed greatly to its success by their rare courage, initiative and whole-hearted cooperation, thereby reflecting the highest credit upon themselves and the Allied Forces.”12 All of the officers were part of the Sûreté de l’Etat (Belgian State Security) or the 2nd Direction, Belgian Army. The OSS also recommended that the Legion of Merit be awarded to Colonel Paul Bihin (Administrator of Belgian State Security) and Lieutenant Colonel René Mampuys (2nd Direction, Belgian Army), and that the Bronze Star Medal be awarded to 2nd Lieutenant André Bayet, Oscar J.M. Berckmans, 2nd Lieutenant F. Cannoot, 2nd Lieutenant P. Carton de Wiart, Lieutenant Th. d’Oultremont, Lieutenant F. Flour, Lieutenant M.H.M. Goossens and Lieutenant A. Pauly.13

Emile J.E. Van Dyck

Emile Van Dyck joined the Belgian Army, 6th Régiment de Ligne, on January 3, 1939 and was promoted Sergeant on the day that the Germany attacked Belgium. During

Figure 11: E. Van Dyck, J. Smets and A. Blontrock receiving their Silver Stars.

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the occupation he decided to leave his country (October 21, 1941). He tried to escape via the Pyrenees, but was captured. After being released from imprisonment in Montauban (France), Barcelona, Lérida, Saragossa, and Miranda (a total of 473 days in Spain), he arrived in the United Kingdom on June 6, 1943. In order to prepare for his SOE-related activities he became a member of the 2nd Direction (Compagnie des Subsistants) on August 23, 1943 (Figure 12).14

Agent Emile, SOE agent Henri Neuman (co-founder of Group “G”), and a British agent landed successfully in the area of Basècles, Province of Hainaut, on February 8, 1944.15 The purpose of the mission was to make contact with the Belgian National Movement (BNM) to provide the resistance organization with directives from the Belgian authorities in London, Political Warfare Executive, and to establish a propaganda distribution network in East and West Flanders. He was also asked to find suitable landing areas for the propaganda materials. Unfortunately, due to arrests among the BNM, the mission was not successful. Emile left Brussels on April 12, 1944, crossed the Belgian-French frontier at Menin, took the train to Paris via Tourcoing and Lille. He obtained a French identification card in Paris and was sent to Toulouse on April 28th. He arrived in Carcassonne and stayed at Estagel (region Languedoc-Roussillon) until May 8th. While he was at Estagel, the police raided his house but, fortunately, he escaped via the roof. He left the next day for Perpignan and then went to Ria (northern

Spain) where he met his guides. They started their journey on May 10th, arriving at Ripoll two days later. At Ripoll Emile was met by the Barcelona British Consul and was sent to Madrid on May 20th, to Gibraltar on May 22nd, and arrived in the United Kingdom on May 25, 1944.

He volunteered for a second intelligence mission to Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany on November 10, 1944. Captain Van Dyck and agent François Flour were dropped again for a paramilitary intelligence mission for the Counter Intelligence Corps (mission PAINTER), on the night of March 20, 1945, 25km from Trostberg, Bavaria to collect military intelligence in their region, to organize local Belgian worker groups for intelligence purposes, to transmit instructions from SHAEF, and to collect information from “Wehrwolf, the Sicherheitsdienst, and NSDAP” which went into secret resistance. They carried in one container with two wireless/telegraph sets, one broadcast receiver, two batteries, acids, money, and personal belongings.

Since moving with the equipment was too difficult, they buried it in two different places and continued on by road. Arriving in Trostberg, they walked to Freiburg for their first contact, the Alexian Brothers of Malseneck. The brothers gave them some food, but could not help them further, because the adjacent house was a Hitler Jugend Center. They took the train from Kraiberg to Rosenheim and they arrived in Munich at 9 p.m., Saturday March 24th where they met their second contact, a Belgian

Figure 12: Emile J. E. Van Dyck’s military identity card.