Normandy Invasion
The D-day landings took place on 6 June 1944 without the Belgian Brigade, to the great disappointment of its 2,200 men, but the British preferred to reserve them for the liberation of Belgium. (This policy was applied to all of the smaller national military units, which were expected to form the core of their post-war armies and for whom it would have been difficult to find replacements for casualties.) Major Piron, however, lobbied the Belgian government in exile, which requested the British Government to send the Belgian troops to the front, to reverse the declining morale of those troops.
On 29 July 1944, the Belgian Brigade was ordered to be ready to move. Its first units arrived in Normandy on 30 July and the main body arrived at Arromanches and Courseulles on 8 August, before the end of the Battle of Normandy. The Brigade operated under the command of the British 6th Airborne Division (Major General Gale), which itself was part of the 1st Canadian Army. The Belgians entered active service on 9 August.
The Belgian Brigade participated in Operation Paddle from 17 August with British and Dutch (Prinses Irene Brigade) troops of the 6th Airborne Division. Merville-Franceville-Plage was liberated in the evening, Varaville on 20 August. The Brigade's armoured vehicles were detached to assist British units. Dives-sur-Mer and Cabourg were taken on the morning of 21 August and Houlgate in the afternoon. The Brigade took Villers-sur-Mer and Deauville on 22 August, and Trouville-sur-Mer and Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine on the 24th. The Belgian armoured vehicles were reunited with the rest of the Brigade on 26 August at Foulbec, when the "Piron Brigade" came under command of the British 49th Infantry Division. On 29 August, the Brigade crossed the Seine to support the attack on Le Havre on the following day. At the last moment, however, the Brigade was withdrawn from the front.
The efforts of the "Piron Brigade" on Normandy's Côte Fleurie are commemorated by memorials, road names and war graves.
Read more about this topic: 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade
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