BELGIAN TROOPS' FIRST BIG REVENGE
1940 DEBT WIPED OUT
Bourg Leopold Barrack Town Recaptured
Rec. 12.30 p.m.
LONDON, Sept. 12
Belgian troops with the British Second Army to-day captured Bourg Leopold, which was by-passed in the drive northwards. The British United Press correspondent, cabling from Bourg Leopold, says the Belgian Army had its first big revenge when it captured this town. It was here that the Belgian Army in 1940 fought heroically to retain one of the defensive outposts of the Albert Canal line. Belgian troops were rushed up in three days from France so that they could participate ill the recapture of Bourg Leopold, which before the war was one of the main training centres of the Belgian Army and which the Germans converted into a similar centre. All that is now left of Bourg Leopold's barracks are acres of shattered brickwork. A Belgian staff officer said: "The Germans holding the barracks area, which was the scene of the main fighting, includes infantry, paratroops, artillery and old and young soldiers. It helped us that numbers of our troops were not only trained at Bourg Leopold but fought for the defence of the town in iS 4O -" The Belgians began attacking the town on Sunday after British armoured forces had by-passed it. The Germans held on to the southern fringe of the barracks until yesterday afternoon, when the Belgians stormed into some buildings and ousted the Germans. British Capture Hechtel The British captured the village of Hechtel, north of the Albert Canal, and took prisoner 400 Germans, says, Reuters. "We had to take threequarters of the village, house after house, before the Germans yielded, | he stated. "They withstood streams of tank shells yesterday. "A British officer describing the fight said, 'They Avouldn't give in, so we began blotting out the houses. When one house collapsed under our fire, they scuttled into the next house. It was a process of extermination,' this officer said. "One British tankman got close enough to hear a German soldier babbling in the heat of battle: I want to die for Hitler, I want to die for Hitler ' and the tankman saw that he did." British infantry who won and held the northern bridgehead across the Albert Canal at Gheel have done one of the finest jobs of the campaign in the west. The Germans thought the British crossing was the main thrust, so they attacked furiously for 48 hours. The British yesterday, with tenacity and tremendous endurance, held 16 different counter-attacks. German artillery hurled round after round against yhe bridge and sank it, but the British fished it from the water and repaired the \vhole section before the Germans could exploit the situation. Many battalions of German infantry, with some supporting Tiger tanks, threw themselves against the British in waves. These were desperate suicidal tactics. For instance, 50 Germans with a number of tanks attacked a machine-gun post. British gunners mowed down 30 Germans, took prisoner 16 and knocked out five tanks.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 5
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497BELGIAN TROOPS' FIRST BIG REVENGE Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 5
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