Belgium Rendez-Vous 127 - Revisited: Anne Brusselmans, M.B.E. -- Resistance, World War II - Softcover

Daley-Brusselmans, Yvonne; Brusselmans, Yvonne Daley

9780897452557: Belgium Rendez-Vous 127 - Revisited: Anne Brusselmans, M.B.E. -- Resistance, World War II

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897452550 ISBN 13: 9780897452557

Publisher: Sunflower University Press, 2001

...The Juggernaut rolled into Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg....On May 10, 1940, little Belgium, not much larger than New Hampshire but the most densely populated country in Europe, was ground under the wheels of the conquerors....For the second time within a quarter of a century the Germans took over the administration of the country....Belgium was bent but not broken.

– Francis Trevelyan Miller, History of World War II

Anne Brusselmans was recruited in 1940 to help British soldiers trying to evade capture by the German army. She was credited with helping some 130 U.S. and Allied airmen during the war. Long after, a Wall Street Journal article dated January 2, 1987, stated:

When America needed Anne Brusselmans, she was there....She helped run the "Comet Escape Line," an underground railroad that spirited pilots downed in German-occupied Belgium back to England.

Once involved, states Ralph K. Patton of the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society, Brusselmans became totally immersed in aiding those fleeing the Nazi conquerors.

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Early on the morning of May 10th, 1940, Yvonne Daley-Brusselmans -- Anne's daughter -- says the family heard planes overhead. At first they thought nothing much of it -- perhaps it was just a routine Belgian Air Force exercise. Glancing up, however, they could see the ominous German swastika painted on the tail of each plane. "This was not an exercise," Yvonne states, "this was war."

Not long after the German invasion, a knock on the door changed the Brusselmans' lives forever. Anne, half English and fluent in the language, was asked to translate BBC news broadcasts from London, which would be clandestinely distributed to Belgian patriots. A few weeks later, she was asked to help hide the Allied airmen who had been shot down.

The entire Brusselmans family was placed at risk with this new venture, over four very long and dangerous years. During this time, Anne Brusselmans could not feel safe, half expecting the Gestapo to call at any time, always looking to see if she was being followed. For her outstanding bravery, she was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm Leaf, along with other medals and official honors.

This is a story of resourcefulness and plain old-fashioned "guts," as told by an adoring daughter who was but a youngster while her mother was defying the Gestapo.

-- Ralph K. Patton

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Author Yvonne Daley-Brusselmans spent the four years of World War II in Brussels under German occupation, while her mother, Anne Brusselmans, an unassuming, matronly mother of two, worked tirelessly in the patriotic but dangerous Belgian Underground.

After graduation from college with a degree in education, Yvonne worked in the European Office of the Air Research and Development Command of the U.S. Air Force, at the Embassy in Brussels. She subsequently worked as an administrative assistant to the Hughes Aircraft Company representative in Brussels, and then for Shulton, Inc., also in Brussels.

Her husband, Ian Daley, served in the Royal Air Force for 26 years, after which he joined Her Majesty's Foreign Service. The Daleys left Great Britain for a post at the British Embassy in Paris, then went to Brussels to the European Commission with Lord Soames. Yvonne became an Assistant Teacher at the Common Market School in Brussels.

Following her husband's death, Yvonne Daley-Brusselmans emigrated to Canada first, and eventually to the United States.

She is a life member of the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society and a member of their Board of Directors, and is a Special Life Member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society. She is an Associate Member of the Order of Daedalians -- Suncoast Flight #25, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida; a member of the 8th Air Force Heritage Museum in Savannah, Georgia; and was a member of the Royal Air Force Escaping Society until her emigration to the United States.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.