24 Dec 1944

Belgium
  • At the village of Bande some thirty SS personnel rounded up some seventy male Belgian civilians as they left a mass at the village church. Those between the ages of seventeen and thirty-one were taken to a nearby sawmill, interrogated and taken outside and shot. One survivor, 21-year-old Léon Praile, managed to escape, but when the village was ultimately liberated by British paratroopers a false rumour accused Praile of escaping death by betraying his comrades. Praile was forced to flee from the region and would never return. ww2dbase [Bande, Luxembourg | AC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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USAAF 3rd Bomb Group photographer Norm Nelson in his tent, Nadzab Airfield, Australian New Guinea, early 1944

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