Walloon war cemetery and Royal British Legion celebrate Belgium’s Liberation Day on Sunday

The ravages of World War Two scarred communities across Belgium, including the small village of Hotton in the Ardennes.

From casualties incurred following the German invasion of May 1940 to airmen shot down when returning from bombing raids and the bloody Battle of the Bulge, the rural village is indelibly marked by the five-year conflict.

Hotton’s War Cemetery is a Commonwealth burial ground filled with the graves of the fallen, principally from the final German counter-offensive during the bitter winter of 1944 to 1945.

Each year, on the first Sunday of May, a commemoration is held at the cemetery, a collaboration between the Royal British Legion, the Walloon municipality and veterans.

They come together, not to commemorate the Battle of the Ardennes, but to celebrate what Frédéric Antoine from the local branch of the Fédération Royale Nationale des Combattants calls “a more joyous occasion” for Belgium… Liberation Day. This was the momentous day on 8 May 1945 when the country was finally liberated from Nazi occupation.

As part of the commemorations this year there will be a bilingual mass at Hotton Church, starting at 9.45, led by Père Herman Kusola and Reverend Canon John Wilkinson, chaplain of the Royal British Legion Brussels branch. It will be followed by an RBL commemoration starting at 11.45.

The two services in Hotton also honour the 55,000 British and Commonwealth troops who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. 

Hotton, located in the province of Luxembourg and lying on the River Ourthe, was a crucial battleground for this final offensive of the war which besieged the nearby town of Bastogne. This was where American troops, joined by British soldiers, fought intensely to halt the German’s surprise onslaught.

It was in January 1945 that Hotton was liberated. The village dug mass graves to bury soldiers from the battles that had taken place in the region. A hill between the villages of Hotton and Menil-Favay was chosen for the burial ground.

The cemetery consists of 666 graves: 340 soldiers, 325 airmen and 1 war correspondent. There are 526 British, 88 Canadian, 41 Australian, 10 New Zealander and 1 Polish laid to rest there.

As the years passed, the cemetery has evolved. The wooden crosses replaced by headstones and two memorial pavilions erected. One of them houses a register of all of the soldiers’ names.

It also now features the Cross of Sacrifice, a large stone cross with an inverted bronze sword, found in almost all cemeteries with more than 40 graves.

Since 1978, a gardener sent from the UK, Jimmy Short, has also been buried at the back of the cemetery (667th plot).

Attracting thousands of people every year, there are some interesting burials at the cemetery. They include Major Ronald Cartland, MP and brother of English romance novelist Barbara Cartland (also Princess Diana’s step-grandmother), war correspondent Peter Lawless MC, grandfather of 'Birdsong' author Sebastian Faulks, and Private Robert Nott, from Brussels, who served with the Welch Regiment.

The cemetery dedicated principally to Commonwealth casualties of the Battle of the Bulge serves as a reminder of their lesser-known sacrifice.

Dennis Abbott, chair of the Brussels branch of the RBL, explained: “While the US accounted for the bulk of the Allied forces in the Battle of the Bulge, with around 600,000 American troops engaged, films, TV series and books have tended to overlook the significant contribution of British and Commonwealth forces.”

He added: “For example, the 13th Lancashire Parachute Battalion, supported by the Belgian SAS, won a notable victory at the Battle of Bure in early January 1945.”

Films based on the bloody offensive include 1965's Battle of the Bulge starring Henry Fonda and Robert Shaw and TV series such as Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers starring Tom Hanks, based on the book of the same name by Steven E Ambrose.

For more information about the liberation of Brussels and the final WWII battles in Belgium, read this article about the country’s race to freedom.

For more information about the Battle of the Bulge, read this article about the bloodiest conflict of World War Two, A battle too far.

Photos: (main image) LIberation Belgium ©Belga Archives; Hotton war cemetery ©Les Meloures - Archive les Meloures/Commons Wikimedia; Citizens celebrate the liberation of Brussels in September 1944 ©Belga Archives; Cross of Sacrifice ©Juegopasivo/Commons Wikimedia; Sign of Bastogne ©US Army Nara; Bastogne War Museum