Ambassador Charlie Stuart who is an ex-UK soldier will present Hold at all Costs to the Belgium Battles and Books Club. The research for his book is based study of military records, and importantly validated his terrain walks to better understand how American and German soldiers were able to survive and fight in the bitterest of snowy winters....
Review of our 2026 books and book recommendations for 2027. Annual Holiday Season dinner at the home of the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes in Brussels. Possible "Resistance Cafe" event.
There are many observances of Armistice Day in Belgium, but perhaps the most moving takes place at the Menin Gate in Ypres, western Belgium. This is one of the places where hundreds of thousands of American, Belgian, British, Commonwealth, French, and German troops were slaughtered in four years of trench warfare under the worst of conditions. We...
Historian Joseph Schram will lead our discussion of Attack on the Scheldt 1944, by Graham A. Thomas, which is about a brutal, five-week Allied campaign to clear German forces from the Scheldt estuary, unlocking the vital port of Antwerp. Led by the First Canadian Army, alongside British and Polish troops, the grueling operation involved fighting...
Judi Nicolay will lead our discussion of Diana Souhami's biography, Edith Cavell, which follows the life of the British nurse who became a world-renowned symbol of humanitarian courage during World War I. She moved to Brussels to lead a "ramshackle" hospital, which she transformed into a model training school for nurses. When WWI began in 1914,...
Battles and Books members are invited to attend the annual Tank Ceremony of the Royal British Legion, Antwerp Chapter, at the Cromwell Tank, on Jan Van Rijswijcklaan (opposite Antwerp Expo), on the afternoon of Saturday, 5 September, at 1330 - 1445. RSVP Antwerp.Secretary@rbl.community by 28 August 2026.
``William Bache presented the Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman's great history of how a war between European royals and their empires started and morphed into a world war. Why mass mobilization, nationalism, military doctrine, political alliances, new technologies and railroads facilitated a transition to military violence that lasted for four years...
Rainer Hiltermann led a tour of fifteen Book club members in which he shared his period photographs of Brussels under German military occupation during the First World War. Most instructive was the closing off of the area stretching from the Royal Palace, Parc Royale and Grand Assembly. The area was a No Go zone for Belgians, who could...
Eric Padgett led a very interesting discussion of The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, by Peter Englund. His non-fiction work tells the story of World War I through the personal experiences of 20 ordinary individuals—soldiers, nurses, and civilians—from various nations. It explores the war as a human experience...
After the excellent three-course meal in the Bistromy Dinning Room, the Battles and Books members adjourned to the Wasteels bar of the Club Prince Albert, for informal social time with Helen Fry. All-in-all it was a great event. Shown in the photograph is Helen Fry with the Battles and Books Co-Chairs, Dr. Christina Bache and Colonel William Bache...
After inspiring story telling by author Helen Fry about the Belgians that organized and operated a World War II Evasion and Escape networks for downed allied pilots during World War Two, we had her as our luncheon guest. The venue was the Bistromy dinning room of the Club Prince Albert. Twenty-five members and guests, spread out over four tables...
Helen Fry one of the recognized expert on the full spectrum of British intelligence activities and the anti-Nazi role of the Belgian resistance during World War II. She presented her latest book, MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two to a rousing large group of followers. Her marvelous book tells the stories...