Dennis Abbott, journalist, author, and Chair of the Royal British Legion (RBL) in Brussels, led a discussion of the ebook version of George Beeston's book. The book focuses on the adventures and misadventures of a young Belgian man, the son of an Englishman and a Belgian mother.
Olivier d'Olne, the Administrator of the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes, gave an excellent presentation of their newly published La Guerre Secrete 1940-1945, a history of the Belgians who were recruited, trained, equipped, and infiltrated into occupied Belgium from England during World War Two. Their mission was to link up with the various...
Members gathered for our annual Christmas season dinner at the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes in Ixelles. Chairperson William Bache presented the books nominated for the 2026 season. Additional books were also nominated from the floor. Volunteers were identified to serve as discussion leaders. Some historical site visit opportunities were...
Gerald Loftus led the discussion about one of the successful aspects of the Dutch Resistance to the Nazi Occupation, 1940-1945. The resistance was desperate to find financial support for thousands of demobilized Dutch soldiers and workers hiding from officals who wanted to deport them for forced labour in Germany, for the families of merchant...
A presentation by Marc Audrit, the author. Immediately upon the fall of Belgium on May 10, 1940, the Gestapo commandeered Résidence Belvédère, a luxurious Art Deco apartment building located at 453 Avenue Louise in Brussels, as its headquarters, and tortured prisoners in its cellars. Pilot Longchamps had devised a plan to strafe the building...
Florian Babusiaux shared the Belgian experience in preparing for stay behind operations to resist a possible Soviet invasion, rescue downed Allied pilots, and conduct guerrilla warfare during the Cold War era. His presentation was in English and included a Q&A Session. He was happy to sign autographed copies of his book.
Jerry Loftus introduced us to the full story of Josephine Baker's wartime and intelligence work in France and North Africa. Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906–1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out, she decided not to return to...
Dennis Abbot led our discussion of this fascinating book. Review by MICHIKO KAKUTANI, A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, New York Times, 1 Sep 1998. "Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is frequently read as an allegorical or Freudian parable, while its murderous hero, Kurtz -- the renegade white trader, who lives deep in the...
William Bache gave an outline of Sven Lindqvist's Exterminate All The Brutes. The book is a good introduction to how European powers used Darwinian natural selection theories and scientific racism to justify slavery and their global imperial ambitions. The imperial powers were successful due to advances in firepower coupled with the ability of...
Trip DuBard told the story of Helene, a young "Aryan looking" daughter of German Jewish refugees living in the Ixelles area of Brussels. The resistance movement recruited her to work inside the Gestapo secret police headquarters, 453 Avenue Louise, Brussels. She was able to copy the nightly "black" lists of Jews and resistance members targeted for...
Christina Bache engaged in an exciting book discussion with the author, Gwen Strauss. The Nine follows the true story of the author's great-aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female Dutch and French resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced-labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany...
Retired USAF Lt. Colonel and C-130 pilot Chuck Steiner led our book discussion at our Christmas season luncheon at the Club Prince Albert. Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler's doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes you...
William Bache led our discussion of how British intelligence secretly used homing pigeons in a clandestine espionage operation to gather information about German units and logistics, and to communicate with the Belgian resistance during World War II. The British dropped 16,000 pigeons across Nazi-occupied Europe as part of Operation Columba....