The Belgian Pilot who attacked the Gestapo in Brussels

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 to raise the morale of occupied Belgians, but the RAF command repeatedly declined it. On 20 January 1943, Longchamps completed an approved railway strafing mission over Ghent, then ordered his wingman (flight sergeant André Blanco) back to base and set out, without approval, for Brussels, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the south-east.

Longchamps first flew his Typhoon down the Avenue Louise to make a high-speed pass of the target building, reportedly to have the roar of the Napier Sabre engine draw Gestapo personnel to the unprotected windows. Using the ample manoeuvering space above the Bois de la Cambre, he then turned to the Avenue de la Nation, using it as a low-level attack path. He continued through the left turn of the connecting Avenue Emile De Mot to an unobstructed and fairly frontal firing position with little risk of collateral damage. He then raked the target with his four 20 mm Hispano autocannons, resulting in the death of SS-Obersturmführer Werner Vogt of the SiPo, SS-Sturmbannführer Alfred Thomas, head of Abteilung III of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Belgium, a high-ranking Gestapo officer named Müller, and others.