A Belgian Independent
Parachute Company was officially founded at
Malvern Wells (
Worcestershire) on 8 May 1942 by
Henri Rolin, the then-Belgian undersecretary for defense. It comprised the following: • A Company, 2nd Battalion Belgian
Fusiliers, a Battalion mainly made up of Belgian volunteers from
South and North America organised after January 1941, who moved to Great Britain in June 1941. A Company as a whole volunteered in February 1942 to train as an Independent Parachute Company under Lt. Freddy Limbosch as Chief Instructor. • A platoon of the 1st Battalion Belgian Fusiliers with some qualified parachutists (since January 1942). • Volunteers from other Belgian Forces units who had escaped occupied
Belgium via France, Spain and
Gibraltar. The newly formed Company continued to train as an Independent Parachute Company, making extensive use of the schools and training facilities offered by the British (the first
Parachutists wings worn by Belgians were earned at
Ringway parachute school in early 1942). The unit was attached for 3 months to the
8th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division in 1943, then spent a month in intensive training in December 1943 at the Allied Training Centre Inverlochy Castle (Fort William), and finally in February 1944, at Loudon Castle Camp, near
Galston (
Ayrshire) joining the Special Air Service (S.A.S.) Brigade. Like all military units and formations the men came from all walks of life. The volunteers included a former world cycling champion, lawyers, farmers, labourers, lumberjacks, a circus acrobat, a professional wrestler and three
barons. The commanding officer was a qualified engineer and dentist. The men who volunteered came from across the world to fight
Nazis. Not all of them could even speak the same language. Some spoke French, some
Dutch and others only English. These differences of upbringing, class, lifestyle and even language might have seemed problematic, but
esprit de corps developed within the unit. The role of the Belgian SAS parachutists during the Second World War was primarily
sabotage,
intelligence and
reconnaissance. The men saw their first action towards the end of July 1944 in France. During the
Ardennes offensive the unit was regrouped and equipped with armoured jeeps. As a reconnaissance squadron, they executed security and reconnaissance missions in support of the 6th British Airborne Division. They did so during the
Battle of Bure. In 1945 they were used for counter-intelligence work that involved the location and arrest of top-ranking Nazis and
war criminals. In the beginning of April 1945 the Belgian SAS Squadron consisted of three reconnaissance squads that deployed in the north of the Netherlands and in Germany. After the capitulation of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945 the Belgian SAS participated in 'Counter Intelligence' missions in Germany and Denmark. At the end of the war the Belgian SAS Regiment was the first Allied unit to set foot in Belgium and Germany, and the only Belgian unit permanently on active deployment between July 1944 and May 1945. They took part in the capture of
Admiral Doenitz and the government he now led in
Flensburg, the German Foreign minister
Ribbentrop, and other senior Nazis. ==Insignia==