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Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.  
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.   

 

Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

Cemetery details

Where?
Martelarenplein, 9800 Vinkt (Sint-Bartholomeuskerk)
 
View on map

History

The small West Flanders village of Vinkt experiences very poignant events during the early days of the Second World War. 
During the last battle of the Eighteen-Day Campaign in May 1940 the Germans are under heavy Belgian artillery fire on the River Lys. The Ardennes Chasseurs do not give in easily, even though they are fighting in what is to them quite unfamiliar territory. 
The Germans feel threatened and think civilians have taken up arms. They therefore take hostages and execute some of them. When Belgian artillery fires on the village, shells hit the huddled groups. The war then claims the lives of more than 100 civilians. 
After the war a monument and a commemorative plot are designed. The crosses in the plot mention the names of the victims. The fallen soldiers are also given a simple plot of honour with concrete crosses. They lie alongside the large plot of honour, and seem to be mere spectators of one of the blackest days of the war.

 

Casualties

5 Second World War