Lancaster - Lancaster Memorial

"Do forgive but do not forget": these words are mostly mentioned every time a war memorial is inaugurated to recall one of so many cruel or heroic events during World War 2. The construction of a memorial monument, after exactly sixty years, for fourteen young men, (thirteen of them lost their lives when their two Lancaster bombers were shot down) is a proof that this sentence is not an empty slogan.
Shortly after this tragic night, our local Dr Delvaux expressed the wish in his diaries to build a monument to honour these brave heroes and this commitment stayed alive in the minds and hearts of many local citizens over all these years.

In almost every village war memorials in memory of so many dead Luxembourg soldiers were inaugurated. Here, in Weiswampach too, a memorial for American soldiers who died fighting here nearby- during the Battle of the Bulge- was built.

Finally, under the impulse of a few men, who at that time were children or youngsters, a committee was formed and spontaneously the inhabitants of our community participated in financing this noble project. It should be pointed out that not only elder inhabitants helped to fulfil this commitment, but a handful of young people, most of them family fathers, born many years after the end of the war were the dynamic engine in the realisation of this great project.

By working out this project the events of this most fearful-night were recalled to mind again and again. In that night all the inhabitants stood outside their houses and they could only anticipate in fear and tears what was to happen in these horrendous scenes of lightning and thunder up in the sky above their heads during these air fights. Most of them realized only later that young men from England, Canada and New Zealand had died in the fields outside for our freedom and liberty when their planes crashed .

Imagine the pain of these young men’s families, when they were told that their beloved ones had died in a remote field somewhere in the Ardennes. Imagine young local men from here being sent to New Zealand to risk their lives down under, the most distant place on earth from home, to stop a horrible dictator attempting to dominate the world.

Maybe, one day, family members of these heroes will pass here by this memorial place , they will see the grateful gesture of the local people and read the names of their family members . Then they will let their eyes roam over these peaceful hills, they will see all these people passing from one country to another without fear, without any risk of oppression, or even arrest. Many of them will not even realize that they are crossing democratic nation borders. We believe that these families will recognize that the sacrifice of their beloved ones was not in vain. When you come to this place one day, stay for a while, sit down near the chapel, maybe for a short prayer in deep gratitude to these heroes.