Gradia Militaria
WW2 Belgium PLB-Passive Air Defence (Antwerp Blitz) badge.
WW2 Belgium PLB-Passive Air Defence (Antwerp Blitz) badge.
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White metal cap or lapel badge found in a tin of wartime AFS & NFS items but on researching it discovered it to be a very interesting badge.
When “Antwerp X” was unable to stop a V1 or one of the unstoppable V2 came down, the PLB went into action.
During the 6 months in which Antwerp was under fire, the PLB stood by her and thus also kept the advance of the Allied armies on the Western Front going. Taking on this enormous challenge required major changes from the organization in a short space of time and under an increasingly heavy bombardment. In addition to an obvious increase in scale, procedures, equipment and training would also be adapted with the support of the Allied armies and experts from the British "Civil Defence". According to the latter, the situation of the Antwerp PLB could initially be compared with their own situation in Great Britain before the “Blitz”.
Veterans of that British "Blitz" came to Antwerp as volunteers in 1945.
After a request in November 1944 from Allied Headquarters S.H.A.E.F., in early January 1945 the newly established “No.1 Overseas Column” of the British Civil Defense arrived in Antwerp.The 224 volunteers included veterans of the air raids on London, Manchester, Liverpool, Plymouth and Glasgow, but they too found themselves in a new kind of hell. Hundreds of V2s had already been fired at Antwerp since October 13, one of which had caused 567 deaths just 2 weeks before their arrival at Cinema Rex, not to mention the even more numerous V1s fired. In addition to instruction for the local services, they also assisted “the city of sudden death” with blood, sweat and tears in its darkest hour. They were able to rescue hundreds of wounded civilians and soldiers from the rubble or recover those for whom help came too late.
