Commonwealth War Graves Wilsele

The Communal Cemetery of Wilsele contains the graves of 45 Commonwealth servicemen, All these graves are from World War II. Remarkable is that all casualties died in May, on several days and in two different years, 1940 and 1944. There are British and Canadian graves.

Almost all graves, except two from the 'Grenadier Guards' are from the 'Coldstream Guards' that fought a heavy combat in May 1940 in the area around Wilsele and Leuven. After heavy fights between the Germans and the British, the British left the area around the end off May 1940. The area was thereby occupied by the Germans.

All fourteen graves from 1944 are from May 12th 1944, when the British 'Bomber Command' flew a raid over Leuven to bomb the crossroads around Leuven. During this mission with 126 Lancasters and 6 Mosquito's, four Lancasters got lost. Two of these Lancasters crashed in Wilsele, probably due a mid-air collision between the two Lancasters. There were no survivors, these crewmembers are buried on this churchyard. Of the other two Lancasters, the first one was shot down in Holland on the way to Leuven, all these crewmembers are buried on the cemetery in Aardenburg. The Fourth Lancaster crashed in Leuven, the crewmembers of this Lancaster are buried on the communal cemetery of Leuven.

The graves lie on the end of the cemetery against two walls.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: Luc van Waeyenberge