Memorial Victims of the St.Nicolas District.

There is a monument to the victims of the neighborhood at the Saint-Nicolas church.
The monument consists of 5 memorial stones on which the names of the soldiers, civilians,
political prisoners and resistance fighters of the First and Second World Wars.

There is also a separate list of the victims of August 18, 1944.
Many bridges and railway bridges over the Maas were used by enemy convoys. To prevent the German army from supplying their troops and bringing in reinforcements and also to make a possible retreat more difficult, the Allied air forces carried out bombing raids on traffic junctions in Northern France and Belgium.
This was also the case on August 18, 1944, when the US 8th Air Force sighted seven bridges over the Maas: Yvoir-Houx, Namur, Huy, Seraing, Liège, Visé and Maastricht in the Netherlands.
Each bridge was assigned to a Bombardment Group, an armada of more than 700 bombers and 400 fighter aircraft as escort.
The bridge over the Meuse in Namur was the target of the 351st Bombardment Group from the Polebrook base in Great Britain. At around 6 p.m. the 36 bombers appeared above the city and dropped their deadly load. At least 330 people were killed, at least 600 seriously. were injured and approximately 2,000 homes were damaged.
There were also numerous victims at the other targets.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck