Memorials Foy-Notre-Dame

There are 2 memorials on the wall of the Foy-Notre-Dame cemetery.

A memorial stone was placed to the left of the entrance in 2019.
In December 1944, the advancing, last German division was stopped in Foy Notre-Dame during the Ardennes offensive. By providing information to the Allies about the occupying forces' positions, the church was saved from the devastating violence of war.

"Commemoration 75 years

On the snowy night of December 23, 1944,
after a long camouflaged march that led to Foy-Notre-Dame, .

Baron Jacques de Villenfagne de Sorinnes (captain-commander)

and Viscount Philippe le Hardy de Beaulieu
(both members of the secret army)

contributed to stopping the German von Rundstedt offensive.
Thanks to their visual maps, passed on to the Allies, the English and American artillery were able to bomb a column of tanks and infantry on December 24, 1944 (2nd Armored Division, 40 tanks and 840 vehicles were destroyed)

The Church of Foy-Notre-Dame was spared by the information provided by the two observers.

After the war, the commanders of the two enemy camps involved had the opportunity to warmly shake hands as a sign of newfound peace.

Villenfagne Family Association 2019
Hardy de Beaulieu House"

To the right of the entrance hangs a copper, beautifully decorated memorial plaque:

"The teachers of the canton of Dinant
and the residents of the municipality of Foy-N-D.
To their colleague and teacher
JOSEPH DESKOEUVRE
Tortured by the Germans
August 16, 1914"

In August 2017, this memorial plaque was hung for Joseph DESKŒUVRE.
He was a former village teacher who was mistaken for a sniper by the Germans after a hunting weapon was found in his house.
In 1923 a memorial plaque was made in his honor, but it later disappeared for some unknown reason. Years later, the plate was found by chance in the municipal workshop. Like other memorial plaques, it was restored in 2014 by students from the Technical Institute of the French Community.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck