Hero's walk WWI and WWII Marktplein

The Heroes' Walk in Ingelmunster tells the story of several freedom fighters with a striking story from one of the world wars via various locations.
Along the route, which is just over 4 km long, you will stop at nine facades. The memorial plaques always have a QR code with which you can read the extensive stories of all the heroes.

On the information canopy on the market square there is a memorial plaque for ARTHUR (1885-1980) and REGINA (1920-1983) PIETERS. This used to be the Kerkstraatje where the Pieters family lived.

In the brochure "Heldenwandeling WOI en WOII", published by the municipal council of Ingelmunster, Kurt Windels, we find the following information:

"Arthur Pieters' family was very anti-German during the First World War. When the German occupier demanded girls to work in the sewing workshops in 1916, his sisters refused. As punishment, they were arrested together with their mother and taken to Balen-Neet. Arthur suffered the same fate and was sent to a camp in Hooglede together with several residents, where he had the gruesome task of burying the dead or caring for the seriously injured.
During an artillery bombardment, he was able to escape and fled via the Netherlands to Great Britain, where he joined the Belgian army

Regina worked as an intelligence agent with the group ‘Gone’ from August 1940. She collected information for the English about troop movements in West Flanders, among other things. At the end of 1942, the German army was able to dismantle part of the network and Regina was forced to go into hiding.
When the danger had passed, she returned and was given an assignment with the Intelligence Services of ‘Luc-Marc’. The group ‘Gone’ had been disbanded.
Regina Pieters was arrested in October 1943. She ended up with the Gestapo and became a ‘Nacht-und-Nebel prisoner’, doomed to disappear without leaving any traces. She ended up in various camps in Poland and Bavaria. Regina, together with Georges Busscher and Wilhelmina Eeckhout, two other resistance fighters and political prisoners, were given a big party ‘in honour of their happy homecoming’. George Busscher was arrested in July 1943 for spreading anti-German propaganda, Wilhelmina was arrested in January 1943 for espionage and subversive activities.
At the liberation, Regina met her husband André Houyoux who had followed a similar path in the intelligence service."

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Wim Wouters (1, 2), Marie-Christine Vinck (3)