There’s a plaque on the wall in the castle in Ghent, Belgium, thanking the city for the symbolic establishment of the SAS. In Belgium? The SAS? Symbolic establishment? I started digging deeper to find out what this was all about.

It all started in 1906.

Before the war

Eddy Blondeel was born on 25 January 1906 in Ghent^{1 2}. He studied languages at school and was an avid scout, becoming commissioner of scouts in Flanders³. In 1929 he enlisted as an officer in the 1st mounted artillery regiment. He returned to civilian life with the rank of “Maréchal des Logis” (Marshal of lodgings)². He enlisted 2 more times in 1932 and 1934². In 1932 he married and had two daughters¹. In 1934 he decided to study medicine and became a dentist at the University of Brussels³. He won a scholarship which took him to Chicago in 1939 ^{2 3}. He was there when World War II broke out³.

Training

Blondeel went to the Belgian embassy asking to return home to fight for his country. They sent him to Canada where he joined other expatriate Belgians. They trained with Canadian forces there. While useful, I’m sure the Belgians were worried about their loved ones and their country while they prepared for combat. He was selected to command a Belgian company³.

In 1941, the company left for Great Britain².

On 8 May 1942, Blondeel volunteered to form the Belgian Independent Parachute Company^{1 2}. They trained in use of parachutes, airborne tactics and glider training³. In 1943 they joined other SAS units in Scotland to complete their training³. The British had two SAS companies called 1 SAS and 2 SAS. The French Parachute Battalions became 3 SAS and 4 SAS. The Belgian company became 5 SAS³ with Blondeel as commander-in-chief². He gained a reputation as a popular leader with a charming and eccentric personality^{1 3}.

The war was 4 years in. Blondeel and 5 SAS had yet to see active combat. This was about to change.

5 SAS – The Belgian Battalion

During 1944 and 1945 Blondeel led SAS operations in France and Belgium, some against the orders of his own government. He even managed to visit his wife and daughters in Brussels during one operation¹.

The full list of 5 SAS missions during World War II is^{2 4}:

• Operation Chaucer in July-August 1944. 22 men parachuted into Le Mans, north-west France, where they harassed the retreating German army.
• Operation Shakespeare in July-August 1944. A small detachment parachuted into western Paris harassing retreating German troops there.
• Operations Bunyan and Trueform in August 1944. These operations targeted the western suburbs of Paris.  102 commandos targeted 12 different points in the north-west of Paris and 20 commandos infiltrated Chartres, south-west of Paris respectively. They harassed German troops retreating back to Germany.

• Operation Noah in August-September 1944. On 28 August³ 41 commandos parachuted into the French Ardennes, on the border with Belgium to reconnoitre and collect information on the enemy. Through this operation, Blondeel and his commandos became the first allied forces to enter occupied Belgium⁴. An advance party had already told allied forces not to join them because the enemy was thick on the ground³. Blondeel insisted on going because he could see the rapid change in battle³. His squadron and the local resistance were inspired by his leadership^{2 3}. Together they carried out a series of ambushes which delayed the Axis military and harassed them as they withdrew from Belgium³. For this, General Montgomery awarded him the British Distinguished Service Order (DSO)¹. The citation for the DSO recorded his squadron as being “one of the best trained and organised”³.
• Operation Benson from 28 August to 01 September 1944. 6 commandos jumped into an unspecified location in northern France. They collected information about the importance, movement and number of German troops.
• Operation Portia from September 1944 to March 1945. 7 commandos parachuted into the Drente, Holland. They collected information on enemy troops and looked at the possibility of establishing an SAS base there. At the same time Operation Fabian deployed 5 commandos in the eastern part of the Netherlands to pinpoint the location of V-2 rocket launchers.
• Operation Bergbang from 02-12 September 1944. 41 commandos parachuted into Liege-Maastricht-Aachen. This small area comprises an eastern locality in Belgium, a thin strip of the Netherlands and part of Germany. They helped local resistance efforts and cut enemy communication lines east of Meuse. Following a miscalculation, the pilot dropped some of the commandos in Germany. These commandos became the first Allied forces to enter Germany⁴.

  

• Operation Brutus on 02 September 1944. 19 commandos parachuted into south Belgium to make contact with the resistance and other members of 5 SAS, perhaps from Operation Noah.
• Operation Regent from 20 December 1944 to 14 January 1945. The whole of 5 SAS joined British troops to hold back the German push at the Battle of the Bulge. Blondeel commanded armed jeeps to reconnoitre south-central Belgium. 5 SAS played a decisive role in the Allied advance towards Germany².
• Operation Larkswood from April-May 1945. As they progressed into Holland, 2 squadrons of commandos conducted reconnaissance for the Allies.

After the liberation of Brussels, 5 SAS performed ground operations and counter-intelligence missions in the Low countries and Germany³. They arrested Nazi war criminals, and went to Denmark to hunt Nazis⁴. They arrested Von Ribbentrop in Hannover^{3 4}. By the end of the war, Blondeel had reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel².

After the war

Blondeel returned to work in Belgium³. Despite being a civilian, he worked hard to make sure the SAS spirit he built up in 5 SAS didn’t go to waste. The British faced problems re-forming the SAS after the war. Blondeel faced larger problems in a smaller country. He opened up a school for paratroopers in Schaffen, east of Brussels in 1947². He set up the Belgian SAS Regiment association and was its President for his whole life³.

For his heroic work, Blondeel added many decorations to his DSO.

On 23 May 2000, at the age of 94, Eddy Blondeel died in Brussels^{1 2}.

Ghent

The plaque in Ghent castle is in Flemish and reads:

Thanks to the city of Ghent for the symbolic establishment in this historic place of the 1st Reg Paratroopers SAS.

We know 5 SAS was not established in Ghent but we do know Blondeel was born there. Since he led the commandos and inspired them to great heights, I would argue that 5 SAS existed the way it did because of him. Since he grew up in Ghent I would also argue Ghent is where 5 SAS started.

I like to think this is the significance behind this plaque.

If you have any more information about the Belgian SAS, Blondeel or this plaque please let me know.

 

Share this with someone who loves war stories!

References

1. Blondeel, Edouard “Eddy”; Traces of War; (Retrieved 2018-09-22) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Eddy Blondeel (1906-2000), founder of the 1st Belgian SAS paratrooper regiment; Xavier Riaud; Histoire Medecine; (Retrieved 2018-09-22) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Lieutenant-Colonel Eddy Blondeel; The Telegraph; 2000-05-29[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
4. The 5 SAS Souvenir Group; (Retrieved 2018-10-01) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.