Parachute Memorial Menil-Favay

This monument on the rue de Maffe is a reminder of the paratroopers that took place in the area during the Second World War.

It bears the text:
"MAI / 1944
PARACHUTAGES
AUX PARTISANS DU FI
(FRONT DE L'INDÉPENDANCE)"

The purpose of the 'parachutages' was to provide the local resistance with material and resistance fighters from abroad.

The Independence Front was established in early 1942 and would have tens of thousands of members in 1943 and 1944, the resistance movement with the largest support during most of the occupation. When liberated, however, it would turn out to be a giant on clay feet, given the limited political support.

The Nazi Germany attack on the USSR on June 22, 1941 resulted in the communists now finding interlocutors.

This Walloon front united communists, Walloon militants, anti-fascist intellectuals and “Anglophiles” and formed the model for the OR that was established in some regions in late autumn 1941 – early winter 1941-1942. But it wasn't until March 1942 that the movement organized itself across the country, adopting the designation "Independence Front" everywhere to emphasize the national aspect of the struggle.

The original intention of the communists, who originated the OF and led it throughout the war, was to create an umbrella that would unite all existing groups in order to streamline the resistance against the occupier and to get him out of the country together. . But this was met with distrust.

Willem Vandenameele