Jean de Selys Longchamps

Jean de Selys Longchamps was a Belgian aristocrat and aviator who became notable during World War II for a daring solo raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Aalst (Alost), occupied Belgium. A former member of the Belgian Army who escaped occupied Belgium to join the Royal Air Force, he achieved fame for his attack on collaborationist targets and was later captured and executed by German authorities.

Early life and family

Born in Brussels into a noble family linked to the Belgian nobility and the social circles of Belgian monarchy, he was educated amid connections to institutions such as the Royal Military Academy and the aristocratic salons associated with King Leopold III and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. His family maintained ties to prominent Belgian municipalities including Ixelles and Schaerbeek, and to European houses found in France, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Early influences included the aftermath of First World War reconstruction, the interwar politics shaped by parties like the Catholic Party and the Belgian Labour Party, and international developments such as the Treaty of Versailles and the rise of regimes in Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Military career

Initially commissioned in the Belgian Army, he served within formations influenced by doctrines from the French Army and staff contacts with the British Army prior to the Battle of Belgium. Following the invasion of Belgium and the collapse of the Western Front, he evacuated via routes used by exiles to France and then to Britain, joining other Belgian expatriates in the Free Belgian Forces and integrating into the Royal Air Force framework at bases linked to commands such as RAF Bomber Command and RAF Fighter Command. Trained on types influenced by Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane doctrines but ultimately flying the Hawker Typhoon and Bristol Blenheim in operations against Luftwaffe targets, he operated alongside compatriots attached to squadrons with personnel from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Canada, and Australia. His operational record included sorties over the English Channel, North Sea, and occupied Benelux territory under the coordination of Allied Expeditionary Air Force planning.

Attack on the Gestapo headquarters (Aalst raid)

On 20 January 1943, he executed a low-level attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Aalst, a building associated with the Sûreté nationale and local collaborationist police elements aligned with the German occupation of Belgium. Piloting a Hawker Typhoon diverted from an interdiction mission, he strafed the building in a daylight raid designed to strike personnel identified with Rexist Party collaboration and the regional Gestapo apparatus. The action resonated across resistance networks such as the Belgian Resistance, including groups connected to Front de l'Indépendance, Comet Line, and activist figures influenced by leaders like André Béteille and contacts in Brussels. News of the raid spread through Allied information channels involving BBC Home Service broadcasts and influenced German security responses coordinated by the Reich Main Security Office and regional SS and Gestapo commands.

Capture, trial, and execution

Following the attack, German authorities undertook widespread reprisals in Belgium and intensified counter-resistance operations involving units of the Wehrmacht and Schutzstaffel. He was apprehended after landing in Belgium and transferred to detention facilities used by the Gestapo and military tribunals such as those presided over by officers linked to the Abwehr and the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France. Tried by a German court-martial system influenced by decrees from Adolf Hitler and security officials like Heinrich Himmler, he was sentenced to death. The execution, carried out in January 1943 in Schaerbeek under the auspices of occupation authorities, became a focal point for Belgian and Allied outcry and was recorded in postwar examinations by institutions including the International Committee of the Red Cross and later commemorations by Belgian Government in Exile entities.

Legacy and honours

His raid and sacrifice entered the postwar narrative alongside other notable Allied and resistance actions documented in histories of World War II, memorialized by municipal monuments in Aalst and Brussels, and recognized in studies by historians linked to universities such as the Free University of Brussels and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Decorations awarded posthumously included Belgian distinctions like the Order of Leopold and the Croix de Guerre, and his story is recounted in biographies alongside figures like André Devigny and accounts of operations discussed in works about the Belgian Resistance and RAF operations. Commemorations involve plaques near sites associated with the raid, entries in national registers maintained by the Belgian Ministry of Defence and civic ceremonies in Brussels and Aalst, situating his action within the wider remembrance of Allied resistance to Nazi Germany.

Category:1912 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Belgian military personnel of World War II Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (Belgium)