The people of Mortsel have made their own history books in their mind and in their hearts. A story of 936 people that lost their lives and that will not be remembered. Why do I know all of this? Because I was born and raised in a town close to Mortsel, and my great grandmother past this tale over to my grandmother, she passed it on to my mother, and my mother passed it on to me. They all felt it, and they are the only ones keep this story alive.

The sadness they felt, the despair of losing their friends and loved ones. The children that survived the bombing are the last people that were there and could tell the tale, and they are the only ones, who still to this day, are telling its tale. Only after 61 years, Morstel received a ribbon to remember what happened.

The documents were thrown away, and Mortsel never received a war cross after losing so many people. But further than that, all of this information was lost. Neighbouring towns also know this story, because they had friends and family that were affected by it. The impact of this event was incredibly huge for the people at the time, but the shock caused by it never left Mortsel. Not in neighbouring countries, nor by the Belgian people. This was the highest civilian death count in Belgium during WWII. More than 1300 wounded, and more than 1200 houses were destroyed. Deathcount: 936 people, with 209 of them being children under 15 years old. It was a busy day, so there were a lot of people out, shopping, living their lives, children going to school, so as you can guess, there were a ton of casualties. In the end, only 4 bombs hit their intended mark.

They thought that the school was the factory. But what they didn't know was that they were bombing the town centre of Mortsel, together with a nearby school. They found their target and started bombing the place, dropping more than 800 bombs on it. 83 planes of the American and the Brittish forces flew out towards Mortsel. All of this was going happen on the 5th of April, 1943. Because of this, the American forces were planning to bomb a German aircraft factory nearby. A town taken by the german forces during WWII.

Anyway, there is a town in Belgium near Antwerp, called Mortsel. The reason for that will be explained further on. So I don't know if this is the best place to post this, since this is my first time posting anything on reddit, but I want to tell a story that most people have not heard about.

Tranen over Mortsel by Pieter Serrien