| Original caption: “This boy’s dead body, aflame, bears ghastly witness to the horror of the damage done by V-2 on the main intersection in Antwerp on the main supply line to Holland.” A Fordson WOT2 15-hundredweight truck burns in Teniersplaats, with a casualty lying on the ground nearby. Some sources identify him as the driver. On November 27, 1944, a Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2; “Vengeance Weapon 2”) Aggregat-4 (A-4; “Assembly 4”), guided rocket came down at the intersection of Teniersplaats (“Teniers Square”) and De Keyserlei (“Nicaise De Keyser Avenue”) near what is today the Operaplein. An Allied convoy was passing through. Tram lines, crowded with passengers, took them from offices and factories to lunch. At 1210 Hours, the V-2 detonated near the Central Station. Some witnesses believed it exploded on the tram’s overhead electric lines. It ruptured a water line, flooding the Teniersplaats with water. Corpses and body parts floated in the puddles. 2 Military Police, directing traffic, were torn apart instantly. 1 of their charred bodies landed on the roof of a nearby hotel, and his corpse wasn’t discovered for some time. The other was never seen again and was believed to be completely disintegrated. The horrors of the attack resonated with the survivors and rescue personnel for the rest of their lives. Assistant bookkeeper Simone De Ceunynck (June 2, 1927 – May 24, 2015) was heading home for lunch when she had a sense of dread. Running through the convoy, the Military Police yelled at her just as the rocket impacted. Wounded in the leg and breast, she was dazed as she retrieved her gloves lying on a dead British soldier. She recoiled, realizing his brains were spilling out of his skull. “You’re late,” her mother said when she arrived home. Then her mother noticed her clothes were singed, her hair was covered in debris, and she was bleeding. She took Simone De Ceunynck to the doctor. She survived to marry an American GI and move to the United States. United States Army 1st Lieutenant Verne W. Robinson (March 19, 1918 – November 27, 1944), 604th Engineer Company, was riding in a jeep with 2 other soldiers to pick up supplies. He was hit by shrapnel in the temple; first aid was given, but he died soon after the attack. Robinson was the only member of his unit to die in World War II. On April 30, 1945, the Chicago Tribune reported on operations in Antwerp. “499 Casualties in V-Bomb Fight at Antwerp by Larry” Rue – Chicago Tribune Press Service – Supreme Hdq, Allied Expeditionary Force, Paris, April 29 – Anti-aircraft units of the United States 9th Air Force and the British attached to the channel base section suffered 499 casualties — 62 killed, 437 wounded—during the 154 days the Germans launched nearly 4,000 robot bombs on Antwerp. It was revealed here today that the defense of Antwerp against the robot attacks was under the command of Brigadier General Clare H. Armstrong [(January 23, 1894 – July 12, 1969)], a West Pointer, who led 22,000 British troops during the desperate German attempt to knock the port of Antwerp out of existence—85 percent of all the robots launched against. Ack-ack units destroyed Antwerp before reaching their targets. In the last 6 days of the attack, only 2 of 91 flying bombs plotted as Antwerp-bound reached within the vital area. Allied anti-aircraft, overwhelmingly American, has destroyed 3,151 German aircraft since D-Day on the continent. American 90 millimeter guns fired 463,130 rounds of ammunition. The lighter British guns – 3.7 inchers – threw another 70,000 rounds at robot bombs.” Within the Communications Zone, base section boundaries changed repeatedly as the armies advanced, and the Allied logistical base moved northward from Normandy toward the Channel ports and Antwerp. On December 1, 1944, the Brittany Base Section absorbed the territory of the underemployed Loire Base Section, and the Normandy Base Section extended its jurisdiction toward the northeast, to include the American installations at Le. Havre and Rouen, which had become major disembarkation ports for troops and supplies. The Channel Base Section, after giving up Rouen and Le Havre to Normandy, oversaw American activities in Antwerp and in a strip of Belgian territory between the British logistical area and the Advance Section. Lars (“Larry”) Rue (March 10, 1893 – July 13, 1965) was the oldest active American foreign correspondent, stationed in Bonn at the end of his career. Known as an astute, barnstorming political reporter, Rue was the onetime Paris and London Bureau Chief for the Chicago Tribune, who in 5 decades covered nearly every major European political event, often in his own Gypsy Moth biplane, giving vivid accounts of Iraqi King Feisal I’s (May 20, 1885 – September 8, 1933) enthronement in Damascus in 1920, the Russian famine of 1921, Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945), 1923 Munich Putsch, the East Berlin and Hungarian uprisings; he died of a heart attack. Photographer Technician 3rd Class (????) Ingledew (???? – ????) was 1 of 7 photographers and filmmakers assigned to the Channel Base Station. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0955.jpg |
| Image Size | 679.39 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2932 x 2270 |
| Photographer | Ingledew |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | November 27, 1944 |
| Location | Teniersplaats |
| City | Antwerp |
| State or Province | Flanders |
| Country | Belgium |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-111-SC-232557 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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