Historic Battlegrounds

During the 20th Century, tiny Belgium was dragged not once, but twice into a conflict between the Great Powers of Europe, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties on its soil and suffering to millions of civilians. In 1914 the Allies halted the German offensive in the Western corner of the country, where soldiers from both sides dug themselves in for a trench war that lasted four years. Thirty years later, the Second World War took a decisive turn on the opposite side of the country. While major Belgian towns, harbors, and railway stations were being bombed, the last German offensive was brought to a halt in the small Ardennes village of Bastogne after the Battle of the Bulge, a bloody conflict in which many foreign (mainly American) soldiers gave their lives. Many reminders of both periods can still be seen and visited, from Flanders Fields to the slopes of the Ardennes.