Memorial 22nd Battalion Transmission Troops Betekom

Commemorative plaque 22nd Battalion Transmission Troops Betekom

On the side wall of the Municipal Primary School of Betekom, this plaque commemorating the 22nd Battalion of Transmission Forces was placed. She recalls the fact that this unit was stationed in Betekom in the run-up to the Second World War. The men were called into arms on September 1, 1939.

At the outbreak of the war, on May 10, 1940, the unit's headquarters was located in Betekom. In the first days of the war they were mainly active in the Aarschot region. When Aarschot was bombed for the first time by German planes on Saturday 11 May, the unit would restore the destroyed telephone lines that night on Sunday.
Aarschot was bombed again on Sunday 12 May. There was a lot of damage in the station area and numerous telephone and telegraph lines were damaged. The building with the municipal telephone exchange operated by the 22TTr was partly destroyed. However, there were no casualties among the military. A temporary power station at the command post in Betekom was connected to the civil power station in nearby Haacht. That same day, the army unit would receive the order to withdraw west.

The names on the plaque are those of fallen soldiers. These victims did not fall in the region, but later during the campaign in Flanders. The website of The Eighteen Days' Campaign mentions four war dead whose names are on the memorial plaque. However, the record has a fifth name, namely A. Beriot. It does not appear on the website and it is also the only name that is not registered in the Belgian War Dead Register.

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Source

• Text: Jan Rymenams
• Photos: Jan Rymenams
• De Achttiendaagse Veldtocht., Het Belgische verhaal van mei 1940, eenheid per eenheid, 22ste Bataljon Transmissietroepen, https://18daagseveldtocht.be/transmissietroepen/transmissietroepen-legerkorpsen/22ste-bataljon-transmissietroepen/