Espace Piron & local war heroes
In the auberge (inn) on the village square, discover a room dedicated to General Piron and our local war heroes. You can also watch a number of documentaries.
General Jean-Baptiste PIron
Born on 10 April 1896 in Couvin, this Belgian general fought in both world wars. However, it was during the Second World War that he distinguished himself with his famous brigade.
In April 1941, he heard an appeal on the BBC. Those who wanted to were invited to go to England to continue the fight. Piron set off. He had a 9-month journey ahead of him, punctuated by periods in prison.
He and his brigade became major players in the conflict. They liberated part of Calvados and the Côte Fleurie before advancing eastwards. They also took part in the liberation of Belgium before ending their expedition with heavy fighting to liberate Holland.
Commended by Generals Montgomery, Eisenhower and de Gaulle, Piron was widely decorated during and after the conflict. However, the end of the war did not spell the end of his military career. He became aide-de-camp to Prince Regent Charles and King Bauduin, among others, and commanded the 1st Army Corps of Occupation in Germany.
He died on 4 September 1974, 30 years to the day after entering the liberated Belgian capital. His body lies in the main lawn of the Molenbeeck-Saint-Jean cemetery in Brussels.
Victor Dosogne, chaplain to the GI’s
Victor Dosogne, one of Couvin’s most illustrious residents and an extraordinary adventurer, was born at 45 rue Saint-Roch on 27 August 1900. Victor spent his childhood, adolescence and school years in his good town of Couvin, where today he is still an unknown. He also attended the Collège de Chimay. Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1931, he taught in Namur.
He fled Europe in 1941 for America, where he was a lecturer at the Harvard Club in New York. He then joined the American army and landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944.
In his jeep, Father Dosogne, chaplain to the GIs, went from unit to unit to celebrate Masses on the edge of forests, in clearings or in the countryside.
Father Dosogne’s return to Belgium was marked by the terrible winter of 1944 and the liberation of Bastogne on 1 January 1945.
The Flossenbürg concentration camp was liberated on 23 April 1945 by Father Dosogne’s 90th Infantry Division. On 1 May, the Czechoslovak border was crossed and the country liberated from German occupation.
Léopold Rousseaux, the parish priest of Campagnac
Léopold Rousseaux was born on 6 April 1897 in Frasnes-lez-Couvin. He was ordained a priest in 1921.
On 16 May 1940, a British secret service agent warned him that he was registered with German intelligence because of his opposition to Rexism. Accompanied by his mother, he took refuge in Campagnac in the Tarn, in the free zone.
On 16 December 2012, the mayor of Campagnac, Guy Pons, was presented by the Israeli Consul in Marseille with the medal of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, awarded posthumously to Léopold Rousseaux who, at his peril, helped Jews hunted down during the Holocaust. His name is engraved in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. On 18 September 2022, Campagnac inaugurated the Place Léopold Rousseaux and a stele depicting his portrait.