Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War Belgian group of five attributed to Mr. J. P. Vanderauwera, who served as an Intelligence Agent with the Belgian Resistance, and died in Esterwegen Concentration Camp on 23 April 1944

Belgium, Kingdom, Order of Leopold II, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver and enamel, with silver palm on riband; Croix de Guerre, L.III.R., bronze, with bronze palm on riband; Political Prisoner’s Cross, silver and enamel, with riband bar with 4 Stars and black ‘next of kin’ riband bar; Resistance Medal 1940-45, with bronze lightening bolt device on riband; War Medal 1940-45, bronze, good very fine and better (5) £100-£140

Jean P. Vanderauwera was born in Liege, on 3 May 1893 and served as an Intelligence Agent in the Belgian Resistance with the rank of Adjutant from 1 August 1942, as a member of the Boule and Luc-Marc intelligence networks. An engine driver for the Belgian railway company on her international trains, his job allowed him to gather information and to act as courier bringing back information gathered by the labourers in Germany. He headed a section of the Boule resistance-network and took part in sabotage actions and theft of arms and ammunitions; Boule was the only Belgian network that could operate within Germany, and among other things it provided information on the Peenemünde rocket base, the V1 and V2 rockets, and about the nature and importance of the Möhne and Eder dams.

Vanderauwera was arrested on 23 February 1943 and was held as a political prisoner for the next year. He died in Esterwegen Concentration Camp on 23 April 1944.

Sold with the recipient’s original ‘Carte des états de services de guerre du combattant 1940-45’ (1940-45 War Services Card) which contains a portrait photograph of the recipient.