Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Baron Albert Crahay (9 June 1903 – 19 October 1991) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

soldier and historian. He is known particularly as the commander of the Belgian contingent in the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and of the Belgian army of occupation in Germany.

Career

Born in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

in 1903, Crahay entered the

École Militaire École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

as an artillery cadet in 1921. Graduating in 1923, he subsequently studied at the École d'Application and the École de Guerre where he gained a

brevet d'état-major A ''brevet d'état-major'' ( French) or ''stafbrevet'' ( Dutch), both literally "general staff brevet", is a form of military distinction in France and Belgium which denotes that an officer has completed a course at a military academy. A recipi ...

. He became a

staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large milita ...

in 1936 and was still serving on the General Staff during the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. Crahay was held as a prisoner of war in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Returning to Belgium in 1945, Crahay took a teaching post in the military academy. In 1950, at the outbreak of the

, he volunteered to serve in the first Belgian contingent and was given command of the unit. He played an important role during the

Battle of the Imjin River The Battle of the Imjin River (), also known as the Battle of Solma-ri () or Battle of Gloster Hill () in South Korea, or as Battle of Xuemali () in China, took place 22–25 April 1951 during the Korean War. Troops from the Chinese People's Vo ...

in 1951, before handing over command at the end of the year. After Korea, Crahay returned to teaching at the military academy in Belgium. In 1958, he was given command of the 16th Armoured Division, a Belgian unit in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, and, in 1960, was chosen to take overall command of the

Belgian Forces in Germany The Belgian Forces in Germany ( or FBA, , BSD) was the name of Belgium's army of occupation in West Germany after World War II. Lasting between 1946 and 2002, the army corps-strength FBA-BSD formed part of the NATO force guarding Western Europe a ...

. He retired in 1964 as a Lieutenant-General. In retirement, Crahay chaired the ''comité interministériel de l’eau'' between 1969 and 1983. He wrote several memoires and books on Belgian military history and was made a

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

in 1983.

Authography

*''Les Belges en Corée, 1951-1955'' (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1966) *''L'Armée Belge entre les Deux Guerres'' (Brussels: Musin, 1978) *''Le roi et la défense du pays de 1831 à nos jours'' (Braine-L'Alleud: J.M. Collet, 1987) *''Une vie au XX^e siècle'' (Braine-L'Alleud: J.M. Collet, 1988) *''Le Général Van Overstraeten "vice-roi" en 1940'' (Braine-L'Alleud: J.M. Collet, 1990)

External links

Crahay, Baron Albert
at Ars-Morendi.

at ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, ) is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with '' La Libre Belgique'', it is one of the most popular Francophone newsp ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Crahay, Albert Belgian generals 1903 births 1991 deaths People from Ixelles Belgian prisoners of war in World War II Belgian military personnel of the Korean War 20th-century Belgian historians Royal Military Academy (Belgium) alumni