Wonck Airport

Bassenge (French pronunciation: [basɑ̃ʒ]; Dutch: Bitsingen, Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɪtsɪŋə(n)] ; Walloon: Bassindje) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 Bassenge had a total population of 8,335. The total area is 38.17 km² which gives a population density of 218 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following districts: Bassenge, Boirs, Ében-Émael, Glons, Roclenge-sur-Geer, and Wonck.

Riemst (Limburgish: Riems) is a small town and a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. Riemst is in the Flemish speaking area of Belgium. On January 1, 2018 Riemst had a total population of 16,665. The total area is 57.88 km² which gives a population density of 276 inhabitants per km². Riemst was the site of the Battle of Lauffeld, fought in 1747. The bridge in the Borough Vroenhoven was part of the start of WW2, when the Germans launched a coordinated attack on the area.Paul Schiepers (born in 1919) was the last mayor of the borough of Riemst before it joined with the other boroughs to form the current town of Riemst. He died on August 18, 1978.

Eben-Ezer Tower, also known as the Museum of Flint (French:Musée du Silex), is a tower and museum in Eben-Emael, in the municipality of Bassenge in eastern Belgium. Constructed by one man, Robert Garcet (1912-2001), between 1951 and 1965, the tower is a fantastical construction built of flint rubble, and with dimensions and symbolism taken from the bible and from ancient civilisations. The tower is conspicuously topped at its four corners by large stone sculptures of the four cherubim of the Apocalypse: a bull on the north-west turret, man, in the form of a sphinx in the south-west, a lion in the south-east and an eagle at the north-east corner. Some of the seven floors of the tower are open to the public. The first few levels, the 'museum of flint', explain the history and use of the stone.As a work of outsider architecture, the tower was featured in episode 3 of Jarvis Cocker's 1999 series, Journeys into The Outside. Cocker visited the tower and interviewed Robert Garcet.

The Battle of Lauffeld, variously known as Lafelt, Laffeld, Lawfeld, Lawfeldt, Maastricht, or Val, took place on 2 July 1747, between Tongeren in modern Belgium, and the Dutch city of Maastricht. Part of the War of the Austrian Succession, a French army of 80,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic army of 120,000, led by the Duke of Cumberland. Arguably the most talented general of his generation, Saxe conquered much of the Austrian Netherlands between 1744 to 1746 although he failed to achieve decisive victory. In the spring of 1747, Cumberland planned an offensive to retake Antwerp but was forced to fall back when the French threatened to cut him off from his supply base at Maastricht. When the two armies met at Lauffeld, a series of mistakes by Cumberland compromised his position and only counterattacks by the Allied cavalry prevented a serious defeat. The battle ended Allied hopes of regaining lost ground and Saxe captured Bergen op Zoom in September, then Maastricht in May 1748. However, financing the war had brought France close to bankruptcy and severe food shortages caused by the Royal Navy blockade worsened after defeat at Cape Finisterre in October 1747 left the French unable to defend their merchant shipping. The stalemate resulted in the October 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Ében-Émael (French pronunciation: ​[ebɛn emal]; Walloon: Eben-Emål; Limburgish: Aemaol; Dutch: Eben-Emaal) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Bassenge, located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The village is located on the French-speaking side of the language border, next to Kanne on the Flemish side and not far from the border with the Netherlands near Maastricht. It is located at an altitude of 70 metres (230 ft) above sea level. Until 1963, Eben-Emael belonged to the Dutch-speaking province of Limburg, but when the language border was established, the place was transferred to the province of Liège in Wallonia. It was a municipality in its own right before the 1977 Merger of Municipalities.

Oud-Vroenhoven is former municipality in the Dutch province of Limburg. It merged with Maastricht in 1920.The municipality covered a large part of the current municipality of Maastricht west of the river Meuse outside the walls of the city. In 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II crossed into the Netherlands at the border crossing at Oud-Vroenhoven.

Fort Eben-Emael (French: Fort d'Ében-Émael, French pronunciation: ​[fɔʁ debɛn emal]) is an inactive Belgian fortress located between Liège and Maastricht, on the Belgian-Dutch border, near the Albert Canal, outside the village of Ében-Émael. It was designed to defend Belgium from a German attack across the narrow belt of Dutch territory in the region. Constructed in 1931–1935, it was reputed to be impregnable and at the time, the largest in the world. The fort was neutralized by glider-borne German troops (85 men) on 10 May 1940 during the Second World War. The action cleared the way for German ground forces to enter Belgium, unhindered by fire from Eben-Emael. Still the property of the Belgian Army, the fort has been preserved and may be visited.

Château Neercanne (also known as Agimont or kasteel Neercanne) is a restaurant located in Maastricht in the Netherlands. It is a fine dining restaurant that was awarded one or two Michelin stars in the periods 1957-1982 and 1986–2018. In 2013, GaultMillau awarded them 16.0 points (out of 20).Head chef in the Michelin period, were, amongst others, Theo Koch and Ber Stassen. Present head chef is Robert Levels.

The Battle of Fort Eben-Emael was a battle between Belgian and German forces that took place between 10 May and 11 May 1940, and was part of the Battle of Belgium and Fall Gelb, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France. An assault force of German paratroopers, Fallschirmjäger, was tasked with assaulting and capturing Fort Eben-Emael, a Belgian fortress whose strategic position and strong artillery emplacements dominated several important bridges over the Albert Canal. These carried roads which led into the Belgian heartland and were what the German forces intended to use to advance. As some of the German airborne forces assaulted the fortress and disabled the garrison and the artillery pieces inside it, others simultaneously captured three bridges over the Canal. Having disabled the fortress, the airborne troops were then ordered to protect the bridges against Belgian counter-attacks until they linked up with ground forces from the German 18th Army. The battle was a strategic victory for the German forces, with the airborne troops landing on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress. The Fallschirmjäger then entered the fortress, killing some defenders and containing the rest in the lower sections of the fortress. Simultaneously, the rest of the German assault force had landed near the three bridges over the Canal, destroyed several pillboxes and defensive positions and defeated the Belgian forces guarding the bridges, capturing them and bringing them under German control. The airborne troops suffered heavy casualties during the operation, but succeeded in holding the bridges until the arrival of German ground forces, who then aided the airborne troops in assaulting the fortress a second time and forcing the surrender of the remaining members of the garrison. German forces were then able to use two bridges over the Canal to bypass Belgian defensive positions and advance into Belgium to aid in the invasion of the country. The bridge at Kanne was destroyed, forcing German engineers to construct a new bridge.

The fortified position of Liège (French: position fortifiée de Liège [PFL]) was established after the First World War by Belgium to block the traditional invasion corridor through Belgium between Germany and France. In the First World War the Belgian Army held up the Germans for a week at Liège, delaying the German invasion of France, caused Belgium to consider a similar defensive strategy. Belgium rebuilt the Liège fortifications and extended them onto the Pays de Herve (Herve plateau) closer to Germany, using the most advanced fortification technology available. The PFL was divided into the modern defensive line, anchored on the Albert Canal by Fort Eben-Emael and extending to the south through a planned five additional forts, designated PFL I and the ring of forts around Liège. Liège commanded crucial road and rail crossings of the Meuse and was as strategically important in the 1930s as in 1914. The modernized Liège forts were called PFL II. In 1936, Belgium's neutrality was proclaimed again by King Leopold III of Belgium in a vain attempt to forestall another invasion, preventing France from being able to make use of the Belgian defences and territory in the forward defence of France. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Belgian defences had to resist alone until France could advance into Belgium after its neutrality had been violated. Again the fortifications could not hold the Germans.

Kanne (Limburgish: Kan) is a village in the municipality of Riemst in the southeastern part of the Belgian province of Limburg. as of 2021, the village has 1,162 inhabitants of which a significant part have the Dutch nationality.

The Berwinne (French pronunciation: [bɛʁwin]; Dutch: Berwijn, Dutch pronunciation: [bɛrˈʋɛi̯n]) is a small river in the north-eastern part of Belgium. It is a right-bank tributary to the Meuse river and flows over a distance of 31.9 kilometres (19.8 miles) through the provinces of Liège and Limburg. Its source is located in the eastern part of the municipality of Aubel, near the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial. From there the Berwinne river flows, generally spoken, in northwestern direction, through places like Val-Dieu Abbey, Dalhem and Moelingen, before joining the Meuse between Visé and the Dutch border.