Mortsel
On April 5, 1943, the United States Air Force set out to bomb Erla Motor Works, a company in Mortsel that had been taken over by the Nazis to repair their planes. Instead of a low-flying precision bombing, the USAAF VII Air Force sent approximately 100 B-17s to release 774 bombs that weighed 283 tons. Most of the bombs missed the target (four hit the target), and Mortsel was buried under 774 bombs. Schools, homes, churches, and an entire town were attacked. This day in history, in just eight minutes, 936 civilians (209 of those were children under the age of 15) were killed and 1,600 were injured severely.