Bastogne Barracks

16/10/2026

Mark your calendars.

NUTS Weekend returns to Bastogne Barracks on 12–13 December! 🔥

More details coming soon.

08/10/2026

What do you do when you need to move the hull of a Sherman? 🤔

You bring in two Bergepanzer recovery vehicles!

These two recovery vehicles got the job done and cleared some extra space in the process.

Why do we need that space?

More on that very soon...

NUTS is coming 💥

06/10/2026

🎟️ Wednesday 7 October = free museum day!

This Wednesday, from 13h00, visit the Military Museum or Bastogne Barracks for free and dive into our collections.

💥 Last chance! 7 October is also the very last day of the COBI exhibition at the Military Museum. Come and admire the scale models and dioramas one last time before the exhibition closes! 🧱

👉 Come and see it for yourself!

25/09/2026

A little gift for your next museum visit. 👀🎁

Show your museumPASSmusees at the desk and get a Bastogne Barracks pin from us. 📌

The offer runs through 31 December, so that's one more reason to drop by again. 😉

See you soon! 🥳

17/09/2026

in 1944, Operation Market Garden begins, one of the largest Allied operations of WWII.

Thousands of Allied paratroopers land over the Netherlands to seize strategic bridges, allowing the British ### Corps, led by the Guards Armoured Division, to advance overland from Belgium. The goal: cross the Rhine and force a passage into Germany.

The advance quickly runs into fierce German resistance. ### Corps fails to reach the bridge at Arnhem, the last link in the chain, in time, and the operation ultimately fails. Even so, Market Garden goes on to become one of the most famous battles of WWII.

📍 Our Sherman Firefly carries the colours of the Guards Armoured Division. Come admire this legendary tank at Bastogne Barracks.

13/09/2026

Restoration update: our M26 Pershing 🔧

Fitting timing: today also marks the birthday of General John Pershing himself, the man this tank is named after.

Remember our post back in May, when we started disassembling and sandblasting it? The work hasn't stopped since. Next step? Using our new laser st****er to clean the tank more efficiently without harming the underlying material.

The M26 Pershing arrived on the European battlefield in January 1945, just in time to give Allied forces something powerful enough to face Germany's heavy armor.

Stay tuned for more updates as we work to get this piece of living history running again.

11/09/2026

in 1944 the Piron Brigade takes part in the liberation of Heppen and Leopoldsburg.

The fighting also claims lives within the brigade. Around 17h30, the third platoon of the Armoured Car Squadron comes under heavy fire. A Daimler armoured car takes a direct hit from German 88mm guns.

Driver Marcel Benoot and radio operator Lucien Simoen, both soldiers from Ostend, are killed instantly. Vehicle commander 1st Chief Marcel Bihay is seriously wounded and pulled from the wrecked vehicle.

This is the type of vehicle they were driving that day: the Daimler Armoured Car, one of the finest reconnaissance vehicles of the British army during the Second World War. These vehicles also entered service with the Belgian army from May 1944 onward.

📍 Discover the Daimler Armoured Car and the story of the Piron Brigade at Bastogne Barracks.

04/09/2026

Our colleagues at the Koninklijk Legermuseum - Musée royal de l'Armée - Royal Military Museum in Brussels also keep a few tanks around 😉

Their Fahrschulpanzer, a Leopard 1 converted into a driving school tank for new recruits, just got back from Soesterberg Zomeroffensief in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and is back in its spot in the courtyard.

Good excuse to remind you: their courtyard just reopened to the public after maintenance, so if you're ever in Brussels, go say hi 👋

28/08/2026

🚨 Free entry next Wednesday, mark your calendar 🎟️

Every first Wednesday of the month, Bastogne Barracks opens its doors for free, from 13h onwards.

📅 Wednesday, September 2nd, from 13h
📍 Bastogne Barracks

🚨 Gratis toegang op woensdag! 🎟️

Elke eerste woensdag van de maand zet Bastogne Barracks zijn deuren gratis open, vanaf 13u.

📅 Woensdag 2 september, vanaf 13u
📍 Bastogne Barracks

27/08/2026

Our mechanics just found metal shavings in this N**i tank engine 🛠️😬

Not exactly the diagnosis you want to hear.

Something inside isn't happy, so our mechanics are digging into this StuG III F/8's original Maybach HL120 engine to find out why 🔍

Quick backstory: this thing was built as an assault gun, but its low profile and brutal gun made it a tank killer too. StuG units alone wrecked around 20,000 enemy tanks before spring 1944 💥

This F/8 has a longer barrel than earlier versions. Only 3 of the 3,334 built survived the war. This is one of them 🏆

Any guesses what's causing the metal shavings? 👇