Valère Gustin, one of last Belgian veterans who helped liberate Plzeň, dies at 98
Valère Gustin, one of the last Belgian WWII veterans who helped liberate the west Bohemian town of Plzeň in May 1945, died in Belgium on Saturday morning at the age of 98.
Gustin was born in 1924 in the village of Verlaine near Liège. In 1945 he joined the Belgian 17th Rifle Battalion which participated in the liberation of Plzeň as part of the Third US Army led by General George Patton.
He was one of five Belgian and US veterans who took part in the Freedom Celebration in Plzeň in May this year. He also attended the unveiling of a memorial plaque dedicated by Plzeň to the 17th Rifle Battalion in Liege, where most of its members came from.