Editing Luxembourg Armed Forces (section)

=== Luxembourg Battery ===
{{see also|Luxembourg in World War II|German invasion of Luxembourg}}

[[File:Luxembourg Troops Fight With United Nations- Training With the Belgian Army in England, UK, 1943 D16778.jpg|thumb|right|Luxembourg troops training in an English seaside town in 1943]]

In 1944 during World War II, the Luxembourg Government, while exiled in London, made agreements for a group of seventy Luxembourg volunteers to be assigned to the Artillery Group of the [[1st Belgian Infantry Brigade]], commonly known as Brigade Piron, [[Jean-Baptiste Piron]] being the chief of this unit. This contingent was named the Luxembourg Battery. Initially, it was built up and trained by two Belgian officers. Later, from August 1944, these were joined by Luxembourg officers, who had received training in Britain.<ref name="LuArmyPiron">{{cite web |title=Les luxembourgeois de la "Brigade PIRON" |trans-title=The Luxembourgers of the "PIRON Brigade" |url=http://www.armee.lu/historique/les-luxembourgeois-de-la-brigade-piron |date=2017 |website=Lëtzebuerger Arméi |publisher=Armée luxembourgeoise |language=fr |access-date=11 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105233013/http://www.armee.lu/historique/les-luxembourgeois-de-la-brigade-piron |archive-date=5 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Several Luxembourg NCOs and half of the country's troops had fought in North Africa in the [[French Foreign Legion]]. The rest were people who had escaped from Luxembourg, and young men evading forcible conscription into the Wehrmacht by fleeing to Britain. The Luxembourg unit landed in Normandy on 6 August 1944—at approximately the same time as the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade and the French 2nd DB ("division blindée") commanded by General [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|Leclerc]]—two months after the D-Day landings.<ref name="LuArmyPiron" />

The Luxembourg Battery was equipped with four [[Ordnance QF 25 pounder]] howitzers, which were named after the four daughters of Grand Duchess Charlotte: [[Princess Elisabeth, Dowager Duchess of Hohenberg|Princesses Elisabeth]], [[Princess Marie Adelaide of Luxembourg|Marie Adelaide]], [[Princess Marie Gabriele of Luxembourg|Marie Gabriele]] and [[Alix, Dowager Princess of Ligne|Alix]].<ref name="LuArmyPiron" />