Henry Winand served with 1/I/2. Aé equipped with Gloster Gladiators at the time of the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940.

In the early morning of 10 May, the alert was sounded just before 03:00 at Shaffen-Diest airfield. Major Hendrickx, commander of the 1st Group, 2nd Regiment, ordered the aircraft to remain lined up along the runway. Besides the Hurricanes of Escadrille 2/I/2 (the most modem aircraft in the Belgian Military Air Arm) and the Gloster Gladiator of Escadrille 1/I/2, the base was host to the Fairey Fox biplanes of Escadrille 5/III/3 and 7/III/3. The Foxes were to take part in live firing exercises at Beverloo.
Eleven of the twelve serviceable Hurricanes were facing the hangars, the twelfth, (H.41) was standing some way apart from the rest. The pilots believed that the alert is part of an exercise and got ready to fly to the grass airfield at Beauvechain to carry out a routine patrol over the Ardennes.
On the other side of the airbase, the pilots of 1/I/2 Aé climbed into the cockpits of their Gladiators and run their engines briefly. The fourteen biplanes were also lined up wingtip-to-wingtip, making a continuous line with the Hurricanes. The order to take off was not issued because of a dense fog that covered the region.
At 04:20hrs, the Fairey Foxes of 5/III/2 Aé took off and headed towards Landing Field No. 14 (Jeneffe) to reconnoitre German troop movements east of Liege. They were diverted in mid-flight to Landing Field No. 23 at Vissenacken.
A few moments later, around fifty unidentified aircraft flew over Schaffen. Acting on his own initiative Capitaine Max Guisgand, commander of 1/I/2 led his Gladiators into the air despite the contrary order, issued by his group commander, to stay put. While the Hurricanes started up their engines, the two leading sections of Gladiators were airborne at 04:20.
At 04:32hrs, three hedgehopping Do 17s from KG 77 suddenly appeared. Untroubled by the anti-aircraft fire, which was totally ineffective, the Dorniers took all the time they needed to shoot up the airfield while the Gladiators tried to take off surrounded by explosions and fires. In the prevailing panic, after a bullet punctured a main wheel on his Gladiator, Lieutenant M. Wilmots rammed the Hurricane H-20 flown by Capitaine Charlier of 2/I/2. Wilmot suffered shrapnel wound in his leg and the Gladiator was a write-off. Capitaine Charlier was wounded.
Within minutes, Bf 110s and Dornier Do 17s arrived over Schaffen. The first strafed the airfield while the second bombed it. Four Hurricanes were set on fire and six others received varying degrees of damage. The machines under cover were flattened when half of the hangar roof fell in. Wilmots' Gladiator was destroyed on the ground. Sergent Libert was severely burnt when the fuel tank of his Hurricane H-24 exploded. A Second gladiator of 1/I/2 was caught on the ground in the low-level attack of the Dorniers and was destroyed.
Two Hurricanes, flown by Capitaine Van den Hove d`Ertsenrijck and Caporal Jacobs, managed to escape from Schaffen. As they head for Beauvechain, they encountered a pack of enemy bombers. Van den Hove attacked one - apparently without success - even though a Gladiator pilot, Sergent Van den Broek, helped him. The oil tank of Van Broek's machine was hit in an exchange of fire, forcing him to make a crash landing in open country. A third Hurricane (H-27), waiting for a propeller at Schaffen was made airworthy and evacuated to Beauvechain by Sergent Siroux. On arrival, the main spar of one the wings, was found to be damaged, rendering the aircraft unfit for combat.
The third section of Gladiators from 1/I/2 Aé, which took off at 04:32, found themselves almost nose to nose with the three Do 17s, which forced two of them to break away to avoid a mid-air collision. The second section (Capitaine Gérard (G.27), 1^er Sergent Winand (G.32) and Sergent Henri Clinquart (G.34), en route for Beauvechain, spotted a formation of enemy bombers over Tirlemont and broke it up.
In the lull after the bombing, other Gladiators left Schaffen. Hurricane pilots (Siroux, Lelarge and the confusingly named Lieutenant) flew three of them. In all, twelve Gladiators arrived at Beauvechain. As the ultimate reinforcement Gladiator G.18 - the personal aircraft of Général Hiernaux, C-in-C of l'Aviation Militaire - was placed at the disposition of 1/I/2. Unfortunately, the aircraft was not fitted with guns...
Of the proud 1^er Groupe de Chasse, the elite Belgian fighter unit, only two Hurricanes and twelve Gladiators were still airworthy and able to fight after the morning attacks.

Several aerial encounters were reported between Gladiators and German fighters on 10 May. As a matter of record, Belgian Gladiators were never engaged with Bf 109s during this day. The engagements reported by German pilots are probably due to mistaken identification by them, an excusable mistake, given the number of different types of biplanes serving with the different European air forces at this time. Luftwaffe pilots claimed five Gladiators during the day and reported engagements were:
At 09:55, ten Bf 109s from 3./JG 27 run into Gladiators over Tirlemont. Leutnant Erwin Axthelm and Unteroffizier Heinrich Belcher claimed two. One Belgian pilot baled out and deployed his parachute.
At 10:33, three more Gladiators were claimed by Oberleunant Georg Schneider (victory no. 3), Leutnant Hans-Ekkehard Bob (victory no. 1 of a total of 60) and Feldwebel Leykauf (victory no. 1 of a total of 33) from 3./JG 21 (as 9./JG 54) over Tongeren when their unit's Bf 109s were escorting a gaggle of Ju 87s to the west of Maastricht.

Shortly before 07.00 on 11 May 1940, nine Belgian Fairey Battles of 5/III/3 Aé were dispatched to bomb the Albert Canal bridges, which had fallen intact into German hands. Six Gladiators of 1/I/2 Aé were to escort them. The Gladiators flew in two sections. The first section was led by the Commandant Capitaine Max Guisgand (Gloster G.27) and included Sergent André Pirlot (Gloster G.19) and Sergent A. Vanden Broeck (Gloster G.31). The second section took off 10 minutes later and was led by 1^er Sergent Denys Rolin (Gloster G.22) and included 1^er Sergent Winand (Gloster G.32) and Sergent Henri Clinquart (Gloster G.34).
When they arrived to their assigned sector they became involved in a dogfight with eight to twelve German Bf 109s from I/JG1. During this dogfight 1^er Sergent Winand claimed a damaged Bf 109 and 1^er Sergent Rolin was credited with one Bf 109 probable damaged. He didn't see if his victim dived away or crashed because right after this he was shot down and taken prisoner. The only known losses suffered by I/JG 1 on 11 May was a plane of 3./JG 1, which ran out of fuel and made a forced landing near Achen and was 70% destroyed.
During the dogfight five German pilots (all from 1./JG 1) claimed seven victories in the Maastricht area:
- Leutnant Günter-Erwin Mann (06.50 h) (possibly Capitaine Max Guisgand (Gloster G.27))
- Leutnant Ludwig Franzisket (06.53 h) (victory 1 of totally 43) (possibly Sergent Henri Clinquart (Gloster G.34))
- Staffelkapitän Hauptmann Wilhelm Balthasar (06.55, 06.58 and one more during the same mission) (victory 1-3 of totally 47) (possibly 1^er Sergent Denys Rolin (Gloster G.22) and Sergent André Pirlot (Gloster G.19))
- Unteroffizier Heinz Gillert (07.01 h) (possibly Sergent A. Vanden Broeck (Gloster G.31)).
- Unteroffizier Emil Clade (07.01 h) (possibly 1^er Sergent Winand (Gloster G.32))
Only four Gladiators of 1/I/2. Aé were however lost:
- Sergent André Pirlot (MIA) was shot down in flames in Gloster G.19.
- 1^er Sergent Denys Rolin (POW) was shot down but saved himself in parachute but was taken prisoner. His aircraft (G.22) was abandoned over Heukelom at 05:55).
- Sergent Henri Clinquart (KIA) was shot down in flames. His aircraft (G.34) crashed between Flexhe and Slins, north of Liege.
- Capitaine Max Guisgand made a forced landing in a field at Faimes close to Waremme after that his Gloster (G.27) had been damaged by enemy fire and he was wounded in the face. The aircraft was later burned.
Sergent A. Vanden Broeck (Gloster G.31) and 1^er Sergent Winand (Gloster G.32) returned to Beauvechain with badly damaged aircraft. Both pilots were unhurt and both aircraft were repairable.
The attack on the bridges by the Battles was a failure and six of them were lost.

Winand ended the war with one damaged enemy aircraft. This was claimed while flying biplanes.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
1	11/05/40	07:00-	1	Bf 109 (a)	Damaged	Gladiator	G.32	near Sichem	1/I/2. Aé

Biplane victories: 1 damaged.
TOTAL: 1 damaged.
(a) Probably claimed in combat with Bf 109s from I/JG 1. This claim hasn't been possible to verify with German sources.

Sources:
Air Force on the Edge - Dionisio Garcia, 2001, Air Enthusiast November/December 2001
Escadrilles Au Combat - Jean Delaet kindly provided by Luc Faucon
Luftwaffe Claims Lists - Tony Wood
The Battle of France Then and Now – Peter D. Cornwell, 2008 After the Battle, ISBN 9-781870-067652
Information kindly provided by Luc Faucon and Peter Taghon