Free Belgian forces

Belgian involvement in World War II began when German forces invaded Belgium, which had been following a policy of neutrality, on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting, Belgium surrendered on 28 May and was placed under German occupation. During the fighting, between 600,000 and 650,000 Belgian men (nearly 20% of the country's male population) The Belgian government fled first to Bordeaux in France, and then to London in the United Kingdom where it formed an official government in exile in October 1940. ==Creation of the Free Belgian forces==

in London, 1943 In a broadcast on French Radio shortly after the Belgian surrender, the Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot called for the creation of an army-in-exile, originally intended to continue fighting alongside the French: In Britain, the concept of foreign enlistment into the British army, or the creation of foreign armed forces on British soil, had been approved in the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 and Allied Forces Act 1940. The first components of a Belgian military in Britain was created after the French surrender when the (CMBR; "Belgian Military Camp for Regrouping") was created in Tenby (Wales) in order to reform a military force from Belgian soldiers rescued from Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo, refugees, and expatriates living in the United Kingdom. By July 1940, the camp numbered 462 Belgians, and nearly 700 by August These soldiers were organized into the 1st Fusilier Battalion in August, and the government appointed Lieutenant-Generals Raoul Daufresne de la Chevalerie as commander, and Victor van Strydonck de Burkel as inspector-general of the new force. The same report noted the "possible need for a Belgian Legion". In February 1941, a Belgian artillery battalion was formed. Belgian volunteers continued to join the Free Belgian forces throughout the war, most crossing through occupied and Vichy France, as well as Francoist Spain. Because the French refused to provide any form of visa to Belgians of military age, many of those arriving in England tended to be old and to have already had long military careers. ==Belgian Army in the United Kingdom==

Brigade Piron In 1940, the Belgian government-in-exile decided to raise a military unit from pre-war Belgian émigrés and soldiers rescued from Dunkirk. armoured car in the markings of the 1st Belgian Armoured Car Squadron of the Brigade Piron. In 1942, the various Belgian ground forces units in the United Kingdom were amalgamated into the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade, more often known as the Brigade Piron after its commanding officer, Colonel Jean-Baptiste Piron. The unit not only included motorized infantry, armoured cars and artillery but also various logistics and medical support units. In March 1944, an artillery battery of four 25-pounder guns operated by troops from Luxembourg was added to the brigade's artillery unit. 80 Luxembourgers were serving with the Brigade Piron by August 1944 when the Brigade landed in Normandy. The brigade was one of the first Allied units to enter Belgium, crossing the border on 3 September. The following day, the brigade was the second Allied unit to enter Brussels (after the Welsh Guards). After the liberation of Belgium, the brigade was involved in fighting in the Netherlands until November 1944 when it returned to Belgium and reorganized, expanding on account of the new manpower. The reorganized brigade had three infantry battalions, an artillery regiment of six batteries, and an armored car regiment. Returning to combat in the Netherlands in April 1945, the brigade's units fought at Nijmegen and Walcheren. No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando , fire a mortar during a training exercise, 1945. The British No. 10 Commando was made up of soldiers from across occupied Europe, organized by nationality in eight troops. No. 4 Troop, created in August 1942, was Belgian and was commanded by Captain Georges Danloy. The original volunteers spent nearly a year in training, before leaving for Italy to fight alongside the British Eighth Army during the battles around Sangro river in the winter of 1943. In 1944, the troop was sent to Yugoslavia, where it raided numerous Dalmatian islands held by the Germans. 5th Special Air Service In 1942, 120 volunteers from the 2nd Fusilier Battalion were given parachute training and formed into a new unit, the Belgian Independent Parachute Company. The new unit was commanded by Commander Jean Thise, later replaced by Captain Edouard Blondeel. In February 1944, the company joined the elite British Special Air Service's SAS Brigade. It was renamed the 5th SAS Regiment in March 1945, even though it was only battalion-strength. The 5th SAS were deployed on numerous missions behind enemy lines. In July 1944, the small groups from 5th SAS were dropped by parachute into northern France to perform reconnaissance and sabotage missions and to link up with the French Resistance. Amongst their missions was to harass the German retreat from the Falaise Gap. Later, the unit fought in the Netherlands and also served as a reconnaissance unit in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. ==Belgians in the Royal Air Force==

of No. 350 Squadron at RAF Kenley, 1942 During the 18 Days' Campaign, the Belgian air force had lost practically all its equipment and 28 pilots had been killed. After the French surrender, many Belgian pilots escaped to England. The incident was depicted in the 1943 British film The Flemish Farm. A year later, a second all-Belgian squadron, 349 Squadron, was created. Both units were equipped with Spitfires. The Belgian section of the RAF achieved its 100th "kill" in January 1944. Operation Carthage an air raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 1945, was led by a Belgian, Wing-Commander Michel Donnet, who had escaped from occupied Belgium in a home-made aircraft. During the course of the war, 1,900 Belgians served in the RAF, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). 225 were killed in action. ==Royal Navy Section Belge==

in England, 1945 On the initiative of Lieutenant Victor Billet, a Belgian sailor, the Royal Navy Section Belge (RNSB) was created in October 1940. By 1941, the RNSB numbered 350 men with several hundred more Belgians serving on other British naval and merchant ships. Unlike the neighbouring Netherlands, which had possessed a sizeable navy, the Belgian Corps de Marine had had only few ships before the war. With the surrender in May 1940, many vessels, including A4 which had evacuated Belgian gold to Britain during the campaign, travelled to neutral Spain and interned themselves rather than return to occupied Belgium. Consequently, most of the volunteers of the RNSB had been civilian fishermen or members of the Merchant Navy rather than career soldiers. Around 1,400 men of the Belgian fishing fleet had left for Britain after the Belgian surrender. Three Belgian trawlers even took part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk, rescuing 4,300 British soldiers between them. Their ships and crews were put at the disposal of the Royal Navy, for coastal patrols and launching barrage balloons. Victor Billet himself was posted MIA during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The RNSB also operated the 118th Minesweeper Flotilla, composed of MMS-class minesweepers, from Harwich from 1943. ==Force Publique==

dispatch rider after the Siege of Saïo, 1942 The Force Publique (or "Public Force") was a combined police and military force of the Belgian Congo. It had a peacetime strength of 18,000, making it one of the largest standing colonial armies in Africa at the time. During World War II, it was reinforced, numbering 40,000, and constituted the bulk of the Free Belgian forces. it was commanded by 280 white officers and NCOs but other ranks were exclusively native Congolese. The Force Publique had never been allowed the more modern equipment given to the Belgian army before the war, and consequently had to use outdated equipment and weapons, like the Stokes mortar and the Saint Chamond 70 mm howitzer. In June 1940, three battalions of the Force Publique were sent to Abyssinia alongside British forces to fight the Italians in the East African Campaign. In May 1941, the Force Publique, under Major-General Auguste-Éduard Gilliaert and Lt.-Col. Leopold Dronkers Martens, successfully cut off the retreat of Italian army of General Pietro Gazzera at the Siege of Saïo in the Ethiopian Highlands, later accepting Gazzera's surrender with 7,000 of his soldiers. Over the course of the campaign in Abyssinia, the Force Publique received the surrender of nine Italian generals, 370 ranking officers and 15,000 Italian colonial troops before the end of 1941. Some 500 Congolese soldiers and 4 Belgian officers were killed during the campaign. A medical unit from the Congo, the 10th (Belgian Congo) Casualty Clearing Station, was created in 1943 and served alongside British forces in the Far East during the Burma campaign. The unit included 350 African and 20 European personnel and continued to serve with the British until 1945. ==Special Operations Executive==

Numerous Belgians served as secret agents for the Allies within "T Section" of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Agents were parachuted into occupied Belgium to liaise with the resistance from October 1940. It was exceptionally risky and of around 300 agents parachuted into Belgium, 75% were captured by the German Gestapo. Those captured were liable for torture or execution and 150 agents were killed. ==Uniforms and equipment==

", with an added Belgian flag, in the collection of the Nationaal Bevrijdingsmuseum in the Netherlands Unlike the Free French, whose army retained their national rank structure and much of its own equipment and uniforms, the Free Belgians were fully organized and equipped along British lines. Belgian troops adopted the British rank structure along with British Battle Dress uniforms and helmets. ==Legacy==

The Free Belgian forces formed the core of the post-war Belgian army. The Brigade Piron, expanded and renamed "Liberation" Regiment, formed the core of the Belgian army of occupation in Germany. The Free Belgian special forces formed the basis for the creation of the 1st Commando Regiment, and the 1st Parachute Regiment which even kept the "Who Dares Wins" motto of the SAS. The history of the Free Belgian forces continues to be celebrated within Belgium. The Belgian Marine Component, for example, still operates a ship named Godetia. There are numerous memorials to the participation of the Free Belgians forces in the liberation across the country and in areas liberated by the Free Belgians. The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was, however, largely forgotten following Congolese independence in 1960 and decades of subsequent war, ==See also==