Free Belgian forces
The Free Belgian forces (French: Forces belges libres, Dutch: Vrije Belgische Strijdkrachten) were soldiers from Belgium and its colonies who fought as part of the Allied armies during World War II, after the official Belgian surrender to Nazi Germany.
In 1940, Belgian pre-war émigrés and former soldiers who had escaped occupied Belgium were formed into units within the British military which later fought in the European and Mediterranean Theatres.
Significant numbers of soldiers from the Belgian Congo fought on the Allied side against the Italians in East Africa.
Belgian involvement in World War II began when German forces invaded Belgium, which had been following a policy of neutrality, on 10 May 1940.
[3] 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: With the same youthful courage that responded to the government's call, reunited with the elements of the Belgian military in France and Great Britain, a new army will be levied and organized.
It is important to assure immediately and in a tangible way, the solidarity which continues to unite the powers which have given us their support ...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.
[6] This created a problem for the Free Belgian forces, which was therefore generally "top heavy", with a greater ratio of (older) officers to other ranks.
[13] The brigade arrived in Normandy on 8 August 1944 and was involved in the fighting in Northern France alongside British and Canadian units.
[17] 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 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.
[20] The small team, mounted in armed Jeeps, managed to kill more than 300 German soldiers and destroy over 100 vehicles during the mission.
[22] During the 18 Days' Campaign, the Belgian air force had lost practically all its equipment and 28 pilots had been killed.
[25] In 1943, a Belgian pilot from 609 Squadron, Jean de Selys Longchamps, strafed the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels, after flying through the streets at low-altitude.
[27] Operation Carthage an air raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 1945, was led by a Belgian, Wing-Commander Michel Donnet,[28] who had escaped from occupied Belgium in a home-made aircraft.
On the initiative of Lieutenant Victor Billet, a Belgian sailor, the Royal Navy Section Belge (RNSB)[note 2] was created in October 1940.
[32] 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.
[34] Their ships and crews were put at the disposal of the Royal Navy, for coastal patrols and launching barrage balloons.
[32] In November 1944, the flotilla was involved in clearing the Scheldt Estuary to the Belgian port of Antwerp to enable it to be used by the Allies.
[38] During World War II, it was reinforced, numbering 40,000,[39] and constituted the bulk of the Free Belgian forces.
[38] Like other colonial armies of the time, the Force Publique was racially segregated;[40] it was commanded by 280 white officers and NCOs but other ranks were exclusively native Congolese.
[38] After the Allied victory in Abyssinia, the Force Publique was redesignated the 1st Belgian Colonial Motorised Brigade and served as a garrison in Egypt and in British Palestine between 1943 and 1944.
[48] Numerous Belgians served as secret agents for the Allies within "T Section" of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
The Brigade Piron, expanded and renamed "Liberation" Regiment, formed the core of the Belgian army of occupation in Germany.
[57] The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was, however, largely forgotten following Congolese independence in 1960 and decades of subsequent war,[58] though in recent years the profile of the veterans has been raised by exhibitions creating greater public awareness.
