What was Belgiums role in the 2 world wars?

Answer 1

Target practice for the Hun.... And no Germany did not have to go through Belgium to get to France - - it was more a matter of contempt for Belgian Liberty that caused the Imperial German Army to roll through Belgium in 1914 and to occupy most of the country until defeated in 1918. And the Nazis were equally contemptuous of Belgium. Belgium played a larger some would say more heroic role in World War One. Many decry Monarchies and laugh at the thought of Kings & Queens but it was King Albert the 1st who rose to the occassion leading his nation in defiance of the might of Germany, holding down precious German forces thas saving Paris (something the French never got around to thanking them for), and eventually caused the downfall of the Germans in 1918..

World War Two was a sadder affair - - - the same despair that gripped France and led to its fall was evident in Belgium in 1940 and when the Nazis gave King Leopold a good excuse to surrender he did so. Belgiun was a 'nice' country to occuppy in the eyes of the Nazis. Sure there were 'terrorist' but far fewer than Holland and populous France. In fact Flemish & Walloon Troops were recruited from Belgium and they fought heroically on the Nazi side against the Soviet Russians..

Now to cut and paste & snippets - - - but do think about reading up on Albert the 1st he and his Queen were brave and Belgium during World War One gets far less credit than is fair.....
http://www.worldwar1.com/biocbka.htm
"""Albert ascended the throne on the death of his uncle, Leopold II, in 1909, due to the death of the intended heirs. Leopold's son died, then his nephew, which left Albert to reign at 16 years old. He was reserved, an avid reader and loved the outdoors. His interests included horseback riding and rock climbing.

Before becoming King he was Count of Flanders and was very popular because of his democratic ways. He married the Duchess of Bavaria, Elizabeth. She was as loyal to Belgium as he. He visited the US in 1898 and 1919 and also visited the Congo, where upon seeing the poor condition of Leopold II's former colony, he urged technological development and better treatment of the natives in the area.
Albert and his wife were well-liked as a royal family. They had a model family and acted like real people.
Albert was aware of the German invasion plans, but could do nothing, as Belgium's neutrality prevented the country from arming itself. But once the war had begun, he led the Belgians in delaying actions against the Germans (the Belgian constitution said the King would become Commander in Chief in case of war).

The King declined to cooperate with the allies and maintained separate command of the Belgian forces. In 1918 Albert finally gave in to pressure and cooperated with the allies in the final offense of 1918, being made commander of the Flanders Army Group by General Foch of France.
He died in a mountain climbing accident near Namur and was succeeded by his son Leopold III, who would face the Nazis in World War II. Albert's death was mourned universally.
Quotes
"Belgium is a nation, not a road."
Albert while visiting Berlin, when informed by the Kaiser of Germany's war plan
"When he speaks, the King always looks as if he wished to build something."
one of the King's Ministers
"What does he take me for?"
Albert upon the Kaiser's insistence that the responsibility for peace was in his hands
"One thing is for certain: they will not say that Belgium invaded Germany."
Clemenceau's reply when asked how history would remember the German invasion of Belgium"""


http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/hitler_s_foreign_legion__waffen_ss
Belgian: Flemish 23,000 -5th SS Div., 27th SS Div.

Belgium: Walloon 15,000 -5th SS Div., 28th SS Div.""



Peace...........................

Answer 2

Belgium was like the Netherlands and Luxembourg a neutral country at the outbreak of that war and so it wasn't possible to invited the army's of France and UK before a invasion off ore country. In the years before the war Belgium had build some defense lines intended to delay and to stop the invasion of a army coming from Germany ( in fact do to the origin of neutrality we also had to provided some lines of defense against the other neighboring country's otherwise Germany could claim that we weren't neutral ) The best known lines for delaying the invasion where the bunker line at the Albert canal ( where the fort Eben emael was a cornerstone intended to give artillery support to all the small bunkers and to cover the Bridges around maastricht across the maas , was only taken by a non conventional attack by air ) also around Luik where some cover lines support by the forts around situated around the city ( fort tancremont did only surrender a day after the surrender in belgium nl 29Mai ) The main stopping line was the KW line ( koingshooik - wavre) starting around antwerpen and intended to connect around Namen to the french border and so the Maginot line. This line was intended to be hold together with the UK forces who would be demanded to help us ( there the delaying line to gain time so the troupes could occupy the KW line ) but history took a other turn and the Germans pieced the lines at sedan Between the war many men who would escaped the occupation took service in the ally's army's and there even where independed corps and section in the navy and airforce in the uk army Also the resitance in belgium did there part in helping excape shot down pilots ( the comet line did help escape more then 700 airmen and the BBC serie secret army was inspired by there story ) and active resitance like the group G who succeeded in a certain action with blowing up certain high tensionlines in belgium that even a current chortage was in jan 1944 in the ruhr ( this action is best known unther the name La Grande Coupure )

Answer 3

Their country is situated on the natural invasion route to France from Germany. For Germany to invade France in both wars, they needed to attack Belgium first. In both wars the Belgians tried to put up a good fight, but they could not match the manpower of a much larger combined German state. (Germany only became a united country in 1871.)
By natural invasion route you need to think about terrain.
It's simply easier to move marching men and wheeled vehicles over flatter ground.

Answer 4

Bearstirringfromcave wrote some correct things but is incomplete. As a Belgian I've made a kind of hobby to find out what the Belgians did in both WW.

WW1 :
As the German Emperor requested free entry of Belgium to bypass the French defences, much to his surprise received a firm NO from the Belgians. Much more he was surprised that the Belgians did fight.
At Liège the fortresses held out for days before they were pulverised by the Big Bertas.
At Halen, his best cavalry regiments got a strafing from the Belgian cavalry.
The risk was to big to be overwhelmed and the Belgians retreated to the fortified position of Antwerp. From there they started some expeditions into the flank of the Germans. By doing valuable regiments had to stay behind. Just the number of regiments needed at the battle of the Marne. By doing those raids, they played a enormous role in saving Paris.
Some daring raids with armoured cars were done.
As a revenge the Germans burned Leuven and killed a lot of civilians. This gave the enormous response in the world and thousands of British joined the army.
When the Big Bertas where again put into action the Belgians retreated to the coast and put a stiff resistance at at small river the Yser. For the Belgians this has the same value as Ypres to the British.
In Africa the Belgian-Congolese troops played a big role into throwing out the Germans out of Rwanda-Burundi.
A armoured car regiment was send to Russia and got different citations.
In 1918 the Albert 1 was nominated chief of an allied army combined of Belgian, British, American and French troops. Belgian units finally took Passchendaele after being lost in the spring offensive.
Top ace : Willy Coppens who was world top ace in Balloon busting (due to the heavy anti aircraft defence shooting down an observation balloon was considered even more valuable than shooting down an airplane).
WW1 was for Belgium a disaster: being top 10 economical power its industrial industry was destroyed and plundered by the Germans.
King Albert was much loved by its soldiers because he was the only head of state that was seen in the front line. He also refused to make foolish attack as done by the French and British. Only once success was possible (in 1918) he send its soldiers into the final offensive. It is never forgotten by them that he considered them as humans and not as canon futher like a Haig, Petain, Joffre, Nivelle did.
...

WW2 : the Belgian army set up a stiff resistance (the forts of Liege stood again firm and at the surrendering of the Belgian Army one was still not taken).
At several occasions the Germans got a serious beating but as the British they were driven back.
At the moment the British had already started the evacuation at Dunkerque the Belgian lines were broken at several places. No more reserves were available and the fighting should start in the middle of the millions of civilians. King Leopold had no other option than to surrender.

Other actions after the surrendering:
a lot of Flemish fishermen evacuated there family to England (remembering the atrocities in WW1) but after that returned with their boats to Dunkerque and Oostende to save thousands of British. Later they joined the Royal Navy and got citations in the Battle of the Atlantic, Normandy (one of the speciality was mine sweeping).

Some squadrons of Belgians pilots (fled to England) participated at the Battle of Britain.
The Belgian Brigade (Piron) got citations in Normandy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Belgian Congolees units fought in Abyssinia and a Belgian Congolees field hospital assisted the hard fighting in Burma.
Enormous values of raw materials of Congo were shipped to the allies (without the Congolese uranium the A-bomb would not have been possible in 45).
Belgian SAS troops fought in France, Belgium and Germany. Belgian Commandos in Italy and Walcheren (Holland) and Germany.

Resistance: 17000 members of the resistance died in concentration camps
the best secret evacuation line of allied pilots was set up by Belgians (the BBC made the popular series Secret Army about it). Group G (specialised in sabotage) blow up all the high tension electricity line in a part of Belgium so that the steel melting in Wallonia and the German Ruhr lay out for hours.
The percentage of Jews transported were small due to the fact that a lot of Belgians helped them to hide. The only attack to liberate a transport to the concentration camps took part in Belgium.
And the False Le Soir showed the Belgian mentality. They simply replaced the censured newspaper by a special edition full of jokes about the Germans. The Germans were furious.

About the collaboration : in percentage there were more French speaking people in the Waffen SS then Flemish. The website given by someone is not correct and I think they counted the Flemish people that would have liked to create a free Flemish state with. The photo about Leon Degrelle stating it was a Flemish war criminal is incorrect. He was a Walloon.

So this is in a nutshell the Belgian role. Please feel free to ask more via email.
This is the problem with a small country : its history is seldom known.

Answer 5

To lose in a quick and efficient manner. Seriously, their military was too small to stand up to the German advances in either war. Though their fighting spirit was never questioned, they were overrun with little fanfare both times.

Answer 6

They were supposed to be neutral but the Germans invaded anyway so they could turn the French defences

Answer 7

A revolving door.

Answer 8

nothing much.