Belgian armed forces

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BelgiumBelgium Belgian Armed Forces
Armée Belge
Belgian casual
Coats of arms of Belgium Military Forces.svg
guide
Commander in Chief : King Philippe
Defense Minister: Philippe Goffin ( MR )
Military Commander: Admiral Michel Hofman
Military strength
Active soldiers: 29,000 (2016)
Conscription: Repealed (1995)
Resilient population: Males 1,973,167 aged 16 to 49

1,915,990 women aged 16 to 49

Eligibility for military service: 18th
household
Military budget: $ 4.818 billion (2019)
Share of gross domestic product : 0.91% (2016)
history
Belgian soldiers as part of the UNOSOM II mission in Somalia , November 1993

The Belgian Armed Forces ( French Armée belge , Dutch Belgian Leger ) are the armed forces of the Kingdom of Belgium . They are subdivided into army , navy , air force and medical corps (Dutch Medische Component , French Composante Médicale ).

There are purely Dutch and purely French-speaking units. Until the beginning of 2010 there was also a mixed-language unit, the 1 ° Bn Para, which was dissolved in the course of the army reform. Officers must - also depending on the length of service - at least be able to make themselves understood by members of the other language community .

In trilingual Belgium there was also a German-speaking unit in the army until 1994 : the 3rd battalion of the Ardennes fighters in Vielsalm .

history

19th century

In the revolution of 1830 Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands . Prussia , France and the United Kingdom had vouched for the integrity of the borders of the young state , and so the Belgian government was able to forego a large standing army. Instead, Belgium set up a gendarmerie , the Bürgerwacht , at the beginning of its history ( Dutch Burgerwacht , French Garde civique ). The civil guard was the forerunner of the Belgian army, which today bears the name land component.

In 1831 the naval component was also founded, at that time still under the name Royal Navy (Nld. Koninklijke Marine , Fra. Marine Royale ).

However, in addition to the civil guard, the recruitment of a regular land army under the system of selective conscription soon began . Since wealthier Belgians in particular were able to evade this duty, the target strength of 20,000 soldiers was initially not achieved.

The young Belgian military was given primarily self-defense tasks and fortified the borders with the Netherlands, Prussia and France. The mostly neutral state of Belgium was put to the first test during the Franco-Prussian War . In 1870 a general mobilization was ordered, which lasted for almost a year and, although the officers showed structural weaknesses, the strong appearance of Belgium achieved the desired effect: Belgium remained neutral and its territory unscathed by the war.

The Pontifical Zouaves , a 1861 originally to defend the Papal States established unit Franco-Belgian soldiers fought after a defeat in the conquest of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy on the French side in the battle of Mentana against Prussia. This task force was the first large collection of Belgian troops to take part in a European war.

During the various missions of the Zouaves in 1864, a Belgian volunteer unit also supported the French intervention in Mexico . The approximately 2,000 Belgian volunteers fought in vain; France was defeated and Emperor Maximilian deposed in favor of a republic.

After Prussia's victory over France, Belgium now had a new neighbor, the German Empire .

In 1885 the Force Publique (Nld .: Openbare Weermacht ) was set up, a gendarmerie and colonial army in the Belgian Congo . At first this was little more than a mercenary army until a command of Belgian officers was installed in 1908. The Force Publique, which among other things fought in the war against Tippu-Tip (1892-1894), was only dissolved in 1960 with the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . During this time, the Force Publique committed numerous crimes against humanity .

20th century

Before the First World War

In 1902, in response to the Boxer Rebellion , Belgium acquired a permanent colonial garrison in Tientsin, China . In 1904 a permanent garrison of the Belgian armed forces was set up there.

It was not until 1909 that the selective conscription system was replaced, very late in comparison to many other European countries which had switched to the Prussian model of general conscription , which had been successful in multiple wars much earlier .

The Belgian Army was seen as superfluous because politics and the public alike relied on its supposedly inviolable neutrality. Politicians neglected military spending and dismissed military build-up as absurd.

Only after the Agadir crisis in 1913 was a massive armament decided: the mobilized maximum strength of the Belgian army was to increase from 180,000 to 350,000 soldiers. This rearmament was not yet completed in the summer of 1914, which led to the German army command viewing the Belgian army as weak enough to be overrun within a few days.

First World War

Belgian neutrality, however, was less certain than assumed: On August 4, 1914, the German army marched into neutral Belgium , in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan . Germany ignored the British ultimatum to withdraw from Belgium and demanded free passage from the Belgians. King Albert , following the will of the people and the government, refused. Belgium had already made general mobile on July 31, 1914, shortly after the Austro-Hungary attack on Serbia . The German invasion of Belgium was referred to as the Rape of Belgium in British war propaganda .

On the eve of the war, Belgium had 19 infantry regiments , 10 cavalry regiments and 8 artillery regiments , supported by engineers, military police and paramilitaries.

Belgium had built massive border fortresses since 1859, including Antwerp , Liège and Namur . While these fortifications were impressive by 19th century standards, they were not fully completed in 1914, and they were not up to the range and firepower of modern howitzers.

117,000 Belgians faced 600,000 Germans when the 1st Army under Alexander von Kluck , the 2nd Army under Karl von Bülow , the 3rd Army under Max von Hausen and finally even the 4th Army under Albrecht Herzog von, advancing through Luxembourg Württemberg tried to penetrate Belgium in order to encircle the French troops on the border with Germany in the south and to take the French capital Paris.

Belgium was lost in the first weeks of the war: Liège, already under fire on August 4th, finally fell into German hands on August 16th. Although the German high command initially underestimated the 40,000 Belgian defenders in terms of both numbers and quality, the fortress city, which was of absolute importance for Germany due to Dutch neutrality, could not be held. On August 17th the government withdrew from Brussels to Antwerp. On August 20, Brussels fell into German hands without any major damage, and Löwen was destroyed from August 25 to 28 . At the beginning of October, German troops finally broke through the defensive ring around Antwerp.

The war took place on Belgian soil for the next 4 years, as a small part of the country in the far west was successfully defended by the Belgians and the Entente powers allied with them . The British Expeditionary Corps, which mainly held the left flank of the Entente, was particularly keen to achieve the original British war objective - the liberation of Belgium. The city of Ypres , which was fiercely fought over in four battles in Flanders, became particularly famous and is one of the most famous locations on the western front alongside Verdun .

In addition to the war in Europe, the Belgian armed forces or their colonial army took part in the fighting in East Africa .

Interwar period

Part of the history of the Belgian armed forces also affects Germany. Belgian armed forces in Germany already existed as Armée belge d'occupation after the First World War , as part of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland from 1918 to 1929.

Second World War

The German raid on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg ("Fall Gelb") began on May 10, 1940. On May 17, Brussels was occupied by German army units without a fight. The Belgian army was surrounded in the Bruges area. On May 28 at 4:00 a.m., King Leopold III signed. the surrender of the Belgian army and went with his soldiers into captivity.

post war period

After the Second World War , Belgian forces were stationed in the south of the British Occupation Zone in support of the British Army of Occupation . The headquarters were in Cologne . With the end of the occupation, they were integrated into NATO's military plans and their continued deployment was agreed in a bilateral agreement between Germany and Belgium. In 1996 they were disbanded as an independent command.

The Belgian Armed Forces and the DR Congo since 1960

A focus of the Belgian armed forces outside of NATO structures was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the former colonial area. During the Congo crisis between 1960 and 1965, the Belgian Armed Forces played an important and often inglorious role. For example with the murder of Patrice Lumumba . Since the independence of the DR Congo from Belgium was decided very suddenly and hastily, the governments of Belgium and the DR Congo agreed to keep the military in the hands of both states. The Force Publique was to become the army of the Congo, the officer corps remained in the hands of the Belgians for a few years. As in the administration, the Belgian military had failed to provide trained management personnel in good time. Therefore, another 10,000 regular Belgian soldiers were to remain stationed in the two bases Kamina and Kitona , which could be requested by the new President Joseph Kasavubu or the new Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba . However, 5 days after independence, on July 5, 1960, the Congolese soldiers of the Force Publique mutinied against their Belgian officers, as well as against the government and perpetrated attacks on Belgian civilians living in the country. This led the Belgian Defense Minister Arthur Gilson to the decision to let the Belgian armed forces deploy without the consent of the government of the Congo. Initially, the government of the Congo approved the move because it could not guarantee the protection of Belgian citizens. For example, soldiers of the Force Publique took Belgian civilians hostage and carried out serious attacks on the Belgian civilian population resident in the country, for example in Luluaburg , today's Kananga

However, on July 11, 1960, the Belgian armed forces then began to occupy strategic positions in the country and increasingly began to regain control of important parts of the former colony, such as in Congo Central . There, however, there were no attacks on Belgian civilians at all, which is why the new government of the DR Congo viewed this act as an act of war against a sovereign state. This prompted Prime Minister Lumumba to take the momentous decision to seek help from the USSR , which on the one hand triggered the civil war and on the other also called the USA onto the scene, whereupon an international proxy war broke out between the USSR, the USA and Belgium . The Belgian armed forces openly supported the armed forces of Moïse Tschombé , who had proclaimed an independent state based closely on Belgium in Katanga , in Rwanda-Urundi, which was still under Belgian control until 1962 . Under pressure from the USA, the Belgians had to give up their own aspirations and dropped Chombé militarily, but not politically. Then in 1963 the Belgian forces permanently stationed in the Congo were withdrawn. Belgium remained militarily present. Since Tschombé had returned from exile and became Prime Minister on July 10, 1964, he called on regular Belgian troops to help him stifle the Simba rebellion . In the following years the Para-Commando-Brigade acted in various operations in the Congo. Since then, the Belgian military has been repeatedly active in the DR Congo. The dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was repeatedly supported by troops, for example in 1978 at the Battle of Kolwezi . In August 2017, the government of the Congo under Joseph Kabila ended military cooperation between the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo and the Belgian armed forces , which had existed since 2003 . The Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders had previously criticized the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, this was rejected by Kabila with reference to the atrocities of the Congo and the role of Belgium during the Congo crisis.

assignment

The Belgian armed forces have the mandate to protect the territorial integrity of the State of Belgium and to guarantee national defense in the event of war. In peacetime, they contribute to Belgium's alliance obligations within NATO through training, provision and supply of the military.

organization

In 2006 the Belgian armed forces had a strength of 35,000 men. Voluntary military service was formally abolished in 1994. The defense spending in 2006 amounted to 2.5 billion euros.

Practice rooms

Within Belgium, the military training areas (Training Aera) Elsenborn , Bervelo, Lagland and Marche-En-Famenne are available.

Forces and equipment

army

With 24,600 soldiers, the land forces are the largest of the armed forces. You are currently undergoing a fundamental re-equipment. In this context, all tracked vehicles (with the exception of the Biber bridge-laying tanks) were exchanged for wheeled vehicles. The Belgian army will therefore completely dispense with battle tanks and self-propelled howitzers in the future . This transformation process was completed in 2015.

Organization of the Belgian land forces
4th Regiment de Chasseurs à Cheval

Vehicles:

as well as various other vehicles for transport, logistics and pioneer units.

Hand weapons:

FN P90 5.7mm submachine gun

Assault rifles

Machine gun

Air Force Ensign of Belgium.svg air force

The Belgian air component is the second largest part of the armed forces with 6350 men. It has 68 F-16 fighters and 31 helicopters at its disposal.

Equipment (2007)

Source: later update as indicated

Lockheed F-16 MLU at the 2005 Radom Air Show in Poland
Westland Sea King

Air bases

Belgium has four major military airfields :

Two smaller places accommodate helicopters:

Some Alpha Jets of the 1st Wing are permanently stationed at the Cazaux military airfield in southwest France .

Naval Ensign of Belgium.svg marine

F930 Leopold I. (ex-HNLMS Karel Doorman)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Defense Expenditure of NATO Countries (2009-2016). (PDF) NATO, March 13, 2017, accessed April 23, 2017 .
  2. ↑ https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/Data%20for%20all%20countries%20from%201988%E2%80%932019%20in%20constant%20%282018%29%20USD.pdf
  3. ^ Keegan, John: World Armies, p. 55
  4. ↑ British War Office: "Handbook of the Belgian Army", pp. 2-3
  5. ^ Powell, Joseph: Two Years in the Pontifical Zouaves
  6. ↑ Derie, Guy: Les Soldats de Leopold ler et Leopold II , p. 130
  7. ↑ Derie, Guy: Les Soldats de Leopold ler et Leopold II , p. 124
  8. ↑ Derie, Guy: Les Soldats de Leopold ler et Leopold II , p. 134
  9. ^ Tuchman, Barbara: The Guns of August , p. 126
  10. ↑ Pawly, R; Lierneux, P .: "The Belgian Army in World War I"
  11. ^ Belgian Foreign Ministry (ed.): Belgium: The Official Account of What Happened 1939-1940. London 1941. Free download from Archive.org ( link ).
  12. ↑ Belgian-DRC military co-operation ends after 13 years ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.janes.com
  13. ↑ World Military Aircraft Inventory , Aerospace Source Book 2007 , Aviation Week & Space Technology , January 15 2007.
  • The World Defense Almanac 2006. Mönch Publishing Group, Bonn 2006.

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