Belgian Army order of battle (1914)

Belgian troops photographed during the Battle of the Frontiers in 1914

This is the order of battle for the Belgian army on the outbreak of war in August 1914.

Background

At the outbreak of World War I, the Belgian army was in the middle of a reorganisation. During the 19th century, military reform had been a major political issue. In 1909, Leopold II signed a bill putting an end to the system of remplacement, in which wealthy conscripts could pay a replacement to take their place in the army, and introduced a fairer form of conscription.^[1] In 1913, a major military reform bill was ratified by the parliament by which the army would be gradually increased to 350,000 men. This reform had only been partially implemented by the outbreak of war.^[1]

Army

A Belgian artillery piece in 1914

At the outbreak of war, the army had a strength of nearly 220,000:

• 120,500 regular soldiers.^[1]
• 65,000 reservists assigned to fortress units^[1]
• 46,000 militia of the Garde Civique^[1]
• 18,000 new volunteers.^[1]

All of the units suffered from lack of equipment. There was a shortage of capable officers, and only 100 machine guns in the whole army.^[2] The army possessed no heavy artillery.^[3] In terms of appearance, the uniforms and personal equipment issued to soldiers in 1914 had not changed visibly since 1853.^[2] Standards of discipline were frequently lax and Belgian soldiers were often seen as "indisciplined and careless".^[2] The army had no coherent doctrine and its had as many as five strategic plans, none of which commanded total support from the High Command.^[3]

The Belgian army was divided into two, with the majority assigned to the Field Army and lower-quality troops to guard the country's three fortified zones.

Field Army

Belgian troops in September 1914 during the fighting at Tirlemont

The Field Army (Armée de Campagne) was the largest component of the Belgian Army, which numbered some 117,000 men.^[3] King Albert I was in direct command with Lieutenant-General Chevalier de Selliers de Moranville as Chief of the General Staff. It was divided into seven army divisions (divisions d'armée):

• 1st Division (Lieutenant-General Baix) – around Ghent.
• 2nd Division (Lieutenant-General Dossin) – Antwerp.
• 3rd Division (Lieutenant-General Leman) – around Liège.
• 4th Division (Lieutenant-General Michel) – Namur and Charleroi.
• 5th Division (Lieutenant-General Ruwet) – around Mons.
• 6th Division (Lieutenant-General Latonnois van Rode) – Brussels.
• Cavalry Division (Lieutenant-General de Witte) – Brussels.

Each division contained two or three mixed brigades (of two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment), one cavalry regiment, and one artillery regiment, as well as various support units.^[4] Each infantry regiment contained three battalions, with one regiment in each brigade having a machine-gun company of six guns. An artillery regiment had three batteries of four guns.

The nominal strength of a division varied from 25,500 to 32,000 all ranks, with a total strength of eighteen infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment, eighteen machine-guns, and forty-eight guns. Two divisions (the 2nd and 6th) each had an additional artillery regiment, for a total of sixty guns.

The Cavalry Division had two brigades of two regiments each, three horse artillery batteries, and a cyclist battalion, along with support units; it had a total strength of 4,500 all ranks with 12 guns, and was – in effect – little more than a reinforced brigade.

On 13 October 1914, the Garde Civique was disbanded by the King and its members incorporated into the regular army.^[5]

Fortifications

The Fort at Dorpveld, near Antwerp, completed in 1912

The second component of the army were the garrisons deployed to Belgium's three fortified cities. These fortress garrisons numbered approximately 80,000 men.^[3] The fortress troops were under local command and the soldiers themselves were generally older and less well-trained than soldiers in the Field Army.

Before the war, the Belgian government invested resources in constructing and reinforcing fortifications around the country. These included the National Redoubt at Antwerp, with further fortified chains around the cities of Namur and Liège. The forts, many designed by Henri-Alexis Brialmont, a noted military architect of the nineteenth century, formed an integral part of the Belgian strategy. Between 1859 and 1870, 13 forts had been built around Antwerp and a further 17 were still unfinished by 1914.^[6]

Aviation

In 1913, the Belgian government created the Company of Aviators (Compagnie des Aviateurs), the antecedent of the Belgian Air Force, just two years after the inauguration of the country's first airfield at Brasschaat in 1911.^[7] They were equipped with Maurice Farman biplanes.^[8] The army also used balloons for spotting.

References

1. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 4.
2. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 40.
3. Simoens, Tom. "Warfare 1914-1918 (Belgium)". 1914-1918 Online Encylopedia. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
4. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, pp. 4-5.
5. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 7.
6. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 6.
7. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 38.
8. Pawly & Lierneux 2009, p. 5.

Bibliography

• Pawly, R; Lierneux, P. (2009). The Belgian Army in World War I (1st ed.). Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-448-0.
• Appendix 5: Order of battle of the Belgian Army in August 1914. In: History of the Great War: Military Operations, France and Belgium 1914, by J. E. Edmonds. Macmillan & Co., London, 1922.