Английская Википедия:Belgian Army order of battle (1914)

Материал из Онлайн справочника
Перейти к навигацииПерейти к поиску

Файл:The Battle of Frontiers, August-september 1914 Q70232.jpg
Belgian carabiniers leading machines drawn by dog carts, photographed during the Battle of the Frontiers in August or September 1914

This is the order of battle for the Belgian Army at the start of the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914.

Background

Файл:Twee Belgische Gidsen te paard, augustus 1914 - Two Belgian Guides on horseback, August 1914 (29946007216).jpg
Two soldiers from the Guides cavalry, pictured in August 1914

At the outbreak of World War I, the Belgian Army was in the middle of a reorganisation. From Belgium's independence in 1830 until 1909 it had comprised a volunteer army and a conscript army recruited by lot.[1] Historically Belgium had a reputation for neglecting its military due, in large part, to its enforced political neutrality.Шаблон:Sfn During the 19th century, military reform had been a major political issue as successive governments remained unsure of whether the signatory nations of the 1839 Treaty of London would intervene to guarantee Belgian neutrality if the country were invaded.Шаблон:Sfn Belgian politicians were also aware of the rapid expansion of French and German armies during the period.Шаблон:Sfn From the 1880s onwards, the Belgian government embarked on an ambitious series of fortress construction but failed to expand or reform the military itself. In 1902, the regular army stood at just 42,800 men with a potential post-mobilisation strength of 180,000.Шаблон:Sfn

Aware of the country's precarious geopolitical situation, a new military bill was signed by King Leopold II in 1909, initiating major military reforms. These put 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 more egalitarian form of military conscription based on age group.Шаблон:Sfn Beyond the acquisition of a few new Krupp artillery pieces, there was little attempt to modernise the army's equipment. Further reforms were launched after the Agadir Crisis in 1911 under the leadership of the Charles de Broqueville government.Шаблон:Sfn After several years of discussion, a major military reform bill was ratified by the parliament in 1913 by which the total possible strength of the army would be gradually increased from 180,000 to 350,000 men. Military spending also rose. This reform had only been partially implemented by the outbreak of war and the Belgium Army was still considered to be weak by the German military leadership.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Strength and equipment

Army

Файл:The Belgian Army, 1914 Q53281.jpg
A Belgian 75mm Model 1905 Field Gun in 1914

The Belgian government ordered a general mobilisation on 31 July 1914.Шаблон:Sfn During the early stages of the 1914 campaign, the military had a strength of nearly 220,000 men:

All of the units suffered from lack of equipment, including ammunition. There was a shortage of capable officers, and only 120 machine guns in the whole army.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The army possessed no field howitzers or heavy artillery.[2] In terms of appearance, the dark-blue uniforms and personal equipment issued to soldiers in 1914 had not changed visibly since 1853.Шаблон:Sfn Standards of discipline were frequently lax and Belgian soldiers were often seen as "indisciplined and careless".Шаблон:Sfn The army had no coherent doctrine and it had as many as five strategic plans, none of which commanded total support from the High Command.[2]

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.

Garde Civique

Файл:Jules De Bruycker - The Parade of the Vigilante Patrol in Ghent.jpg
A 1912 caricature of the "active" Garde Civique on parade in Ghent by the artist Jules De Bruycker

Besides the regular army, the Belgian government in 1914 could call on a large militia known as the Garde Civique (Burgerwacht in Dutch). Formed soon after the Belgian Revolution in 1830, the Garde was a paramilitary organisation, which was intended to supplement the small professional army as a reserve and also serve as a police force in periods of civil disorder. Because of the requirements for membership, the organisation was dominated by middle-class volunteers.Шаблон:Sfn

The Garde was divided into "active" and "non-active" sections. In towns and cities, the local Garde was considered "active" and would incorporate infantry, cavalry, and artillery formations with a wide variety of equipment and different uniforms.Шаблон:Sfn By 1913, the "active" Garde numbered some 46,000 members.Шаблон:Sfn The "non-active" Garde (described by historians as a "paper formation") was located in smaller settlements and in the countryside where its membership was technically much wider but, like the "active" formations, also dominated by the middle-classes. In 1914, 100,000 men of the "non-active" Garde were mobilised although they frequently lacked regulation uniforms and were poorly equipped.Шаблон:Sfn

Файл:Airship Belgique.jpg
The Belgian army's first airship, Belgique

Local Garde Civique units fought at the Battle of Liège and many other engagements during the initial German invasion in 1914.Шаблон:Sfn During the early stages of the war, as many as 1,000 civilians were volunteering for the force every day.Шаблон:Sfn Although numerous, modern historians have argued that "the significance of the Garde Civique should not be exaggerated", highlighting its "marginal" role in the actual fighting.Шаблон:Sfn The members of the Garde were often seen by the Germans as francs-tireurs, encouraging them to engage in atrocities against Belgian civilians. The Garde played only a small role in the campaign after 18 August 1914. On 13 October 1914, Albert I ordered the remaining formations to disband and their members incorporated into the regular Belgian army.

Military 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.Шаблон:Sfn Attached to the fortresses, the company was equipped with a total of 16 Maurice Farman biplanes.Шаблон:Sfn The Belgian army also had had four observation balloons which, like the aircraft, were also attached to the fortresses, and two small airships.[3]

Organisation

Field Army

The Field Army (Armée de Campagne) was the largest component of the Belgian Army, which numbered some 117,000 men.[2] King Albert I was in direct command with Lieutenant-General Antonin de Selliers de Moranville as Chief of the General Staff. It was divided into seven army divisions (divisions d'armée):Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Div col

Шаблон:Div col endШаблон:Location map+

Файл:M 40 5 troupes belges St-Trond Tirlemont.jpg
Belgian troops in September 1914 during the fighting at Tienen

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

The nominal strength of a division varied from 25,500 to 32,000 all ranks, with a total strength of 18 infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment, 18 machine-guns, and 48 guns.Шаблон:Sfn Two divisions (the 2nd and 6th) each had an additional artillery regiment, for a total of sixty guns.Шаблон:Sfn 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 therefore little more than a reinforced brigade.Шаблон:Sfn

On 13 October 1914, the Garde Civique was formally disbanded by Albert I and its members officially incorporated into the regular army.Шаблон:Sfn

Fortifications

Файл:Dorpveld.jpg
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.[2] 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.Шаблон:Sfn 12 were built at Liège and eight at Namur.Шаблон:Sfn

See also

Шаблон:Portal

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Шаблон:Commons category-inline

Партнерские ресурсы
Криптовалюты
Магазины
Хостинг
Разное

  1. ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
  2. ↑ 2,0 2,1 2,2 2,3 Шаблон:Cite web
  3. ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
Источник — http://wikihandbk.com/ruwiki/index.php?title=Английская_Википедия:Belgian_Army_order_of_battle_(1914)&oldid=13456021