What Did the Belgians Do on D-Day? | Belgium's Contribution 1944

D-Day was one of the most pivotal moments in the second world war the Normandy Landings that occurred after it enabled the Allies to gain a foothold on the coast of Europe and thus begin the liberation of countries that had been under Nazi occupation for the last several years the main forces involved during D-Day were American British and Commonwealth and particularly also Canadian Forces however among the British many smaller occupied Nations had troops that were fighting alongside them as well as of course those of the British Empire in previous videos I mentioned the Dutch and indeed the Polish and how they played an important role during D-Day in various branches of the military and today I would like to talk about another small nation that played a very important role at D-Day which was Belgium so what did Belgian forces do to make D-Day possible well Belgium had been invaded in 1940 the attack on Belgium starting the same day that the attack on the Netherlands unfolded on the 10th of May however unlike the Netherlands Belgium was quite a bit better prepared for a German attack when it came their army numbered about 650,000 which was about twice as large as the Dutch Army at the time Belgian forces also having created many lines of Defense particularly around the area of the German border however the German assault when it came was Furious and unexpected many of these border forts being captured by paratroopers the German alimer which had never been deployed in combat before until the Belgian Army never saw them coming with these border forts captured it was only a uh small amount of time before other German forces streamed into the country and with Panza divisions and the LOF bafa supporting them the belgians could only hel hold out for so long despite the efforts of their French and British allies after 18 days of fighting several tens of thousands were among 112,500 Belgian and French for forces that were able to be evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk by various ships back to Britain the same day that Belgian capitulated the Prime Minister of Belgium Uber Pio said 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 will go into the line alongside those of our allies all the forces we have will be put at the service of the cause which has become ours 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 thus calling on belgians abroad particularly in the United Kingdom who had escaped there to join new military units that would serve alongside the British and indeed at this point the French because France had not yet Fallen to fight back against the enemy these would become the free Belgian forces and they would play a role during dday now it's important to note that unlike the Netherlands which had a rather large Navy the belgians really didn't have much of a Navy at all that's why it's quite surprising that Belgium actually also played a naval role during D-Day and the further Normandy Landings this is because many Belgian Sailors and Mariners of various descriptions from civilian life actually sailed their vessels over to Great Britain during the war and became part of Royal Navy seon belge the Belgian section in in fact these Belgian Mariners also played a role during the dunker evacuations with several Belgian fishing vessels going over to dunker and helping to evacuate Allied Forces and bring them back to the United Kingdom many of those who did not then returned their ships to Belgium went instead to Britain and there became part of the Royal Navy's Belgian section during D-Day two ships which were given over to the section HMS gtia and HMS buttercup played a role in assisting the Allied Shipping efforts and in bombarding German Shore defenses it's also worth noting that a Belgian George dimman was put in charge of the British 202nd flotilla this flotilla being important for the carrying over of Royal Marines onto the shores during dday itself and later for bringing none other than Charles Dugal over to France in what was an incredibly important moment in history as he returned to his Fatherland Belgian Pilots also saw action from three different squadrons during D-Day that was the 349th the 350th and the 609th Belgian uh RAF squads which were fighting under the command of the RAF they helped again to protect the fleet that was bringing the troops over to Normandy and inbombing German positions on the other side of the channel now it was on the 7th of August that Belgian troops were first landed in Normandy at arage you'll remember this was the same place where Dutch forces landed on the 8th of August now in particular of of importance was the landing of the Belgian unit called the brigad pon this was a Belgian unit that had been set up in the United Kingdom and which was equipped with British equipment and uniforms but which was fighting for the ultimate goal of liberating Belgium and several other neighboring countries it's worth noting that while the majority of the around 2,200 members of the brigad pron were Belgian some 80 were luxembourgers who had made it out of Luxembourg if you like to learn more about Luxembourg in the second world war then feel free to check out my video Luxembourg in World War II in my unknown second world war series for that now the Belgian unit uh with those added luxembourgers had been training in England and in Wales for the task of liberating Europe and they would be involved fighting in Normandy in various battles around and afterwards they would often be fighting together with one of the most important Dutch units the princess Irena bada and indeed with British polish and Canadian Forces as they pushed up the coast towards Belgium several places commemorate the brigad pon and other Belgian forces that served uh in their battles in Normandy and indeed in Belgium they would actually enter the country for the first time again on the 4th of September crossing the Belgian border as they were hurried along with the princess Ira bada to begin the liberation of the low countries the following day the 5th of September they would be the second Allied unit to enter Brussels to Great Applause from The Waiting crowds the first being the Welsh guards following their time in liberating Belgium and her cities they would also push North to Anin and then across the border into the Netherlands this was because the Dutch forces had also been involved in liberating Belgium and so the Belgian forces following the completion of Belgium's Liberation also aided in the liberation of the Netherlands to learn more about that I've got a video about the battles around ANB and what was known as the battle of the selda which was a fight in Zealand in the southern Netherlands and which also involved Belgian forces at this time another Belgian unit played a key role at this battle of the skela and this was the number 10 inter-allied command unit this unit was actually partially Belgian it was made up of several different occupied Nations across Europe but the number four troop was made up of belgians they together with those of Norwegian Dutch French and British extraction would all be involved in operation infatuate which was the operation to capture the island of vulin during the battles around the skela estery another important Belgian unit was part of the SAS or the Special Air Service the fifth Special Air Service actually being made up of exclusively Belgian recruits many of whom had served in the Belgian Air Force beforehand others of whom were in Belgian fuselier units which were then Amalgamated in 1942 to create this special unit in the United Kingdom that served with the SAS they would be dropped into Normandy and would play an important role during the Battle of the Bulge fighting in small units with armored Jeeps mounted with machine guns they were able to take out several hundred Germans including a 100 Vehicles later also fight in the Netherlands and then following the end of the war after which time they had already crossed in Germany they were responsible for arresting some of the leading Nazis including Admiral Carl Von duritz Yim Von rientro and Alfred Rosenberg it's interesting to note that Belgian forces in the liberation of Belgium were very important for being liaison between the Belgian resistance groups and between Allied units thus acting as translators and also as coordinators also interesting to note is that following the liberation of Belgium it was quite difficult for the new Belgian government that was being installed to disarm the older resistance units many of these units were then formed into fuselier battalions which were new armed units that continued to fight alongside the Allies as they pushed North into the Netherlands and then ultimately into Germany as well this meant that by War's end with those free Belgian forces and the new Fusia battalions which had been created from former resistance members the belgians had around 100,000 men in army uniform at War's end all right everyone thank you very much for watching this video about Belgium's role in D-Day and the subsequent liberation of Belgium and the Netherlands again an interesting role that they played a somewhat smaller role which is understandable but still an important one in making it work hope you've enjoyed watching this video let me know which other countries would you like to hear about uh what they did during the Normandy Landings and afterwards I think maybe one about the um czechoslovaks might be quite interesting they played an important role particularly with the the RAF similar to to the polls which I of course already have a video on so let me know if that would be interesting or if you'd like to see something about various resistance groups in Europe and the kind of chaos that ued following the second world war when some feared there would be kind of socialist Uprising certainly a thing in France definitely in Belgium too and I'm not sure what exactly the situation was in the Netherlands but I think it'd be interesting to look into anyway thank you very much for watching I have been Hilbert and this has been the history