TheSecondWar.pl

Belgium

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(51)

1937

October

13
- The German guarantee for BelgiumOn 13 October 1937 the Reich assured Belgium it would not violate its territory unless Belgium took up arms against Germany. In May 1940 it broke its word.

1939

September

04
- More countries declare neutralityIn early September 1939 Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Lithuania, Iran, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico declared neutrality.

October

11
- The British Expeditionary Force on the Belgian borderOn 11 October 1939 Hore-Belisha announced that 158,000 men had been sent to France. Four BEF divisions were already fortifying a sector on the Belgian border.
27
- Belgium reaffirms its neutralityOn 27 October 1939 Leopold III, in a radio address to Americans, reaffirmed Belgium’s neutrality and warned that if attacked the country would fight.

November

09
- The Dyle PlanOn 9 November 1939 at Vincennes Gamelin won approval for the Dyle Plan. If Belgium were attacked, the Allies would advance as far as the Antwerp–Namur line.

1940

January

10
- Key eventThe Mechelen incidentOn 10 January 1940 a German liaison aircraft force-landed in Belgium near Mechelen. The Belgians seized the charred papers of the plan of attack in the West.

May

July

05
- Huysmans and Jaspar in LondonOn 5 July 1940 Camille Huysmans and Marcel-Henri Jaspar set up a Belgian National Committee in London to fight on. The British did not recognise it.

September

18
- Radio BelgiqueIn September 1940 the BBC launched Radio Belgique and Radio België, broadcasts for occupied Belgium. Belgian sources date the first one to 28 September.

November

21
- Belgium declares war on ItalyIn November 1940 Pierlot’s government in London declared Belgium at war with Italy. The cause was Italian bombers operating from Belgian airfields.

1941

January

April

14
- The Antwerp pogromOn 14 April 1941, after a screening of The Eternal Jew, Flemish collaborators attacked Antwerp's Jewish quarter and burned two synagogues and a rabbi's house.

May

10
- The strike of the 100,000On 10 May 1941, the anniversary of the invasion, a strike began at the Cockerill works in Seraing and spread to 60,000–70,000 workers in occupied Belgium.

July

03
- The surrender of GazzeraOn 3 July 1941 Belgian troops from the Congo attacked the Italians at Saïo. That afternoon General Pietro Gazzera sought terms; he surrendered on 6 July.

November

25
- The closure of the Free University of BrusselsOn 25 November 1941 the Free University of Brussels suspended teaching rather than accept professors imposed by the Germans. It stayed shut until liberation.

December

09
- The miners’ strike in the Belgian CongoOn 9 December 1941 Force Publique soldiers opened fire on striking Union Minière miners at the football stadium in Élisabethville. Dozens were killed.

1942

May

27
- The Star of David in Belgium and FranceOn 27 May 1942 the German military administration in Belgium, and on 29 May in occupied France, ordered Jews aged six and over to wear a yellow Star of David.

1943

April

19
- The attack on the Twentieth Convoy from MechelenOn 19 April 1943 three young Belgians with one pistol stopped a train taking Jews to Auschwitz near Boortmeerbeek. More than 230 people escaped.

October

01
- The Ruzagayura famineIn autumn 1943 the Ruzagayura famine broke out in Belgian Ruanda-Urundi. Drought, crop disease and wartime requisitions cost tens of thousands of lives.

November

09
- The fake Le SoirOn 9 November 1943 the Belgian underground distributed in Brussels a fake issue of the collaborationist Le Soir, mocking German defeats in the east.

1944

January

24
- The Belgian social pactIn occupied Belgium trade unionists, industrialists and officials secretly agreed a “social pact” – an outline of the post-war social security system.

February

May

06
- The bombing before the invasionIn early May 1944 Allied aircraft pounded railways, bridges, batteries and radars in France and Belgium day and night, preparing the ground for Normandy.

August

18
- The Courcelles massacreOn 18 August 1944 Rexists killed 19 hostages at Courcelles in revenge for the killing of Charleroi's mayor Oswald Englebin. In two days 27 civilians died.

September

November

28
- The port of Antwerp openedOn 28 November 1944, 85 days after Antwerp's liberation, the first Allied convoy entered the port. The supply crisis of the armies in the west began to ease.

December

1945

January

February

04
- Belgium free of GermansIn early February 1945 the Americans drove the Germans from the last scraps of eastern Belgium. The country was free, but V-2s were still falling on Antwerp.

March

15
- The last months of the V-2In mid-March 1945 V-2 rockets were still falling on London and Antwerp. The bombardment stopped only at the end of the month, as the Allies crossed the Rhine.