In my last two videos about Belgium
I've not only looked at the great things about the country and learned some interesting facts about it
But I've also looked at how powerful this country is in terms of military and to dive further into understanding the defensive
Capabilities of Belgium we look at one of the oldest main
Components of the entire Armed Forces and that is the land component known strictly as the army what's going on guys?
Welcome to FTD Facts
My name is Dave Walpole and welcome to channel where I look at people cultures and places and yeah
Of course military's from all around the world now. It's first time here and you like learn about militaries. Boom
You want to hit that subscribe button because that's what I do here on top of that me
I'm just I'm really excited to talk about Belgium and its
actual army because for me looked at a lot of different armies from Europe and Belgium
It's kind of a new one on the block. They've only been around since like 1830
So just cuz they don't have a lot of history doesn't mean that's a bad thing and I'm excited to learn about that
So with that in mind guys, let's break down the facts and let's get right into talking about these guys
So like I said the Belgium army, it's been around not for a long time officially beginning in October of 1830
Now you may be wondering your subsequent. Whoa, wait Dave, man
Why are they why are they so late and some of you guys from Belgium made me go whoa, Dave
No, man, that's not true. They've been around for a much longer time before that
That is true
As a matter of fact, the area of Belgium has had an army and Armed Forces for quite a long time
But the actual country itself Belgium didn't come around till like 1830 and that is when they got their very own
Army, now theoretically the army itself has two names which is known as the land component, which is more common in the Dutch tongue
But for the French Willona inside, they also call it composit ter, and I'm not gonna lie guys
I don't know if that really screwed up my French
I am Canadian and we're supposed to have french-canadian and that's how we would say. It called pissant ter. Hopefully, that's right
I don't know if that's how they say it in Wallonia
But however before 1945 the Belgium army was strictly known as the Belgium army
And it wasn't until after that it got the renamed to land component
so for this video
I'm gonna dive into some of the history because I'm not just gonna look at what the Army is like today because we've got to
Understand where they came from to understand what they're all about today. And with that we're going boom all the way back to
1830 guys the beginning of Belgium
hmm because the first real major land force unit was the Belgian paramilitary unit known as the guards Civic and
Unfortunately this unit existed only until about 1914 when it was demobilized from the German invasion of Belgium
However, the group itself was officially round until about 1920 when it became
Decommissioned that's partially due to the fact that they were like this unit did not do good against fighting off the Germans now
So we're gonna rename it and do a whole new unit
however
Truth be told a Belgian Army had actually existed in the country before and these guys were known as the Belgian
Legion and as a matter of fact the Belgian Legion has pretty much a history dating back to at least
1782 in which throughout history, it's served not only for the French but also the Austrian Netherlands governments
however
By the years of the 19th and 20th century
Belgium had become a very neutral country and because of that the army was classified more as a defensive force rather than a giant
Offensive army, and however, I should also mention that around the time of 1830 when it first began
They say that there was approximately 20,000 troops that were a part of the army itself
but however
Let's be perfectly honest that all changed in 1868 when the army was like, but we need to introduce
Conscription and this was majorly due to the fact that Belgium had become involved in what is known as the franco-prussian war
And also I should mention that there was a rather famous group in the army of Belgium around this time
And that was the Corps expedition air belch or the Belgian Expeditionary Force and these guys believe it or not
They served in Mexico
but only for a really short amount of time because they were around from 1864 to
1867 in which afterwards they returned home and officially the unit was closed down and
Interesting enough to know when it comes to the army of Belgium believe it or not
They've also been involved in Congo and in 1905 they were also in China which to me
I thought was really interesting because it showed that you know Belgium at such a young
Time, I mean think about it 1830 and it's 1905 involved in China
It's been a part of international operations from the get-go. That's pretty awesome
However, their involvement in worldwide operations was about to get a lot bigger because World War one was right around the corner
By the way guys before I get into the whole world war one thing and continuing to learn more about what happened in the 20th
Century I just wanna let you guys know just so you know, a lot of you guys are probably here
You may be from Belgium itself
That's usually what happens in our videos and you guys are wanting to know more about military forces in Belgium
Well, first of all guys, I got a really awesome
Belgian military playlist it's all about, you know military in Belgium
You guys can click it right here, but don't leave the video just yet
also put it at the end and in the description box below if you want to check it out that being said if you just
Want to learn more about Belgium on itself. Maybe you're from that country. We want to know what's great about it
You can also check this playlist here
It's got some cool videos just about Belgium and what's good about it
But it's talking about World War one now on the eve of World War one
It was said that Belgium had approximately 19 infantry units 10 cavalry units and 8 artillery units
however in August of 1914 Germany had invaded Belgium, however
Unfortunately for Belgium by the end of that year pretty much
Germany had overrun the entire country and hey that country was occupied and it was said during the entire
Invasion of World War one there was roughly
600,000 to
750,000 German troops against approximately
115 thousand to
220,000 Belgian troops now after of course World War one had ended Belgium had become its own country yet again and
Military was still a very important thing because they didn't want anything to happen again
right after World War 1 and with that in mind by the year of 1926 the army itself had a size of
350,000 troops and by the beginning of World War two following the immediate invasion of Poland the Belgian King mobilized the military
resulting in it having a size of
550,000 to
600,000 troops
Unfortunately in May of 1940 along with many other countries within Europe Germany pretty much invaded Belgium yet again
however
not let's be real Belgium did not stop there just because they were invaded did not mean they did not give up the fight as
A matter of fact a lot of units managed to flee the country
And start their own groups to continue to fight the Germans with the Allied countries
Matter of fact it's been stated that 163 Belgian troops managed to evacuate in the Dunkirk evacuation
Alone, and some of these units for example the first Belgian Infantry Brigade and as well the 10 commando unit and the 5th Special
Service which was an airborne troop that was under the British SAS
Were units that all had Belgians within them or were completely all of Belgian descent now moving a little bit forward
We know World War two came to an end Belgium became its own self governed country again
The Germans were gone
and the Cold War was just around the corner or actually the Cold War was happening and believe it or not during this time the
Belgium land component supplied troops for the defense of West Germany and this mission was given to the first Belgian Corps
Within it. There was the 1st Infantry Division and the 16th mechanised division as well
But of course nowadays things are a little bit different. You don't have the Cold War anymore
So let's talk about today's forces, which may be a lot more reduced than they were at the height of the Cold War button
Hey, there's not as much combat for example in today's world
They say the land component, which is the largest arm of the Defense Forces at least in terms of troop numbers
They got a lot of soldiers in it has an estimated size of approximately
12,000 military personnel and approximately 2,000 civilian personnel in which all of these are under the commander of Major General
Mark this and with that the structure of the army. It is broken up into five different sections
for example
There is combat command support
Services and training and with these five different sections and all these troops the land component also operates out of two major
bases one down south in March on femmine
which is in the province of Luxembourg not to be confused with the country and that base is
Famous for light infantry units and the second which is home to the motorized. Brigade is located in the north in Leopold's burg
I also should mention that the motorized Brigade is a rather new brigade that formed in 2011
however
It basically evolved out of the independent Belgian brigade
Which has been around since 1943 and within the entire land component
It breaks down into five major infantry battalions
And it also has a Special Forces Group and an immediate reaction cell known as the IRC in which that group has one
parachute and commando battalion
Also, did you know that the Belgian Army does not use any tanks as a matter of fact?
It's a rather new thing that got rid of tanks and they wanted more wheeled vehicles
And with that their heaviest vehicle is the Parana
3c which is an armored fighting vehicle and they have approximately two hundred and sixty eight of them
They also use the pander ones which is an armoured personnel carrier as for handhelds when it comes to machine guns
They use the FN is e and the FN p90 for assault rifles. They use the FN NFC and the FN
mm and many different versions of scars
snipers they use the accuracy international art of warfare and the Bret
M107 a one and a scar version of the sniper rifle for light machine guns
They also use the FN minimi and the FN m AG and last but not least
I should just mention that the Belgium army is going through a major modernization program
They're trying to give new equipment and new body armor to these soldiers in which they estimate that's gonna be around
2030
Overall the entire land component has approximately 35 units trained and ready for any operation. That is thrown at them
But thanks for watching guys. My name's Dave WAPA
And this is all the information that I could gather on the Belgian Armed Forces or the army the land component. It's so hard
I got to remind myself to say land component all the time when I talk about the Armed Forces
We're talking about the land component just the land component. That's it
but however
guys
hope you like this video also before you get out of here at the end of this video in the description box below if you
Guys want to check out more military stuff from Belgium. Boom
We got those playlists on we also got just the country itself
So feel free to check those out but hate that subscribe button if it's your first time here and yeah
Feel free to leave a comment for a future or a suggestion for a future video and I'll see you in the next one
Okay. Bye. Bye later
Alright so guys here are those military playlists that I was telling you about you got boom right here that military playlist
That's a Belgian military playlist. I should say
I knew you guys are interested in if you're listening to me right now and you've made it this far because you just want more
Military content. There's also this video just two on Belgium. Feel free to check them out and I'll see you later