by daveh on 04 Sep 2009 17:35 In Order of battle: Western Allied Forces of WWII by Michael E. Haskew, page 34 there is a table giving s
the following figures for the strength of the Belgian Army in May 1940.
Troops............................................550000
Automatic Weapons...............................8640
A T weapons.........................................324
Heavy Artillery.......................................384
Tanks..................................................42
Infantry Corps..........................................7
Cavalry Corps...........................................1
Infantry Divisions.....................................20
Cavalry Divisions.......................................2
Bicycle Battalions......................................3
As i have an interest in the Belgian Army of this period I looked carefully at these figures in case they provided any new information. The good news is that they did, however the bad news is that some of this information is, I would argue, incorrect.
I will therefore go through each of the figures provided giving my current state of knowledge and its sources and comparing these with the figures Haskew provides.
1) Overall strength
I have seen various figures quoted for the strength of the Belgian Army in May 1940 but they are generally in the range 550,000 up to 650,000. The latter figure seems to include numbers of men called up for training and sent to France.
Hence the figure of 550,000 is perfectly acceptable
2) Automatic weapons
I have no source giving a figure for the overall stocks of such weapons held by the Belgian Army. My study of the reliability of the figures Haskew gives is in part designed to check how accurate this number may be.
3) Anti tank weapons
The number given by Haskew is 324 and I cannot see how he obtains this figure.
The only AT gun used by the Belgian Field Army was the FRC 47mm. This same gun was mounted on the T13 and used in fixed defences. A 60mm AT gun was used solely in fortifications.
Haskew lists the Niehorster website (http://niehorster.orbat.com/021_belgium/__belgium.htm) in his sources and if we look at the details given for the Belgian Active Infantry Division we can see that each such division had one AT company in each of its 3 Infantry Regiments plus an additional AT company at divisional level.
i.e. 4 AT companies per division
Niehorster gives 8 guns per AT company so this gives a figure of
4 (AT companies) x 12 (active divisions) x 8 (guns per company) = 384 guns
and then there are AT companies in the Cavalry and Chasseur Ardennais Divisions as well as various other units e.g. the Cycliste Frontiere giving a total of at least 400 guns.
Furthermore the wartime establishment for a Belgian AT company was in fact 12 guns (see note below) giving us 576 guns in just the 12 Infantry divisions. Including the AT companies of other units the figure for AT guns in the Belgian Army climbs to the mid 600s and this excludes all such weapons mounted in fortifications.
On
http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/a ... asp?a=3476 production of the 47 mm AT gun is put at 1000 which would include c 250 for use on the T-13. This leaves c 750 for use in fortifications and with the field army. It is unclear where Haskew obtained his figures but this well attested figure of c 750 is well over double the 324 given by Haskew.
Note
12 AT guns per AT company see e.g. http://www.freewebs.com/3th-chasseurs-a ... ations.htm, AMI 9_Mai 40_Le régiment d'infanterie.pdf
4) Heavy Artillery: Number given is 384
This number matches that derived from
L'Artillerie de Campagne Belge au 10 Mai 1940 by Lt.-Col. A Bikar
Artillery Piece................Number......Corps or Army Artillery Regiment
120mm guns .................48......... Corps
120mm de Bange..............4......... Army
Obusiers de 150 (6").........80.......... 8 Corps 72 Army
Obusiers de 155.............144.......... Army
canons de 150 ou
de 155.........................72.......... Army
mortiers de 220...............36........... Army
Total ...........................384
although it should be noted that there were also 12 railway guns and 20 heavy guns in artillery schools
5) Number of Tanks is given as 42.
In the text on p.34 these 42 operational tanks are said to include T-13s, T-15s and ACG-1s all of which are given brief, accurate descriptions.
However the number given is incorrect.
a) As stated in the text 8 ACG-1s were used operationally
b) 42 T15s were purchased and all but 1 school vehicle were issued to front line units
c) The T-13 was not a tank but rather a self propelled 47mm AT gun and numbered at least 250
More accurately the number of operational tanks should be given as c50 plus a further c 250 SP AT guns
6) Infantry Corps: 7
Yes
7) Cavalry Corps: 1
Yes
8) Infantry divisions: 20
This is somewhat misleading. There were 6 Active and 6 First Reserve Infantry Divisions that had virtually identical establishments, plus 6 Second Reserve Infantry Divisions which had a lower establishment and tended to use older equipment.
Included with the Infantry Divisions are 2 Chasseur Ardennais Divisions. These units were bicycle equipped mobile units quite different in function and organisation to the "ordinary" infantry divisions.
They regarded as elite units and cannot really be regarded as infantry divisions.
9) Cavalry Divisions
There were indeed 2 cavalry divisions but there was also a fully motorised cavalry brigade
10) 3 bicycle battalions.
The inclusion of these 3 bicycle battalions may seem odd given the general tone of this short piece on the Belgian Army. These units are in fact part of a specially established "border guard" which in May 1940 consisted of 2 Cycliste Frontiere Regiments (2 battalions each) and the Limbourg cyclist battalion i.e. 5 battalions in total.
There were also 2 light regiments which were mobile units as well as territorial and auxiliary units.
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pen at the top,type 2 :closed at the top .T 15 :this site is giving 45 and says that only 8 of the 12 Renault tans were delivered ;there were also old French handmachineguns (Chauchat) . The heavy artillery was largely obsolete ,there were 20 different sorts(French,British and even German ones :12 railwayguns ) This site is giving some interesting pictures,but I can't scan them(my scanner is still unpacked,I do not know how to install 
,will ask the younger generation 
)That's all for the moment . Cheers
Cheers again.
