Belgian Compliance

James McBride · #1

What if the Belgians had done the sensible thing instead of the the herioc, and only put up token resistance to the Germans? Instead of trying to punish the Belgians into surrendering quickly, the German army would likely have moved through Belgium much more quietly. With the Belgian atrocities out of the pictures, would America be more likely to force the British to end the blockade? Would the war have even gone that far, since with three extra days the Germans might have made it all the way to Paris? Can't wait to hear what you all think.

James

Ti.P · #2

I think it does not matter wot belgium did, the fact was that germany invaded a neutral country!!!!!

Karl da Kraut · #3

Well, the Entente powers violated the neutrality of Greece later on. I doubt the U.S. even protested against it. Therefore I guess the neutrality issue can't have been such an important question that truly compelled the U.S. to set course for war eventually.

James McBride · #4

The violation of Belgian neutrality was completely taken advantage of by the British, who pumped out propaganda that made it to the U.S. and turned a neutral population into one disgusted by the Germans and thus pushed closer to Britian. I brought up America's opinion on the issue because Wilson considered demanding that the British end the blockade or something would be done by the U.S. This would have been much harder to sell to the public, because they all remembered what the Germans had done to Belgium. I don't really know much about the Brits violating Greek neutrality. As I understood it, they put in some prince that wanted to go to war, and then supported the guy so that Greece would continue fighting. I could remember wrong, and I don't have anything with me.

James

human177 · #5

Let me tell you one thing as a Belgian.
We were shocked! An eternal neutrality treaty, broken in less than 100 years can make your blood boil, that's why the Belgian army was able to put up so much resistance the first 2 months. Don't piss us off! You will regret it!

8)

Dreez · #6

Let's not forget that propaganda played an important roll in the case of german attrocities! Anyone ever seen the documentary "Poor little Belgium". A lot of so called attrocities never happend but were invented by allied propaganda to gain financial support for the war in the US.
Attrocities did happen but not on such a large scale as proclaimed.

Bernard · #7

A lot of atrocities really happen. Few cities were destroyed, civilians killed etc etc.. More than 10 guys were killed near the place where I live.

fdewaele · #8

That's nothing to what happened in the province Namur...

In one town (I've forgotten the name), the Germans shot over 500 inhabitants in august 1914. The youngest being three weeks old!

Suffice to say that the impressive monument remembering this act of Teutonic barbarism was blown up by the Germans in 1940...

I believe this was done by the III army of von Haussen which wa scomprised out of Saxons... still today the name "Saxon" stands for cruelty in that province...

Bernard · #9

And don't forget the city of Louvain (Leuven). It was completly destroyed in 1914.

fdewaele · #10

Well, not completely, just part of it. The part with the University Library

Bernard · #11

Well if you have a look in the city you'll see that nearly every house in the center has been destroyed.

human177 · #12

Wasn't the question about why Belgium didn't comply in the first place? I find it ironic how many Belgians (well, Flemish mostly) really favored Hitler despite of their history with Germany during WWI.

fdewaele · #13

Not that many Belgians were supporting Hitler. I'd say they're were about as much colaborators as active resistance members. But the most part of the people just tried to survive the occupation.

Bernard · #14

Yes I can only agree. A big part of the population didn't care about germans. They were just trying to survive.

human177 · #15

True, but you got to admit they did have an impressive amount of volunteers. There's even a book about Hitler and Flanders, some of the rare pictures in which he actually smiled were drawn in Belgium!

What you say about trying to survive is true, but you can say the same thing about Germany, hell, the whole world in times of war!