How did Belgium experience the First World War?

Germany’s invasion of Belgium was not a response to Belgian actions, but rather a calculated element of German military strategy.

The Schlieffen Plan, developed years before the war, called for a rapid defeat of France before Russia could fully mobilize its armies. This strategy required German forces to sweep through Belgium to outflank French defenses along the Franco-German border.

When Germany demanded free passage through Belgian territory on August 2, 1914, Belgium refused, citing its internationally guaranteed neutrality.

Germany invaded anyway on August 4, dismissing the 1839 Treaty of London that guaranteed Belgian neutrality as a “scrap of paper.” This violation of Belgian neutrality brought Britain into the war, as Britain was a guarantor of that neutrality. The invasion thus transformed a continental conflict into a world war.

The fortified city of Liège became the site of Belgium’s first significant resistance to the German invasion.

Between August 5 and 16, 1914, the forts surrounding Liège held out against German assault, delaying the German advance by nearly two weeks. General Gérard Leman commanded the defense with approximately 35,000 Belgian troops against a German force several times larger. The unexpected resistance disrupted the carefully timed Schlieffen Plan and bought crucial time for French and British forces to mobilize.

The Germans brought up heavy siege artillery, including massive 420mm “Big Bertha” howitzers, to reduce the forts one by one. The heroic defense of Liège, though ultimately unsuccessful, demonstrated Belgian determination to resist and became a symbol of the nation’s courage. General Leman was captured in the final fort but was treated with respect by the Germans for his brave defense.

As German forces advanced through Belgium in August and September 1914, they engaged in systematic atrocities against civilians, killing approximately 6,000 Belgian civilians in what became known as the “Rape of Belgium.”

These war crimes were driven by German fears of franc-tireur resistance (civilian snipers) and a deliberate policy of Schrecklichkeit (terror) intended to terrorize the population into submission.

Entire towns were burned, including Dinant (where 674 civilians were executed), Andenne, and Tamines. In Leuven (Louvain), German forces destroyed much of the historic city center, including the world-renowned university library with its 300,000 books and priceless medieval manuscripts.

These atrocities shocked the world and became a powerful tool for Allied propaganda. While some reports were exaggerated, the core facts of civilian massacres and deliberate destruction were well-documented and contributed to Germany’s international isolation.

King Albert I became a symbol of Belgian resistance and courage during the First World War. When Germany demanded passage through Belgium, Albert famously replied that Belgium was “a nation, not a road.”

Rather than fleeing when German forces overwhelmed Belgian defenses, Albert took personal command of the Belgian army and retreated to the small strip of unoccupied Belgian territory behind the Yser River (IJzer).

Throughout the entire war, he remained with his troops on Belgian soil, refusing to abandon his country. His wife, Queen Elisabeth, worked as a nurse near the front lines.

Albert rejected German offers of a separate peace and resisted pressure from both French and British commanders to subordinate Belgian forces entirely to Allied command. His steadfast leadership earned him the nickname “Albert the Warrior-King” and made him a hero not only to Belgians but to the Allied cause generally. His presence in Belgium maintained national morale and symbolized the nation’s determination to survive as an independent country.

In late October 1914, as German forces pushed toward the Channel ports, the Belgian army made a desperate decision to flood the polders (low-lying farmlands) along the Yser River.

By opening the sluice gates at Nieuwpoort during high tide and closing them during low tide, the Belgians created a vast flooded area that stretched for miles inland. This inundation created an impassable barrier that halted the German advance and preserved a small strip of Belgian territory – roughly 30 kilometers wide – that remained unoccupied throughout the war.

The flooding was controversial because it destroyed valuable agricultural land and displaced thousands of civilians, but it was militarily essential. Behind this water barrier, the Belgian army held the northernmost sector of the Western Front for four years. The town of De Panne became the location of the Belgian royal family’s wartime residence.

This act of “scorched earth” defense demonstrated Belgium’s willingness to sacrifice its own territory rather than surrender completely to German occupation.

A salient is a battlefield feature where the front line bulges outward into enemy territory, creating a position that is exposed on three sides.

The Ypres Salient was a curved bulge around the Belgian city of Ypres (Ieper) that remained in Allied hands throughout the war, projecting into German-held territory. This geographic feature made it one of the deadliest locations on the Western Front. German artillery positioned on the higher ground of the surrounding ridges could shell the salient from three directions, making almost every position vulnerable. Troops in the salient were under constant observation and bombardment.

The salient witnessed five major battles between 1914 and 1918, including the first use of poison gas in 1915 and the horrific Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in 1917. Despite its terrible cost in lives – hundreds of thousands of casualties – the salient was held for its symbolic and strategic value. Ypres was never fully captured by German forces, making it a powerful symbol of Allied resistance.

On June 7, 1917, British forces executed one of the most dramatic military operations of the war by simultaneously detonating 19 massive mines beneath German positions on Messines Ridge (Mesen-Wijtschate Ridge).

Over the course of a year, British, Canadian, and Australian tunneling companies had dug deep galleries extending under German lines and packed them with nearly 450,000 kg (1 million pounds) of high explosives.

At 3:10 a.m., the mines were detonated in a coordinated explosion that created one of the largest non-nuclear man-made explosions in history. The blast was heard as far away as London and Dublin. It killed an estimated 10,000 German soldiers instantly, obliterated German fortifications, and created massive craters that are still visible today.

The shock and devastation allowed British and Dominion forces to capture the ridge with relatively light casualties. It demonstrated the importance of mining warfare and provided a rare moment of clear tactical victory in a war dominated by stalemate and attrition.

The Third Battle of Ypres, culminating in the capture of Passchendaele village in November 1917, became synonymous with the worst horrors of trench warfare.

British Field Marshal Douglas Haig launched the offensive in July 1917, aiming to break through German lines. However, exceptionally heavy rain combined with extensive artillery bombardment turned the battlefield into a nightmarish landscape of mud and shell craters filled with water.

Soldiers drowned in the mud, and wounded men who slipped off the narrow duckboard paths faced death by drowning. Thousands of bodies simply disappeared into the morass, never to be recovered.

The offensive continued for more than three months, gaining only a few miles at the cost of approximately 325,000 British and Commonwealth casualties and similar German losses. The conditions were so appalling that even military commanders were shocked.

The name “Passchendaele” became emblematic of futile sacrifice and the incomprehensible suffering of the Great War.

Canadian forces finally captured the village in November, but it had to be abandoned during the German Spring Offensive in 1918.

The Armistice that ended the fighting in the First World War was signed in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne in northern France on November 11, 1918, at 5:00 a.m..

The ceasefire took effect at 11:00 a.m. – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

The German delegation, led by Matthias Erzberger, met with the Allied Supreme Commander, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, in his personal railway carriage. The terms were harsh: Germany had to evacuate occupied territories, surrender massive amounts of military equipment, and accept continued Allied naval blockade.

Notably, the Armistice was not signed in Belgium, despite Belgium being where the war in the West had begun and despite the immense Belgian suffering. This location was chosen because Compiègne was Foch’s headquarters and symbolized Allied, particularly French, authority.

The railway carriage itself would later play another infamous role in history: Hitler deliberately chose to sign France’s surrender in the same carriage at the same location in 1940, seeking symbolic revenge for Germany’s 1918 defeat.

Belgium paid an enormous price for its resistance and occupation during the First World War. Approximately 93,000 Belgians died during the conflict, including about 44,000 military personnel, 30,000 civilians (from atrocities, starvation, disease, and bombardment), and thousands of merchant marine sailors.

This represented a devastating loss for a small nation of about 7.5 million people.

Beyond deaths, approximately 1.5 million Belgians became refugees, fleeing to the Netherlands, Britain, and France. Those who remained under German occupation faced harsh conditions, including forced labor, deportations, and severe food shortages caused by the Allied blockade and German requisitions.

Much of western Belgium was physically destroyed, with cities like Ypres reduced to rubble. The industrial infrastructure was systematically looted by German forces.

The psychological trauma was profound and lasting. While Belgium’s sacrifices were proportionally enormous, the country received relatively modest territorial gains at the Treaty of Versailles – primarily the small German-speaking districts of Eupen-Malmedy. The cost of the war shaped Belgian politics, society, and international relations for generations.