1. General

In the summer of 1914 the Belgian Army was in full reorganisation. Started in 1913 this reorganisation would take several years. (The accomplishment was planned for 1918.) The lack of material was enormous , there where only 102 machine guns , heavy artillery was non-existent and even common equipment like kitchenware or rucksacks were in some units unavailable. There was a great shortness in officers, companies with the regular amount were rare. Training and physical condition poor, after a 10 or 15 km march moving units left a long line of stragglers behind. Morale on the contrary was high, feeded by anger on the German aggressor.

The mobilisation could count on 15 classes, one of the general conscription of 1913, 4 of the personnel conscription of the years 1909-1912 and 10 of the old system of drawing for the militia.

The army consisted of the field army and the fortresses Antwerpen, Liége and Namur. The 117.000 men of the field army where divided into 6 army divisions, a division of cavalry and several other units.

The mixed brigade or 'Brigade Mixte' consisted in peacetime only of one regiment of infantry. When mobilised this regiment received the 8 youngest classes and devided itself to make a second regiment. These two regiments became then the base of the 'Brigade Mixte'. The splitting of the regiment created however two weakened regiments, short in cadre and equipment.
The seven oldest classes of this regiment formed another regiment the 'Régiment de Forteresse'. This was infantry attached to the fortresses. The fighting quality off this one was below any standards. The average age was over 30, equipment poor and some companies had only a non-commissioned officer to lead them into battle.
So e.g. when mobilized the '11° Régiment de Ligne' became the '11° Régiment de Ligne', the '31° Régiment de Ligne' and the '11° Régiment de Forteresse'.

Good, worked out, operation plans weren't available. There where some general ideas, from wich some where examined in the years before, but the Chief of Staff (Général Chevalier Antonin de Selliers de Moranville) and his Deputy Chieff of Staff (Colonel Baron Louis de Rijckel) couldn't agree on wich one to adopt. Général de Selliers de Moranville had the confidence of the Prime minister and Minister of war Baron Charles de Broqueville. Commandant Emile Gallet, military advisor of King Albert, supported Colonel de Rijckel. Orders and counter-orders where given which lead to confusion and mistakes (more of this later). This situation improved only when begin September 1914 King Albert dismissed the two opponents.

The attitude of staff-officers towards the ordinary soldiers was another problem. The General staff was a close circle that lived far away from the problems lower ranks and common soldiers had to endure. Lower officers like lieutenants and captains where idealistic and courageous but some (not all of them!) of the higher ranks, those who joined the army in a time when there was no risk of war, showed not only a lack of sympathy and understanding for the soldier in the trenches but also a lack of courage and fighting spirit.

2. Reorganisation

Before 1913 the Belgian army consisted of 4 divisions, which corresponded with the annual quota of 13300 man of the conscription law of 1902. The conscription law of 1913 brought this yearly quota to 33000. The organisation of the army had to be reconsidered.
The duration of the service, 15 months in infantry, 21 months in artillery and 2 years with cavalry made it possible to limit the composition of the army to the six youngest classes of the militia.
The total force off the field army would be 180.000 man, which made it necessary to divide it in army-corps. So the goal was a field army of 6 army corps with each 3 or 4 divisions of infantry. This made a total of about 20 infantry divisions. Because the army had 20 regiments of infantry, each regiment would be the base for the creation of a division.
To avoid scaring the parliament, afraid for all military expenses, it was decided that the army corps, temporarily, would be called division, the divisions would be called mixed brigades.
It was necessary to have 6 classes of 33000 man to reach the number of 180000 enlisted man so it would take until 1919 before this figure could be reached, and the reorganisation to be complete. Plans were made to gradually increase the number of officers and refurnish the army with the necessary equipment.
The splitting of the regiments, discussed in the chapter above, was planned only after 1915, but the government decided to do this immediately on mobilisation. To have the necessary amount of soldiers to create these two regiments they decided to assign the 8 (instead of 6) youngest classes to the field army. Because of shortness in equipment and cadre this, as already said, created two weakened regiments.
In the summer of 1914, the reorganisation hardly started, the Belgian army wasn't by any standards, ready to engage itself in a full-scale war.

Available for download : The report from the Ministry of War regarding the army budget for the year 1914, with a detailed description of the army in peace time strength and the answers given to several parliamentary questions. Presented to the Belgian parliament on March 10, 1914. (Zipped Word 7.0 document, 36Kb.)
Sorry, only available in Flemish.

3. The field army

In time of peace the field army, 6 army divisions and one cavalry division, was organised (situation august 1914) like this :

The positions where chosen to ensure the defence of the country and keep a position of strict neutrality. Neutrality emposed on Belgium by the treaty of 1839. The 1°, 3°, 4° and 5°divisions had the role of advanced guard in the direction of a possible attack. The 1°division or 'division de Flandre' in the direction of Great Britain. The 3°division or 'division de Liége' in the direction of Deutschland. The 4° and 5° divisions in the direction of France, the 4° would counter an attack on Namur and the 5° an attack via Maubeuge-Lille. Each of these divisions had the task to ensure the first resistance and give the time to assemble the other five.

4. The fortresses

The Belgian defence could also count on 3 fortifications. Antwerpen was an entrenchment and the national refuge, Liége and Namur where bridge-heads and points of support for the field army.