Liddell Hart about King Leopold III
Although the British military
establishment has never publicly acknowledged that King Leopold
III and his army, by their prolonged resistance, saved the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in may 1940, the world famous
military expert Liddell Hart saw no reason for such reticence.
In 1960, delivering a lecture to students
and faculty at King College, Liddell Hart bluntly declared:
“The British army at Dunkirk
was saved from destruction by King Leopold III of the Belgians”.
Captain Liddell Hart said that Sir Arthur
Bryant’s claim that “the
saving of the BEF was mainly due to
Lord Alan Brooke” did not
stand up to examination.
Hart went on to say: “The
unfortunate Belgian Army absorbed the weight of the German
frontal attack from the north. By the time the Belgian front had
turned, the BEF had slipped out of reach and were nearing Dunkirk”.
Liddell Hart went further to say: “
If King Leopold III had left Belgium on May 25th ,
as his ministers and Churchill had urged him to do so, the
Belgian army would have surrendered immediately, instead of
fighting on until early morning of May 28th.
IF SO, THE BRITISH WOULD HAVE HAD VERY
LITTLE CHANCE OF ESCAPING ENCIRCLEMENT, SO THAT IT COULD VERY
REASONABLY BE CLAIMED THAT THEY WERE SAVED BY KING LEOPOLD III,
WHO THEN WAS VIOLENTLY ABUSED BY BRITAIN AND FRANCE “
Dan Wybo
FROM OUR READERS
Extract from the “Memoirs”
of Sir Admiral Keyes o f the British Fleet, May 1941
I quote some important eyewitness
passages from the man who was the British Liaison Officer to the
Belgian Army during the 18 days of fighting (10 May-28 May).
Admiral Keyes remained with King
Leopold until May 27, before he returned to England.
Admiral Keyes diaries and papers, as
well as numerous documents, prove beyond any doubt, that
Churchill (his boss!), was fully aware of the fact that the
Belgian army did not expose the flank of the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF). The
Belgian army, by its brave and prolonged resistance, until nearly
two days after the BEF began its evacuation (without informing
the Belgians or the French!), held up the advance of what was
originally 8 German divisions and was increased to 14 divisions,
supported by the bulk of the German Luftwaffe.
By holding up the Germans during
this four day period, and preventing them from cutting off the
BEF’s retreat to the coast, made the miracle of Dunkirk
possible.
These are not my words. Lord Keyes,
Admiral of the British Fleet, makes his written statement, based
on his own eyewitness accounts.
Dan Wybo ( London, Ontario, Canada )
“On the night of May 23, with
grave misgivings, King Leopold III fell back, as ordered by the
General Weygand, from his stronghold positions on the Scheldt to
a very much weaker one behind the Lys River.
On May 24, General Weygand told the
commanders of the British army and the French Northern army to
attack with vigour southwards, in order to close the gap behind
the German Panzer divisions, which had broken through.
By this time, the Belgian army was
heavily engaged, and it was evident to the Belgian General
Headquarters that they were faced with an attack by eight German
divisions, with the object of driving the Belgian army to the
north and severing its contact with the British army, which was
now lying behind its pre May 10th
phoney war winter line on the frontier.
Although King Leopold did not know
at that time and no message to this effect ever reached him, Lord
Gort had already received orders to withdraw to the coast.
In a message to Gort from Churchill
“It is now necessary to tell the Belgians. I am sending to
Keys, but your personal contact with the King is desirable. Keyes
will help. We are asking them to sacrifice themselves for us.”
Although Gort had his orders to tell
King Leopold, he did not. Meanwhile the fight on the Belgian
front had been continuous for four days.
Every road, village and town in the
small part of Belgium left was thronged with hundreds of
thousands of refugees, and low flying aircrafts were mercilessly
bombing the refugees and the troops.
The Belgian army was created solely
for defence; it had neither tanks nor aircraft to mount any kind
of offensive.
From the moment it was ordered to
retreat to weaker positions, its fate was doomed. With no Royal
Air Force (RAF) support, it maintained a 90 kilometre front.
Most British and French account
fails to recognize the significance of the battle along the Lys.
Here the Belgian army suffered 40.000 casualties. Yet, it may
well be asked what would have happened to the British
Expeditionary Force and the Northern French armies if the
Belgians had not prepared to fight to the last. Before this
important battle, the King promised his troops, no matter what
happens, I will share your fate. (“Wat er ook moge gebeuren,
mijn lot zal het uwe zijn”)
As long as the Belgian army could
fight, it kept on fighting to the last. All reserves were in the
fight up until the end.
Knowing he could do nothing further
to help his Allies, King Leopold told Keyes, the British and the
French that he intended to ask for an armistice.
His Government and the British
Government asked King Leopold to leave his country and carry on
the war from England.
As commander in chief of his army,
he maintained his promise to his troops to share their fate. He
made no separate peace and became a prisoner of war.”
Written by Sir Admiral Keyes M.P.
Admiral of the British Fleet, May 1941
Now, some 65 years later, our hearts
still remember his promise to our troops: “Mijn lot zal het
uwe zijn” (“Your fate will be mine”). Many a
Belgian can recall that the King stayed; he did not run away, he
kept his promise.
His Majesty became the scapegoat for
the French Premier, Paul Reynaud and the British Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill.
Dan Wybo