Thanks Hilbert for showing the Belgian role of liberating Europe. We are often underrepresented, just like the Netherlands and other countries. Dank je wel man.
de Nederlandse prinses Irene brigade bleef altijd achterop hinken achter die Belgische brigade Piron , en kreeg alleen bewakingsopdrachten , daarom heeft deze Nederlandse brigade zo weinig KI A s tebetreuren gehadt ,n dit was ander bij de Belgische strijdkrachten in de 2de W War, ook landen op D Z kilo een Belgische èènheid mèè als airborne unit in juin 6
@@robertneven7563 is uw comment wel bij de juiste geplaatst? In mijn eerste zin bedank ik Hilbert dat hij de rol van de Belgen toont. Nadien zeg ik dat we altijd onderbelicht worden net als de Nederlanders en andere landen.
@@jorenbosmans8065 Wel ja bij de juiste gepllaats aller beste , de Nederlanders hebben n iet veel gepresteert in de 2de W Oorlog , heb zelfs documenten gevonden dat de Nederlands prinses Irene brigade niet mocht deelnemen aan de parade na de bevrijding van de Nederlandse stad Tilburg van de Britich army hun aandeel was te zwak geweest,
My fathers friend who was born in Wales with a Scots father and Flemish mother landed on D day and made it to his mothers village where he knocked on his grandmothers door and met his Belgium family for the first time.. He spoke Welsh, English and Flemish.
Thank you for your interesting video. Unfortunately, you missed the key contribution of Belgium to D-Day. The Belgian engineer-architect, Hugo Van Kuyck led a team (Beach Intelligence Section) that compiled information from various sources (aerial reconnaissance planes, maritime navigation charts, resistance information sources, information gathered by combat divers) to make highly detailed maps of the shores and direct inlands of large parts of the atlantic coast, including the landing beaches (Omaho, Utah, Gold Juno, Sword, Band). These maps combine nautical information (including tides) and topographic information. For this reason, these maps were absolutely critical for planning the invasion. The maps were not only used in the planning room, but also by the seamen, including those who piloted the landing craft on each of the aforementioned beaches. Van Kuyck himself landed on Omaha beach on D-Day (seventh wave). Arguably, he was the first Belgian to set foot in France on D-Day. In the US armed forces, Hugo Van Kuyck reached one of the highest ranks ever held by a non-US Person, namely lieutenant colonel. For his significant effort, he received from the US forces the Bronze Star Medal and the Legion of Merit. Another point : Churchill did not want the Brigade Piron to take a spotlight role on D-Day, because he feared that if losses in the Brigade would be very high from the start of the Normady invasion, the general public in Belgium would question the extensive use of Belgian forces to liberate France before Belgian territory was liberated. Furthermore, he also feared that without the Brigade Piron, the liberation of Belgium would become more difficult, given the lack of local knowledge and language capabilities.
As a Luxembourger this topic is close to my heart. It is no small matter that Luxembourg's future Grand Duke, Prince Jean, was present at the beaches of Normandy, and fought alongside a Scottish regiment, inching his way back towards our nation to liberate it.
He was a fine and brave man, with a clear sense of duty...some of his successors since, maybe not so much...that said, compared to the British Royal family, they are models of duty, decorum and fiscal responsibility.
hey, thank you for putting Belgium in a nice light I am Belgian myself and have learned something from our history that I did not learn at school many greetings from Belgium
Little known fact about the 5th SAS, they were the first allied unit to set foot in Belgium, their home country, for an operation intented to sabotage infrastructure and communications to confuse the Germans so that an allied liberation would go faster and smoother, the Belgian Government in Exile insisted on a Belgian unit being the first to set foot within their own occupied country, yet because it was a special ops unit and operation, it didn't get as much attention.
A couple of things...I knew about much of this already, but it is wonderful that someone has actually 'put it out there' in a good, well-informed and concise format. The other thing is - and this is something that can sometimes have me screaming at the screen, your pronunciation of Belgian and Dutch names was just about immaculate...I don't know if you have ancestry out that way ( I do), but it was so pleasing to hear, it really really was! For this if nothing else, I'm subscribing!
There is an interesting museum in Anderlecht, Brussels, called Musée de la Résistance de Belgique. I had the chance of getting a tour during several hours by one of the last alive members of one of the resistance groups back in the day. He was 16 when aiding in the sabotage of the ammunition trains that drove in from Germoney, RIP. Very much worth checking out.
For such a small country Belgium counts a surprising number of bad ass fighting soldiers; among them: Adrian "F!ck death" Carton de Wiart and General "Report that I was unconscious when I surrendered" Leman
We're a weird bunch. We've contributed to the world in unimaginable fantastic ways and in unimaginably horrible ways. One of which is only now starting to show just how horrible it is with microplastics showing up even in peoples sperm.
Very interesting video, but probably the main Belgian contribution to the success of D-Day was Hugo Van Kuyck. He performed reconaissance of the beaches, drafted the landing maps, helped to set the landing date, was involved in the design of landing craft, etc. He landed on D-Day itself and immediatly got to work analysing the beach to get a supply network set up. A humble man, sometimes rightly called 'The architect of the D-Day'
Great video. I'm impressed you pronounce names correctly in several languages (I'm Belgian, Vlaming). Your voice is smooth, words clearly spoken, and care about it. You deliver seriously high quality, on an aspect the youtube crowd generally seem to forget. You barely have any accent (non-england Brittish?) It is barely noticeable and charming to hear a touch here and there.
He's definitely got a Geordie accent. Maybe he waters it down a bit for these videos, but it still sticks out on certain words, like how he pronounces "buttercup". As a Mackem (next-door neighbours to the Geordies), I think it was the first thing I noticed when I first saw one of his videos.
As a Belgian I agree that Belgium is a small country, and interesting contribution here about its role in the war. However, after first speaking about Poland, you turned your attention to "another small country". I don't think the Poles think about their country as being a small country. It may be so in the eyes of the Americans. But in that case, Americans don't have to be upset if Russians or Canadians call the USA a "small country". So: to put a bright red dot on the i that is not to be found in the name Poland: Poland is a medium sized country just like France or Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and of course Luxemburg are small countries.
Poland is obviously not a small country, idk why some people have the urge to say " small" country , i mean we can look at a map and decide for ourselves
My great grandfather fought for Belgium and was in France when Belgium capitulated. He was not that far from Dunkirk but he didnt want to continue fighting so went home. According to my Grandfather he was on foot from "Frans-Vlaanderen" to around Antwerp city.. :)
The Free Belgian army were based in Penally (very near to Tenby, in Pembrokeshire, Wales) and trained there on the beach and in the dunes. Plenty of info and some photos can be found via Google.
Great video but Fallschirmjäger were first deployed unopposed during the invasion of Poland and several opposed deployments during the invasion of Norway, in April 1940. This includes at Dombås in mid-April where they were defeated by the Norwegian Army and some Royal Marines who showed up with a howitzer. I guess your point is more that the Belgian defences weren't set up to deal with such an attack though.
Hello , you forgot the Belgain paratroopers on juin 6 1944 on D Z kilo my friend , and you forgot also the unit off the Belgain paratrooper s onder commant off Eddy Blondeel how jumping in teh Belgain Ardennes to contact the US and the Belgain maquis
My great grand father served with Timmermans, where he was the commander of both Gos and the (at the time) future (now ex) king of Belgium, Albert II. He wasn't part of the RNSB, at the time he was in the 10 commando, and hunted SS troops in Germany after the war. I'm always happy I can learn new stuff about a time when my family was very... active, to say the least
And a small fact : all those WW2 units still exist today, but under a different name. The Brigade Piron is now called the Regiment Bevrijding - 5 Linie, stationed in Leopolsdburg. The 4th Troop is now called the 2ème Bataillon Commando, stationed in Namur (if you look it up on Google it will say Flawinne, but Flawinne is a part of Namur. And before that they were stationed at the Namur citadel), and the 5th SAS is now the Special Forces Group (or SFGp), stationed in Heverlee, but I'm pretty sure they have operators in every SOR base too
as a belgian i was surprised to drive true a town in normandy where the only flags where the french and belgian ones aperantly the town was liberated by belgian forces
i remember reading a book about a young flemish boy on a fishing boat getting caught up in the war. they aided in the evacuation of dunkirck etc. cant remember the book and google didnt help much tho. was a good read as a child
Hilbert, I love your series but I would like to thank you especially for doing a great job on the pronunciation of all local names. That is quite unseen and unheard of here on UA-cam.
Thank you for taking the mic to talk about our troops during the war... Quite some people think that the Belgian army was defeated and some of them turned into the Belgian Resistance, but there is a lot more to the story, indeed... And the Polish... They were among the hardest fighters and many a Belgian town and city has a war memorial celebrating the Polish troops that liberated them. In my hometown Beveren there is a memorial for the Polish tank division that were the first to arrive in town during the Liberation...
@@TheFred1976 That's a very 'partial' reporting of heroism, isn't it? Just kidding. the Belgian forces held the Ypres-Comines line/canal for FIVE days, slowing down the advance of the German Gruppe "B", contributing substantially to the evacuation that was ongoing 40 kilometers away. That's an amazing achievement considering their limited resources! In all fairness the Belgians put up quite a bit of a fight when and where they could get organized (Meuse, Scheldt, Leie). Unfortunately they were no match for a highly mechanized force, the Luftwaffe and superior numbers in general.
Thanks for this great video. We should learn more about the great collective effort it took to win the war. It's very important that these lessons are learned to our younger generations because, if forgotten, history has a nasty habbit of repeating itself!
@@gwilasean7928 Could be, but still, good pronouciation in three languages is quite impressive. I couldn't really notice they were Dutch from their English.
@@gwilasean7928 Yeah I did a quick check of the channel and listened to his English for a bit but couldn't say for sure. However the Dutch pronouciation is clearly Dutch not "Flemish". But since most translation sites and langauge learning apps learn the Dutch pronounciation I just imagined it was due to that. But with your points I am also 99% sure he's Dutch.
Throwing in a suggestion, if you will: Denmark during the second world war. The situation with Denmark was rather complicated, mainly due to the swift collapse of danish defences as the germans invaded and also due to Denmark not having an official "Government in exile". So instead of an "official" government, which existed in Copenhagen until 1943, there was a number of individual persons (like the danish ambassador to the US, Henrik Kaufmann or the danish ambassador to the UK count Edouard Reventlow ) who tried to get denmark recognised as an Allied nation (with varying degrees of succes: there is a very good argument that Denmark overall did more for the German, than the Allied, war effort during ww2).
You shouldve also mentioned just how important Belgian resistance was to the Allied forces... 80% of all intelligence during the war came from Belgian Resistance and we played a crucial role in the capture of Antwerp by capturing the port unscathed despite german attempts to destroy it! Lang Leve de Witte Brigade!
I really like these types of videos looking at the smaller nations, a quick note, while the Luxembourg battery of brigade piron was made up of 80 men to begin with when they landed in august by September they’d been bolstered by other Luxembourgers who’d completed training so in all about 126 Luxembourgers served with the unit.
It would be cool to see a video about Russian forces that participated in the battle. Particularly on the German side but also on the allied side if any were present.
Waaw, I'm really impressed by your languages. Dutch with a dutch accent, Flemish without it, French with a rolling french R, and I assumed you were british untill I heard the dutch pronunciations.
People love making fun of Belgium. But we were major players in both World Wars. From our initial military stand to our Resistance under occupation! Voor Vorst, Voor Vrijheid en Voor Recht! Lang Leve België! Long Live The White Brigade!
I got interested in the Second World War thanks to my late father-in-law. I’ve seen lots of films, read some books but only got to know about our contribution (yes, i am belgian) when I visited the Merville battery last month in Normandy. They have a bunker dedicated to the Brigade Piron. We also visited the first village being liberated by the Belgians.
Thank you for not forgetting us and the other nations like the Dutch and the Polish etc Same for the battle of Dunquerke always forgotten just like the battle of Britain
Kan het zijn dat je serie op Netflix: the real history behind the forgotten battle niet zichtbaar is voor Belgische kijkers? Ik krijg geen resultaten op Netflix
Belgian here, what i remember the most about the forts we built, is that they were useless by the time of WW2 because german artillery could shoot further than the fort cannons
My late (paternal's) grandfather would have liked this video. My grandfather was a volunteer with the "Brigade Piron" and saw action in The Netherlands in April 1945. (And in the Resistance as a teenager, smearing green soap onto railroad tracks to pester the Germans 😄😈 ). They were positioned between the Dutch towns of Zetten and Opheusden, southwest of Arnhem. More than once he told us how one night they were on patrol, when their commander stepped onto a tripwire. The entire group was flooded with lights, and if the Germans had been lying in wait, my grandfather most likely would have gotten killed, he often told us. In The Netherlands Belgian soldiers have been killed in action... I own a dagger that my grandfather "confiscated" from a German POW. It resembles a British Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, but it has a fake "bone" grip. But what is interesting is that it comes in a modified bayonet(?) sheath with the logo of the US Ordnance corps on it... I wish I knew the "story" of this dagger.
My grandfather was a war prisoner under German occupation before the end of the war. My uncle says he would never really talk about it. I guess it was too cruel. He couldn’t stand hearing German language ever after. He was a commander at Bruges St-Kruis marine base. After the war they went to Congo
I heard an interesting story that when Belgian civilians encountered the liberating brigade piron they initially thought they were French Canadians because they didn’t expect to be liberated by there own countrymen.
O dierbaar België O heilig land der vaad'ren Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd. Aanvaard ons kracht en het bloed van onze adren, Wees ons doel in arbeid en in strijd. Bloei, o land, in eendracht niet te breken; Wees immer u zelf en ongeknecht, Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken: Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken: Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht
You said Charles 'Du' Gaul which should have been 'De' (Du means 'de le', 'of the'), which is funnily enough consistent with your calling Belgium 'the Belgium' at the end of your video and I will attribute to your coming from the Netherlands, so maybe you just think every country or region merits a 'the' in front of it, just like we used to do with (the) Congo and (de) Limburg
ever heard of that guy who in the front of the German West Wall (1943-1944) was sent to find out if the sand of the French beaches could support the way of US Tanks ?????
Thanks for this docu ! We should not make the same mistake twice by letting the russians taking all lands they wants . Because the second WW started the same as now the russians do... You could make a docu of the similarety of it ;..
They essentially ran out of ammo (because Belgian politicians seem to be allergic to decent defense policies) and the king surrendered when he realized things were hopeless, refusing to sacrifice any more lives. The French and British weren't too happy about this though, because that enabled the Germans to push into France more quickly and contributed to the Dunkirk situation.
@@thatoneguy7191 Plus the plan was if the Germans invaded, the French and British were to move into fortresses in Belgium, that the Belgians neglected to build. Oops.
@@thatoneguy7191And then the King went out of his way to acquiesce and enforced all German policies and demands put upon Belgium. By contrast the Danish King went out of his way to enforce almost none of them.
@@thatoneguy7191 The king told the british and the french days in advance that he was going to surrender. The french high command ignored it and were surprised when he did surrender.
Same goes for all the allied countries signing the peace treaty after WW1. Why did they allowed Germany to build up their army again ( against terms of the treaty) and secretly training in Russia (but not a secret at all)? Because that investment money came from big financial institutes , European and worldwide. They don't care about the deaths for their profits, hell, even Mr.Ford,GM, was endorsing Hitler and the nazi-parti through Swiss bank accounts. Who do you think sponsored the uprise of Chinese economics two decades ago, yep, some big greedy American banks , they go where the profits are big. And when the Chinese loans are not paid in time, Am.workers being sacked due to cheaper import, ... they(Am. ceo's and boards, government,economics) blame the American taxpayer for the petty money they can't pay no more. lol.
Hahaa funny schtuff. It's actually the Latin term for Netherlands since around the middle ages, and before that it was originally used by Julius Caesar to describe the lands of the Belgae tribes. You were close, though.
Meanwhile 100,000 Belgian soldiers sunned themselves in the Congo. While hundreds of thousands Americans, Brits and Canadians fought and died at D-Day and Normandy.
I think you are a bit prejudiced about 'lazy Africans'. Most of the 'Force Public' in Congo were black and not really in need of extra tanning. Unlike most other colonial powers, Belgium never deployed its colonial army in Europe. In world war 2 they were successful in Ethiopia against the Italians. It was a world war after all. You should be ashamed of yourself pulling those people down or even denying they ever existed...
Thanks Hilbert for showing the Belgian role of liberating Europe. We are often underrepresented, just like the Netherlands and other countries. Dank je wel man.
Hello het gaat hier over the Belgains, niet over the Netherlands
the Belgain brigade Piron liberatd the dutch city s Wessem Thorn Ittervooort Ophoven in september 1944
de Nederlandse prinses Irene brigade bleef altijd achterop hinken achter die Belgische brigade Piron , en kreeg alleen bewakingsopdrachten , daarom heeft deze Nederlandse brigade zo weinig KI A s tebetreuren gehadt ,n dit was ander bij de Belgische strijdkrachten in de 2de W War, ook landen op D Z kilo een Belgische èènheid mèè als airborne unit in juin 6
@@robertneven7563 is uw comment wel bij de juiste geplaatst? In mijn eerste zin bedank ik Hilbert dat hij de rol van de Belgen toont. Nadien zeg ik dat we altijd onderbelicht worden net als de Nederlanders en andere landen.
@@jorenbosmans8065 Wel ja bij de juiste gepllaats aller beste , de Nederlanders hebben n iet veel gepresteert in de 2de W Oorlog , heb zelfs documenten gevonden dat de Nederlands prinses Irene brigade niet mocht deelnemen aan de parade na de bevrijding van de Nederlandse stad Tilburg van de Britich army hun aandeel was te zwak geweest,
My fathers friend who was born in Wales with a Scots father and Flemish mother landed on D day and made it to his mothers village where he knocked on his grandmothers door and met his Belgium family for the first time.. He spoke Welsh, English and Flemish.
Flemish is a dialect of dutch.
So? Does that mean that you can't speak flemisch?@@MajorBluesZ
@@wafelswafels8613 I am flemish.
@@MajorBluesZ So? What has that to do with this.
Very cool I think some distant relatives of mine fought there to but I don't know for sure and btw I don't have any family in Wales or Scotland sadly😢
Thank you for your interesting video. Unfortunately, you missed the key contribution of Belgium to D-Day. The Belgian engineer-architect, Hugo Van Kuyck led a team (Beach Intelligence Section) that compiled information from various sources (aerial reconnaissance planes, maritime navigation charts, resistance information sources, information gathered by combat divers) to make highly detailed maps of the shores and direct inlands of large parts of the atlantic coast, including the landing beaches (Omaho, Utah, Gold Juno, Sword, Band). These maps combine nautical information (including tides) and topographic information. For this reason, these maps were absolutely critical for planning the invasion. The maps were not only used in the planning room, but also by the seamen, including those who piloted the landing craft on each of the aforementioned beaches.
Van Kuyck himself landed on Omaha beach on D-Day (seventh wave). Arguably, he was the first Belgian to set foot in France on D-Day.
In the US armed forces, Hugo Van Kuyck reached one of the highest ranks ever held by a non-US Person, namely lieutenant colonel. For his significant effort, he received from the US forces the Bronze Star Medal and the Legion of Merit.
Another point : Churchill did not want the Brigade Piron to take a spotlight role on D-Day, because he feared that if losses in the Brigade would be very high from the start of the Normady invasion, the general public in Belgium would question the extensive use of Belgian forces to liberate France before Belgian territory was liberated. Furthermore, he also feared that without the Brigade Piron, the liberation of Belgium would become more difficult, given the lack of local knowledge and language capabilities.
As a Luxembourger this topic is close to my heart. It is no small matter that Luxembourg's future Grand Duke, Prince Jean, was present at the beaches of Normandy, and fought alongside a Scottish regiment, inching his way back towards our nation to liberate it.
He was a fine and brave man, with a clear sense of duty...some of his successors since, maybe not so much...that said, compared to the British Royal family, they are models of duty, decorum and fiscal responsibility.
Shut up and hide my money :p
hey, thank you for putting Belgium in a nice light I am Belgian myself and have learned something from our history that I did not learn at school many greetings from Belgium
Little known fact about the 5th SAS, they were the first allied unit to set foot in Belgium, their home country, for an operation intented to sabotage infrastructure and communications to confuse the Germans so that an allied liberation would go faster and smoother, the Belgian Government in Exile insisted on a Belgian unit being the first to set foot within their own occupied country, yet because it was a special ops unit and operation, it didn't get as much attention.
A couple of things...I knew about much of this already, but it is wonderful that someone has actually 'put it out there' in a good, well-informed and concise format. The other thing is - and this is something that can sometimes have me screaming at the screen, your pronunciation of Belgian and Dutch names was just about immaculate...I don't know if you have ancestry out that way ( I do), but it was so pleasing to hear, it really really was! For this if nothing else, I'm subscribing!
I have enjoyed your videos about how smaller nations of Europe contributed to the victory in World War II
There is an interesting museum in Anderlecht, Brussels, called Musée de la Résistance de Belgique.
I had the chance of getting a tour during several hours by one of the last alive members of one of the resistance groups back in the day. He was 16 when aiding in the sabotage of the ammunition trains that drove in from Germoney, RIP.
Very much worth checking out.
For such a small country Belgium counts a surprising number of bad ass fighting soldiers; among them: Adrian "F!ck death" Carton de Wiart and General "Report that I was unconscious when I surrendered" Leman
One who fought for the brittish army and the other was dead long before ww2 😂
We're a weird bunch.
We've contributed to the world in unimaginable fantastic ways and in unimaginably horrible ways.
One of which is only now starting to show just how horrible it is with microplastics showing up even in peoples sperm.
Very interesting video, but probably the main Belgian contribution to the success of D-Day was Hugo Van Kuyck. He performed reconaissance of the beaches, drafted the landing maps, helped to set the landing date, was involved in the design of landing craft, etc. He landed on D-Day itself and immediatly got to work analysing the beach to get a supply network set up. A humble man, sometimes rightly called 'The architect of the D-Day'
Dank je wel Hilbert for showing the Belgian role during WW2.
Lang leve België 🇧🇪🫡
Thank you for the recognition of our contribution !
Merci bcp !
Greetings from Namur.
Thank you for doing a video on Belgium’s (and Luxembourg’s) contribution to D-Day and ultimately Allied victory in Europe 😊
"LAP SEG!" - Cpl. Verhulst, 6 juni, 1944
So what does "Lap Seg" mean in English? Google translate won't tell me.
I understand the rest of what you have to say. That's pretty easy.
@@frenzalrhomb6919 it's a Flemish warcry, litterally translated it says "Towel Say!"
@@frenzalrhomb6919it is basically something you say when things go wrong or something unexpected happens. It is a non cursing way.
"Ten eerste is het sergeant Albertooo en ten tweede ik ben in men been geschoten" - Sgt. Vermeersch, June 6 1944
"Het mooie van dit soort dagen is, is dat het niet NOG erger kan!" - Burgemeester Modest, 10 mei, 1940
Great video. I'm impressed you pronounce names correctly in several languages (I'm Belgian, Vlaming).
Your voice is smooth, words clearly spoken, and care about it. You deliver seriously high quality, on an aspect the youtube crowd generally seem to forget.
You barely have any accent (non-england Brittish?) It is barely noticeable and charming to hear a touch here and there.
He's definitely English, the accent is quite subdued I think I detect a touch of northern in there, but yes he makes good videos.
He's Dutch 😺
@@kurgisempyrion6125 He is Dutch
@@MarkoTardelli Is he? Heh fair play he speaks English very well
He's definitely got a Geordie accent. Maybe he waters it down a bit for these videos, but it still sticks out on certain words, like how he pronounces "buttercup". As a Mackem (next-door neighbours to the Geordies), I think it was the first thing I noticed when I first saw one of his videos.
Thank you for reporting these facts which are little known even by Belgians ! 😊😊😊
In the village where I live one of the last remaining members of brigade Piron celebrated his 100th birthday of few weeks ago.
As a Belgian I agree that Belgium is a small country, and interesting contribution here about its role in the war.
However, after first speaking about Poland, you turned your attention to "another small country". I don't think the Poles think about their country as being a small country. It may be so in the eyes of the Americans. But in that case, Americans don't have to be upset if Russians or Canadians call the USA a "small country".
So: to put a bright red dot on the i that is not to be found in the name Poland: Poland is a medium sized country just like France or Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and of course Luxemburg are small countries.
Poland is obviously not a small country, idk why some people have the urge to say " small" country , i mean we can look at a map and decide for ourselves
Thank you for putting in the effort of pronouncing the dutch names correctly. You did a great job!
My great grandfather fought for Belgium and was in France when Belgium capitulated. He was not that far from Dunkirk but he didnt want to continue fighting so went home. According to my Grandfather he was on foot from "Frans-Vlaanderen" to around Antwerp city.. :)
The Free Belgian army were based in Penally (very near to Tenby, in Pembrokeshire, Wales) and trained there on the beach and in the dunes. Plenty of info and some photos can be found via Google.
Great video but Fallschirmjäger were first deployed unopposed during the invasion of Poland and several opposed deployments during the invasion of Norway, in April 1940. This includes at Dombås in mid-April where they were defeated by the Norwegian Army and some Royal Marines who showed up with a howitzer. I guess your point is more that the Belgian defences weren't set up to deal with such an attack though.
Make it a Benelux trilogy and tell us if any Luxembourgers fought at D-Day
5:36
Do the Luxembourgers still store Europe's herrings?
Hello , you forgot the Belgain paratroopers on juin 6 1944 on D Z kilo my friend , and you forgot also the unit off the Belgain paratrooper s onder commant off Eddy Blondeel how jumping in teh Belgain Ardennes to contact the US and the Belgain maquis
I like History with Hilbert. Guy has a feel to him, like we are just having a beer by the fire and chatting.
Does cool stories too.
My great grand father served with Timmermans, where he was the commander of both Gos and the (at the time) future (now ex) king of Belgium, Albert II. He wasn't part of the RNSB, at the time he was in the 10 commando, and hunted SS troops in Germany after the war. I'm always happy I can learn new stuff about a time when my family was very... active, to say the least
And a small fact : all those WW2 units still exist today, but under a different name. The Brigade Piron is now called the Regiment Bevrijding - 5 Linie, stationed in Leopolsdburg. The 4th Troop is now called the 2ème Bataillon Commando, stationed in Namur (if you look it up on Google it will say Flawinne, but Flawinne is a part of Namur. And before that they were stationed at the Namur citadel), and the 5th SAS is now the Special Forces Group (or SFGp), stationed in Heverlee, but I'm pretty sure they have operators in every SOR base too
as a belgian i was surprised to drive true a town in normandy where the only flags where the french and belgian ones aperantly the town was liberated by belgian forces
Bormandy?
@@JZsBFF mistype XD
@@seppehens8459 LOL. I like "Bormandy", I'll keep it for some rainy day. Cheers.
Dat was het dorp Sallenelle. Leuk dorp. Ook bezocht vorige maand.
battle of the scheld also took place in Belgium around the city of eeklo, Maldegem
i remember reading a book about a young flemish boy on a fishing boat getting caught up in the war. they aided in the evacuation of dunkirck etc. cant remember the book and google didnt help much tho. was a good read as a child
The Ballad of a Fisher Boy? I never read it myself so i could be very wrong
Nice history lesson ! thx
My grandad fought in RAF 349 from September 1940 till 1946. On D-day he did 6 sorties covering the assault.
Rest In Peace
Thank you for this. My old man was in that lot.
according to Neveneffecten, some of them stole a plane and accidentally attacked a British base
And there was a blind guy in their squad.
@@friesverstrynge3299 hey! He was completely independent!
@@JudithOpdebeeck True, even saved their life with the final gameplan!
My grandfather (we're from Belgium) told me parts of the achievements of these units.
Hilbert, I love your series but I would like to thank you especially for doing a great job on the pronunciation of all local names. That is quite unseen and unheard of here on UA-cam.
nicely made informational video! But I'm most impressed by your accents! You pronounce French, Dutch and German incredibly accurately :) Very nice.
Thank you for taking the mic to talk about our troops during the war... Quite some people think that the Belgian army was defeated and some of them turned into the Belgian Resistance, but there is a lot more to the story, indeed... And the Polish... They were among the hardest fighters and many a Belgian town and city has a war memorial celebrating the Polish troops that liberated them. In my hometown Beveren there is a memorial for the Polish tank division that were the first to arrive in town during the Liberation...
Hello Hilbert. Ah, the not so secret army.
Very good! You could have mentioned the contribution of the Belgian forces who fought in East Africa in 1941!
Interesting, not something I had ever thought about before
That was interesting. Didn't know the Belgium were in D-Day or the Ducth. Have to watch that. Learnt something new abount the 2nd WW. 👽👍
It is said that because the Belgians hold the lines for awhile, the evacuation of Dunkirk was partly possible.
@@TheFred1976 That's a very 'partial' reporting of heroism, isn't it? Just kidding. the Belgian forces held the Ypres-Comines line/canal for FIVE days, slowing down the advance of the German Gruppe "B", contributing substantially to the evacuation that was ongoing 40 kilometers away. That's an amazing achievement considering their limited resources!
In all fairness the Belgians put up quite a bit of a fight when and where they could get organized (Meuse, Scheldt, Leie). Unfortunately they were no match for a highly mechanized force, the Luftwaffe and superior numbers in general.
Great video, your pronunciation in dutch/frech is really good
Fun fact the 349th and 350th squadron still operate today in flanders and wallonia respectively
Thanks for this great video. We should learn more about the great collective effort it took to win the war. It's very important that these lessons are learned to our younger generations because, if forgotten, history has a nasty habbit of repeating itself!
As a Belgian I just have to say, thanks for the effort put into pronounciations of both Dutch and French. Both fairly well executed.
Isnt the auteur dutch ?
@@gwilasean7928 Could be, but still, good pronouciation in three languages is quite impressive. I couldn't really notice they were Dutch from their English.
@@lordcatface2378 the letter g in some words tell me he is prob dutch ;) and the name of the channel :)
@@gwilasean7928 Yeah I did a quick check of the channel and listened to his English for a bit but couldn't say for sure. However the Dutch pronouciation is clearly Dutch not "Flemish". But since most translation sites and langauge learning apps learn the Dutch pronounciation I just imagined it was due to that. But with your points I am also 99% sure he's Dutch.
@@lordcatface2378 haha it was just a reply i was not trying to be a smartass btw
Throwing in a suggestion, if you will: Denmark during the second world war.
The situation with Denmark was rather complicated, mainly due to the swift collapse of danish defences as the germans invaded and also due to Denmark not having an official "Government in exile".
So instead of an "official" government, which existed in Copenhagen until 1943, there was a number of individual persons (like the danish ambassador to the US, Henrik Kaufmann or the danish ambassador to the UK count Edouard Reventlow ) who tried to get denmark recognised as an Allied nation (with varying degrees of succes: there is a very good argument that Denmark overall did more for the German, than the Allied, war effort during ww2).
Thanks for history update. Brilliant content on it. Italy excellent. Italy social Republic 🇮🇹
I ALWAYS WONDERED THAT!
Actually terrible that they don't teach this to us in history
@@jorenbosmans8065 Damn i thougt that at least they teach that in Flanders, same shit as in Wallonia it seems
You shouldve also mentioned just how important Belgian resistance was to the Allied forces... 80% of all intelligence during the war came from Belgian Resistance and we played a crucial role in the capture of Antwerp by capturing the port unscathed despite german attempts to destroy it!
Lang Leve de Witte Brigade!
I really like these types of videos looking at the smaller nations, a quick note, while the Luxembourg battery of brigade piron was made up of 80 men to begin with when they landed in august by September they’d been bolstered by other Luxembourgers who’d completed training so in all about 126 Luxembourgers served with the unit.
Actually the German paratroopers had previously been used against Denmark and Norway.
It would be cool to see a video about Russian forces that participated in the battle. Particularly on the German side but also on the allied side if any were present.
Waaw, I'm really impressed by your languages. Dutch with a dutch accent, Flemish without it, French with a rolling french R, and I assumed you were british untill I heard the dutch pronunciations.
The dutch in this video is quite good.
People love making fun of Belgium. But we were major players in both World Wars. From our initial military stand to our Resistance under occupation!
Voor Vorst, Voor Vrijheid en Voor Recht!
Lang Leve België!
Long Live The White Brigade!
As no one else said it, I will.
They provided keys to the Belgian Gates
(A VERY weak Atlantic Wall gadget joke.)
haha it's so a niche reference, i don't think many people know about it
I got interested in the Second World War thanks to my late father-in-law. I’ve seen lots of films, read some books but only got to know about our contribution (yes, i am belgian) when I visited the Merville battery last month in Normandy. They have a bunker dedicated to the Brigade Piron. We also visited the first village being liberated by the Belgians.
I might have to find what they did prior to this point. Interesting
Thank you for not forgetting us and the other nations like the Dutch and the Polish etc
Same for the battle of Dunquerke always forgotten just like the battle of Britain
Thanks for not butchering the words :D
Brave little Belgium will NOT back down.
Kan het zijn dat je serie op Netflix: the real history behind the forgotten battle niet zichtbaar is voor Belgische kijkers?
Ik krijg geen resultaten op Netflix
Belgian here, what i remember the most about the forts we built, is that they were useless by the time of WW2 because german artillery could shoot further than the fort cannons
well , mostly the use of paratroopers and blitzkrieg strategy made them useless
My late (paternal's) grandfather would have liked this video.
My grandfather was a volunteer with the "Brigade Piron" and saw action in The Netherlands in April 1945. (And in the Resistance as a teenager, smearing green soap onto railroad tracks to pester the Germans 😄😈 ). They were positioned between the Dutch towns of Zetten and Opheusden, southwest of Arnhem.
More than once he told us how one night they were on patrol, when their commander stepped onto a tripwire. The entire group was flooded with lights, and if the Germans had been lying in wait, my grandfather most likely would have gotten killed, he often told us.
In The Netherlands Belgian soldiers have been killed in action...
I own a dagger that my grandfather "confiscated" from a German POW. It resembles a British Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, but it has a fake "bone" grip. But what is interesting is that it comes in a modified bayonet(?) sheath with the logo of the US Ordnance corps on it... I wish I knew the "story" of this dagger.
Musee de la Résistance de Belgique, Anderlecht, Brussels.
My grandfather was a war prisoner under German occupation before the end of the war. My uncle says he would never really talk about it. I guess it was too cruel. He couldn’t stand hearing German language ever after. He was a commander at Bruges St-Kruis marine base. After the war they went to Congo
Definitely cover Czechoslovak contributions!
Congratulations on your pronunciation of Belgian names and place names
Fun fact, the 349 and 350 SQN still exist up to today :)
How is your Dutch pronunciation so good?
There where alot of white brigade figters aswell helping to protect important harbours and points of intrest
Possible the first pic at 01:00 is taken during/after WWI? Looks like Diksmuide or Yper tbh.
Rotterdam. WWII. Is a famous picture.
@@davidsastre8724 ah, tha for that. I found it.
I heard an interesting story that when Belgian civilians encountered the liberating brigade piron they initially thought they were French Canadians because they didn’t expect to be liberated by there own countrymen.
Czechoslovaks would be cool. Maybe those Irish Volunteers fighting for the Allies, they were treated terribly by the Irish Government after the war.
What did Australia do on D Day? Please make a video
So Canada is not part of the British Empire/Commonwealth? According to how you worded it, it isn’t, but we know the truth, it is!
O dierbaar België
O heilig land der vaad'ren
Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd.
Aanvaard ons kracht en het bloed van onze adren,
Wees ons doel in arbeid en in strijd.
Bloei, o land, in eendracht niet te breken;
Wees immer u zelf en ongeknecht,
Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken:
Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht.
Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken:
Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht
Do you speak dutch? No american can say schelde that good.
You said Charles 'Du' Gaul which should have been 'De' (Du means 'de le', 'of the'), which is funnily enough consistent with your calling Belgium 'the Belgium' at the end of your video and I will attribute to your coming from the Netherlands, so maybe you just think every country or region merits a 'the' in front of it, just like we used to do with (the) Congo and (de) Limburg
We make so good waffles that gave motivation to liberate europe. Thats the real belgian contribution !
did Australia fought in d-day ?
yes
ever heard of that guy who in the front of the German West Wall (1943-1944) was sent to find out if the sand of the French beaches could support the way of US Tanks ?????
The Polish liberated my home town of Merksplas, near the Dutch border.
Thanks for this docu ! We should not make the same mistake twice by letting the russians taking all lands they wants . Because the second WW started the same as now the russians do... You could make a docu of the similarety of it ;..
I thought Belgium basically got squished during the whole war.
They essentially ran out of ammo (because Belgian politicians seem to be allergic to decent defense policies) and the king surrendered when he realized things were hopeless, refusing to sacrifice any more lives. The French and British weren't too happy about this though, because that enabled the Germans to push into France more quickly and contributed to the Dunkirk situation.
@@thatoneguy7191 Plus the plan was if the Germans invaded, the French and British were to move into fortresses in Belgium, that the Belgians neglected to build. Oops.
@@thatoneguy7191And then the King went out of his way to acquiesce and enforced all German policies and demands put upon Belgium.
By contrast the Danish King went out of his way to enforce almost none of them.
@@billygoatgruff3536like every occupied state
@@thatoneguy7191 The king told the british and the french days in advance that he was going to surrender. The french high command ignored it and were surprised when he did surrender.
Danish next
the Belgian contribution was well documented by neveneffecten 🙃🙃
Let us also remember that Belgium is supposed to be neutral.
And you don’t know how to pronounce the R.A.F. Squadron numbers correctly.
uh hello
My geat grandadt was in de 349 bomer platoen
A+ for pronounciations
5:45
Maybe this whole video could've been avoided, if the Belgians had followed a less fickle defence strategy during the interwar years?
Same goes for all the allied countries signing the peace treaty after WW1. Why did they allowed Germany to build up their army again ( against terms of the treaty) and secretly training in Russia (but not a secret at all)? Because that investment money came from big financial institutes , European and worldwide. They don't care about the deaths for their profits, hell, even Mr.Ford,GM, was endorsing Hitler and the nazi-parti through Swiss bank accounts. Who do you think sponsored the uprise of Chinese economics two decades ago, yep, some big greedy American banks , they go where the profits are big. And when the Chinese loans are not paid in time, Am.workers being sacked due to cheaper import, ... they(Am. ceo's and boards, government,economics) blame the American taxpayer for the petty money they can't pay no more. lol.
Lots of us where also fighting on the eastern front against the communists
'Belgium' is an old German word that roughly translates to 'This way to France'.
Hahaa funny schtuff. It's actually the Latin term for Netherlands since around the middle ages, and before that it was originally used by Julius Caesar to describe the lands of the Belgae tribes. You were close, though.
lol
You sound likea bad joke from the Netherlands.
Meanwhile 100,000 Belgian soldiers sunned themselves in the Congo. While hundreds of thousands Americans, Brits and Canadians fought and died at D-Day and Normandy.
The french were in algeria, the british in south africa. Whats your point?
The Italians were so impressed by their tan, nine of their generals promptly surrendered happening upon them in july 1941.
At least 100.000 Belgian people died in this war. A little respect and less ignorance would get you a long way
I think you are a bit prejudiced about 'lazy Africans'. Most of the 'Force Public' in Congo were black and not really in need of extra tanning. Unlike most other colonial powers, Belgium never deployed its colonial army in Europe. In world war 2 they were successful in Ethiopia against the Italians. It was a world war after all. You should be ashamed of yourself pulling those people down or even denying they ever existed...
"What Did the Belgians Do on D-Day?"
You mean, apart from being occupied by the Nazis?
Comet Line?
fun fact: Belgium wasn't a country in 1944
Fun fact: it was. Back to school for you Robbie 😂
Tell us more please?