The Belgian Army had approximately 200
combat vehicle
A combat vehicle, also known as a ground combat vehicle, is a self-propelled, weaponized military vehicle used for combat operations in mechanized warfare. Combat vehicles can be wheeled or tracked.
History Ancient
The chariot is a type o ...
s at the time of the
German invasion in May 1940. The vehicles were distributed among
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
and
cavalry divisions for use as
support weapons. The
Belgian Army
The Land Component ( nl, Landcomponent, french: Composante terre) is the land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land Component is Major-General Pierre Gérard. ...
viewed their combat vehicles as defensive weapons. The practice of spreading out combat vehicles in so called "penny packets" (also used in the French Army at the same time) left them at a disadvantage against the German invaders, who concentrated their armour into organic units that could act on their own and that outnumbered the opposing vehicles even if units of the same type met.
The Belgian Army had started to motorize its cavalry in 1936, spending 200 million
Belgian Francs in the process.
Tanks
T15 light tank
![Léopold III-1940-revue-01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/L%C3%A9opold_III-1940-revue-01.jpg)
The
T15 was a version of the British
Carden Loyd tankette (''Char Léger de Reconnaissance'' Vickers-Carden-Loyd Mod.1934 T.15). They had a two-man crew and were armed with a French
13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun in the turret. A total of 42 of these tanks were assigned to Belgian units.
T13 (tank destroyer, models B1, B2 and B3)
The
T13 series was similar to the T15, with a main armament of a
47 mm anti-tank gun instead of a machine gun and of armour. They were regarded as
tank destroyers and except the first model (B1) had rotating turrets.
Total production for the T13:
* T13 B1, 35 produced as self-propelled guns, with a 47 mm gun at the rear behind a shield, with limited traverse.
* T13 B2, 21 produced. These started their life as unarmed
Carden Loyd tankettes which were modified and equipped with a turret with a 47 mm gun in 1936.
* T13 B3, 150 produced, entered service in 1937 with a rotating turret and a revised suspension based on the
Vickers Light Dragon Mark IIB.
The
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
operated some captured T13s during the first years of the war, as the T13 had a more powerful main gun than the
Panzer I
The Panzer I was a light tank produced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Its name is short for ( German for " armored fighting vehicle mark I"), abbreviated as . The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was '' Sd.Kfz. 10 ...
and
Panzer II
The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' II (abbreviated PzKpfw II).
Although the vehicle had originally been designed as a stopgap while l ...
, common German tanks in the early war years.
There is a T13 B2 on display at Brussels Tank Museum.
ACG-1 tank
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-040-60, Belgien, Antwerpen, belg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1971-040-60%2C_Belgien%2C_Antwerpen%2C_belg._Pzkpfw..jpg)
The
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...
AMC 35 tank, known locally as the ACG-1, was armed with a 47 mm gun and a
coaxial machine gun
A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon (typically a gun) onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts.
Stat ...
; 25 tanks were ordered, although only 10 were accepted into the Belgian army due to production delays. The Belgian ACG-1 and the AMC 35 had different turrets. Instead of waiting for the other tanks to arrive the Belgian army created the T-13 B3, also armed with a 47 mm C.47 gun. A squadron of ACG-1 was mobilised in 1939 but only 8 could be made operational of those in storage. The 47 mm main gun in the ACG1 was the same anti-tank gun then in service with the Belgian Army.
Renault FT tank
The Belgian army had 75
Renault FT
The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to ...
tanks (of World War I vintage) at the start of World War II. The Belgian Army had two types of FT tanks, the ''Char canon'' armed with a short 37 mm Puteaux SA-18 gun and the ''Char mitrailleuse'' armed with a machine gun. Unlike the French Army, the Belgian Army had withdrawn all FT tanks from front line service before World War II. They remained in storage depots during the 1940 campaign.
Post-1944
After the
Belgian liberation in late 1944, the Belgian army used American and British equipment until the end of the war.
See also
*
Belgium in World War II
Despite being neutral at the start of World War II, Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting in which Belgian forces were pushed bac ...
*
*
List of World War II military vehicles by country
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of Belgian military equipment of World War II
The following is a list of Belgian military equipment of World War II which includes artillery, vehicles and vessels. World War II was a global war that was under way by 1939 and ended in 1945. On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany, which aimed to dominate ...
Footnotes
References
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
Page about Belgium Armor (select Belgium from the menu on the side){{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030052248/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/ , date=2013-10-30
wwiivehicles.com page Belgium
Armoured fighting vehicles of Belgium
World War II armoured fighting vehicles of Belgium