Berating Belgium

It was on this date, May 8, 1945, seventy-five years ago, that WWII ended in the European theater of operations. Or, as it is called VE Day.  With World War II having seen the Allied powers victorious, much of the history of the war has been written on behalf of the two main Allied powers:  The United States and Britain.  France and the Soviet Union were also Allied powers, but their role in the whole scheme is less to us in the English speaking world.  British hubris and arrogance was at play, however, during the whole war and in the early part of the German invasion of France.  The British blamed the Belgians, and the French for their troop withdrawal out of France in late May to early June 1940.  They berated Belgium and then France for the debacle. However, the British idea of berating Belgium is misplaced and simply wrong.  The British claim to have retreated because the Belgians had quit.  But, it was the British who quit--on the orders of Winston Churchill no less.  The war may not have lasted long if the British Expeditionary Force had stayed in Europe in 1940 and not retreated to Dunkirk.  If the British had fought along the Belgians and the French, regardless of the French leader, perhaps my Dad would never have been called into the conflict, not to mention savings hundreds of thousands of lives.

Allied Italian Campaign

Nazi Germany is often tagged as military machine, but truth be told their armor and air planes were not really a match for that of the Allies. As one writer stipulates, Blitzkrieg was a myth. German tanks and air planes in 1940, were more in line with those in WWI, then what would be seen at the end of WWII. Poland fell to Germany in 1939 in part because Poland kept their airplanes on the ground and did not use them to assist in the fighting.  However, the main impact was that Poland received a double whammy as the Soviet Union, then allied with Nazi Germany, invaded Poland from the east.  It was the beginning of the Iron Curtain. The Poles had a two front defensive invasion to fight, and while the German machinery may not have been up to snuff, the German command and military training were highly considered, except of course by the British.  The Germans were also the least mechanized of the main combatants.  The Allies viewed the take over of Poland and gave Nazi Germany a reputation of military muscle and invincibility when that was not quite true, particularly in regard to tanks and air planes.  They failed to look at the whole picture of what occurred in Poland. To get to France in 1940, German forces were following the road map of WWI and going through Belgium rather than to attack along its east border with France which posed stronger fortifications and some terrain issues.

General Eisenhower, General Bradley and British Field Marshall Montgomery

Hitler was not expecting a short lived battle for Belgium and France, but the French leader was already talking about defeat early in the conflict due to early losses and not realizing that his army possessed the ability to rebound.  Regardless of the French leader, the French troops were still fighting.  The French leader  told Churchill on May 15  that his country had been defeated.  Churchill took him at his word when the fact is during the battle in May 1940 the French and Belgians were still well engaged, the German air force had significant losses of aircraft and pilots, as well as its tank divisions being at one-half strength by the end of May 1940. Germany would never recover from the loss of pilots and aircraft.  At this point the German belief was to divide the British and French forces but a series of bad decisions had the Allies doing that for themselves.

Bastogne Belgium WWII, likely after Battle of the Bulge

It was the British retreat that forced Belgium to surrender.  The problem was both France and Britain forgot about Belgium, and the British retreat made it such that it forced the Belgian forces to the sea and left them with no capabilities to defend themselves. The British left a gaping hole in the front, and that hole was quickly filled by the Germany army.   The problem may said to be with France, but Churchill, as a student of history should have known that the French government was inclined to panic when things looked bad.  He also should have known that the French soldiers continued to fight. This happened in 1870 and in 1914 to France. Churchill, for some reason failed to think strategically about what the withdrawal would do, since well, they seemed to have forgotten about the Belgian armed forces.  Instead of going on the offensive, which would have been a good call given the condition of the invading German forces, with the still fighting French and Belgian armed forces, Churchill gave the order to retreat which led to the famous escape from Dunkirk.  The poor Belgians found themselves once again left to hold the bad end of a deal.  The Belgians would see much of the fighting of the war as the Allies advanced and the Germans countered in December with what we know as the Battle of the Bulge. The war would be played long and hard in that country, who was a victim of geography.

Front of Post Card Roy Hovel for his
Sister, Anita.  Sept 11, 1944

There is a high probability that the British, if they had attacked a fast decreasing German army the Nazi onslaught could have been stopped as it would have allowed time for the French to move additional forces to the point of attack.  Of course, if the British had upheld their end of the bargain they made with the Poles maybe Hitler would have had second thoughts on advancing into Belgium and France. Instead, they did nothing of consequence to assist the Poles. And the British withdrew from Belgium, after of course berating Belgium.

Back of post Card
"Dear Sis, Haven't as yet caught up with this fellow, but hope to soon. Love Bernie"
The notation is the bottom middle is the approval by the military censor.

People like to think of Churchill as a master war strategist, but let us examine one other major mistake he had the Allies make.  The United States felt it best to attack Germany through France, but Churchill believed it should be attacked through what he called the soft underbelly of Europe--Italy.  Italy was one of the Axis powers, but as their army faltered German forces moved in.  Much of 1943 and on for the Allies was spent in North Africa and in Italy.  The problem was that it may have looked good on a map, but Churchill did not look at the terrain.  The mountains of interior Italy made going difficult, not to mention what would have happened if it got to the northern mountains--the Alps.  The Allies found no soft underbelly, and only squandered time and more importantly men.  US planners saw this move as a way for Churchill to maintain a hold of the wider British empire in the Mideast and beyond, but they indulged the British, nonetheless leading to a significant loss of American and allied lives.  For much of the war the British concern was about their Empire.

Roy Hovel overlooking unknown Mountain range
Roy Hovel entered the European theater of Operations
on D Day +13.  He was attached to the 83rd Infantry Division

Yet, Churchill's decision also affected the Normandy invasion of June 1944, when the British army, which landed at Sword and Gold beaches in the Overlord plan, lacked the infantry to overtake the Germans as intended.  Instead the British got bottled up near Caen.  While they eventually took Caen it was not really due to their expert military action, but rather of a blunder extraordinaire by the German leader, Adolph Hitler.  Hitler, in August, pulled his armor and other forces for an ill advised offensive in terrible terrain for a armored offensive move to try to split the US from the Canadians and British forces. Not only was his armor weak, he gave up strong defensive positions to do this attack.  It would be his greatest failure, and that is saying a good deal about a person who had a lot of failures.  In theory it may have been decent thinking, but a good war planner would look at the geography, and let the geography and military aspects on the ground inform the decision.  The Germans best fought defensively and their large lumbering armored forces, particularly those that came about as Panther and Tiger tanks in the latter part of the war, were better suited for defensive action. Yet, Hitler bought into a failed armor theory as had the Allies during Market Garden--a theory that failed in reality as terrain, and defensive weaponry cannot be discounted.  Hitler's decision came shortly after the failed attempt on his life in July 1944.  After this attempt on his life, he micromanaged the German war effort even more, particularly the Wehrmacht from which he took more and more control.  He never really trusted his army high command.  Rommel, injured from an American air strike and to be dead of government advocated suicide in October as he was implicated in the assassination plot, at the time may have been the only one to talk Hitler out of such a decision.  But it was not to be as Hitler never looked at what holes he would open with the offensive, not unlike the large hole the British left in Belgium when they retreated in 1940. Of course, Hitler would try another attempt at an offensive, the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

Roy Hovel, member CIC during WWII

History is comprised of many poor decisions, of which these are just two of the many made by Winston Churchill, but both had significant affect on the length of the war. If Churchill had not made the decision to retreat and evacuate in 1940, many lives may have been saved.  And, perhaps my Dad would never have found himself in Europe.  If that was the case he most certainly would not have found himself as likely the first person affected by the Battle of the Bulge when his Jeep was shot out from under him just prior to the start of the German movement.  He then would not have made his way to Bastogne, Belgium leaving the city just before it was surrounded by the Germans.  Belgium had more hardships of which to put up with than most any other invaded country, and there was then no need for them to be berated by the British particularly expressed by British hubris and arrogance in writing about the war.