TEN DIVISIONS STRONG

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 6

TEN DIVISIONS STRONG

BELGIAN ARMY READY FOR BUSINESS A RECONSTRUCTED ARMY Ten divisions strong, the Belgian Army is ready to take its part in the offensive in Flanders whenever the word is given. The Belgian Minister of AVar, in recent interviews, said thai; the Belgian Army was composed of 117,000 men at tile beginning of tho war,'increased by 20,000 volunteers in 1914, and reduced to CO,OOO men after the battle of the A'ser. Sincc then, by tho enrolment of Belgian refugees and tho enlistment of volunteers who have braved tho live-wire barriers on the Holland frontier, it has been brought up to ten divisions of well-trained troops.

"If our army has not undertaken operations of a wider scope up to this time," said the Minister, "it is because it does not devolve 011 it to decide tho moment when theso operation?, should begin. The army is only a parti of the combined Allied forces, acting in unison and in accordance with carefully developed plans. The army has valiantly filled the role that has been assigned to it. It lias just proved, by its brilliant participation in the last offensive in Flanders, that it is ready to attack with fervour, and awaits impatiently the hour."

t-ummarising the work of the Belgian Army during tho war, and referring to its difficulties and lack of equipment, the Minister recalled that in August, 1914, the army had only one machinegun for each 1000 men, only three field guns per 400 men, with ammunition for only about SOO shots for each piece. It had 110 light mortars, 110 heavy artillery, 110 grenades, 110 trench equipment, no ambulances, no pontoon crews, not a single motor-cycle. It had only 1000 bicycles, two captive balloons, a few superannuated airplanes, and a fow posts of wireless telegraphy. "We had only 32,000 infantiy after tho battlo of tho Ysor," said the _ Minister, "and its equipment was in a, pitiable state. Munitions were lacking, and all of .the different organisms were deranged when the army base was transferred to foreign soil. 1 his remnant of an army not only barred tho way to Calais, but while doing so was reorganised and reinforced, until now it counts threo times the number or men that the battle of the Yser left valid. Tho front held by the Belgian army has been gradually lengthened from about twelve and a half miles, after the battle of the Yser to seventeen miles in January, 191G, eighteen miles at tho beginning of March, and about nineteen miles in June, 191 G. _ "The Belgian nrroy organised this front and held it alono until the middlo of this year, when, as a consequence or the operations of the Allied offensive in Flanders, it was reduced, enabling tho army to dispose of considerable _re'serves. The gigantic task of organising defences in this part of tho front, where water appears as soon as tlie ground is scratched, has beer. frequently described. Other lines of strong defence were not only built there by the Belgian army, but all of the uecessarvcommunications with the rear were constructed, with barracks and hospitals. In August, 1917, the army had twelve iimes as many liiacbinc-guns as in 191.4. seven times as many field-guns and heavy pieces, with fivo times as much ammunition as was on hand at the outset of hostilities. The impression that has got abroad that the Belgian army was reorganised and reequipped entirely by our Allies is an error," lie added. "Belgium, exiled and deprived of all her resources, rociived generous hospitality and powerful aid from her glorious ' Allies. It was on French and British soil that all was to he done, but Belgians themselves too!: wj the work of riconstrui,tion. The Belgian army created by its own efforts the greater part of what was indispensable for it to live and fight, It is building its own cannon, making its own powder and its own projectiles."

The impression which I have gathered from ny short visit in Flanders is distinctly comforting. All those who have had any experience of trench warfare in Flanders have realised that that is one of the sectors of the Western front where the patience and endurance of the Army are roost severely tried, especially during rainy weather. Not only does the mud hamper operations, but it deprives the soldiers ot nil the comfort and sense of security provided elsewhere bv properly-built dug-outs. If one realises that since October, 1914, the Belgian soldiers have been obliged to wage this kind of amphibious war, wading most of the time up to their knees in the clayish soil, without news from- home, without leave spent among their own people, one will understand that they must by now hunger for a change.

This change at last has come. The splendid news from Messines and Wytschaete, and more recently from Boesinghe and Langemarcli, shows plainly that the reconquest of Flanders and of Belgium has already begun. Nothing has helped more to cheer our troops. All the men whom I have met, officers and privates alike, speak of nothing else. They know now that their stubborn resistance and their tedious waiting have'not been in vain. They have the deepest admiration for _ the splendid organisation of the British Army and for the heroism of your soldiers, who, in collaboration with the French, are slowly but surely pressing the enemy back in Flanders. I havo been especially struck by the good' comradeship existing between the Belgian and the British soldiers wherever they have an opportunity of meeting, awl by the effect which the sight of the imposing forces which now surround them has had' on the moral of our troops. They feel the.v are merged in a great army with which they are working in close co-operation for a common aim. . „ Our heavy artillery, some units of which had been working with the British on the Soinme and during the Battle of Arras, is liow able to cooperate with the Allies without leaving Belgian soil. Our airmen, who have' .lately distinguished themselves, aro also sharing the work of the English and French air squadrons. The infantrvm'an is high-spirited and has splendidly fulfilled his duty amid maay hardships during three years, without yielding an inch of the front fixed by the battle of the Ysor. They are ready for new efforts, and there is such a feeling of harmony, cohesion, and confidence a brut the whole front that nd fresh delay can now shake the faith of tile Belgian soldiers in a decisive and glorious victory.