May 1940 - Battle of Bodange | When the Belgians fought back 

Ghent Fortresses..... Kwatrecht ....

Looks like the German enemy paid more respect to the bravery of the defenders.

The effort by the Belgians who joined the SS was also worthy of note.

Have a look at how the forts of Liège fought in May 1940. Fascinating.

my pleasure! Thank you for the personal story! I always love these personal additions!

Vinkt you mean?

Yes, Belgian politicians didn't want to antagonise the Germans in the 30s by properly supplying the Army with armour. Little Belgium antagonise the Germans? My late paternal grandfather was in the Régiment des Carabiniers "Prince Baudoin" in 1940 as a Corporal. We only found this out after my father was sent some paperwork after his father's death. We're in Australia.

Same here with me

The music

Same here. It is probably the sadness of knowing what will come after this. And then you have to sympathize with these brave but hopeless Belgian soldiers waiting in the Ardennes woods for the onslaught.

Battles on a large scale lose their personal nature. There are to many people and you can't know their names. On a small scale - you can know their names and they stand out as individual human beings meeting their fate. .

@@BobSmith-dk8nw Even in large-scale battles, they go to their fate, be it survival, capture, wound, or death. P.S.: "you can't know their names."? Dog tags, mate. ;-)

I was going to say the same thing Ray - The Ace treats everything with the utmost respect, unlike so many so-called historians, who lazily sputter out whatever they think a name or place is pronounced. A terrible way to teach history. Ace Destroyer may sound like a rough-and-tumble nomme-de guerre, but he's a refined and educated gentleman.I have learned so much from this channel.

He is clearly not British, or learned a few languages in his life. For example, French. He also pronounces withdrawal correctly, something British people can't (they pronounce it as withdrawral)

@@andraslibal he's Flemish

@@jduff59 "who lazily sputter out whatever they think a name or place is pronounced. A terrible way to teach history" Dude, be fair. Not everyone is a keen linguist, bilingual in 8+ languages.

@@Briselance True - but I like to praise those who put in the extra effort.

No they didn't. This was a WW1 sentiment and statement. In WW2 Belgium did its best to shaft the BEF. It was only because Gort anticipated that the cheating selfish Belgiums would lie about standing their ground that he shortened his lines to secure the line of retreat that the BEF was able to get back to Dunkirk. Belgians behavior was an absolute utter disgrace - inept and incompetent fighting followed by lies. They lied to Gort and then surrendered without informed British or French Command. Read your history.

Ben Newnham so this video is an example of what you call "cheating selfish BelGIANS"? And yes: Read your history, BUT also try to understand what you're reading. The whole operation with the BEF failed bc of lack in communication, language barriers and mistrust on the highest levels in and between English, French and Belgian comnand. But your sheer disrespect towards these soldiers and even to a whole nation, tells me more about your own narrow mindedness and I don't think we should take any moral lesson of your reaction.

@@svenvdb6115please do not argue. The French, the Belgians did not matter in the second world war. More precisely, in the resistance to Hitler. You have no subject to dispute.

There isn't much to talk about the battles in the Netherlands... The dutch didn't really fight hard, just after a few hours they already surrendered, they hadn't such an prepared army as Belgium

The dutch defeated the german paratroopers, but both the belgium and dutch armies had few modern weapons. No tanks, nor anti tank. Yet both countries had battles worth remembering.

@@DoomEB you are confused with denmark

@@arjanreijneveld Defending your country for almost a day against a much bigger army is not that impressive, knowing that the defender always has an advantage... But the belgians defended their country for about 18 days... 2 devisions agaisnt 20 or 30. Plus, the ghost tank division witj erwin rommel was is the fight

@@123Dunebuggy - The Belgians DID have tanks. Not many perhaps, but they were reasonably capable and as good as the bulk of the tanks in the Panzer Divisions (not as good as the Pz III, but certainly a match for the Pz II).

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

When i was 25 my Girlfriend spent sometimes a half hour in Bondage and only at evening, that was our "battle of Bondage" ;)

Tbh I think we all did

Wishful thinking my friend !

CheddarBacon LoL - Why get upset. For the overall picture this event was just a small, mostly forgotten skirmish. I doubt that it even got relayed through to the German HQ.

WE. WE WILL RESIST AND BITE!

Yep, just perfect! Always spot on 🍻

English and Russian too. He is Flemish, so he is fluent in French and English. Some native German speakers say his German pronunciation is somewhat off, but I only understand English and French pronunciation. Americans (like me) tend to struggle with English pronunciation, grammar and style.

GenghisVern yeah, it’s called Company of Heroes, also available for the iPad.

@@Tijgert Tabletop, military miniatures games, like Flames of War or Bolt Action played on a 4'x6' terrain table. A few people actually have units of WW2 Belgian infantry, and this would be a good scenario for it.

Thanks!

If I remember correctly it is a 25mm wheeled antitank gun.

@@martinonderdonck7260 it was basically a Carden-Loyd tankette with a Belgian 47 mm anti-tank gun mounted on it, in a turret or casemate, depending on the version.

War is war... peace is peace. Everything between? Life.

Respect to these brave Belgians.

WE. WE WILL RESIST AND BITE!

Thanks! I'm very happy to hear that!

Thank you for the additional information! I really appreciate it!

@@TheAceDestroyer Your welcome The Ace Destroyer. It just so happens I'm reading 'The Blitzkrieg Legend' now and had read the section about the battle of Bodange. The Belgian Ardennes Light Infantry held the promontory where Bodange sits. They held up units of the 1st Panzer Division for many hours. Ironically because of the Niwi airborne raids the Belgian commander at Bodange never received his orders to withdraw because the telephone lines had been cut. So the Ardennes Light Infantry troops stayed put and maintained a stalwart defense, causing many casualties among the 1st Panzer Division. A chapter which occurs after the river crossing at Sedan involves a tremendous fight south of Sedan at the village of Stonne, France. There the Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment with elements of the 10th Panzer Division fought the French 3rd Armored Division and the French 3rd Motorised Infantry. This hamlet exchanged hands 17 times(!) over the course of 2 days. At present there is displayed a completely intact Char B tank in the center of Stonne, surrounded by farmhouses. You can see the tank from all sides on Google Earth. It is a forgotten story of French bravery from that time which shows that the French had fighting spirit.

I couldn't find one that was suitable for larger screens. All pictures I found were just too pixelated. I tried to put a picture in, but as it was too blurry I eventually decided to leave it out.

@@TheAceDestroyer I looked at a few of them, and yes, they were all small - there was an interesting photo of 2 T-13's with German markings (SS) that shows they knew they were good vehicles ...

We Belgians keep having those little quirks whenever we come up, don't we? 😄

Fighting in Denmark? I did not know that.

@@ronaldderooij1774 the army fighting german for a couple of hours, before the government surrender to Germany to not get Copenhagen bomb

I'm happy to hear that! Welcome to the channel!

pervitin was already there

At the same time the SS units were invading Holland.

Sorry...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Paradis_massacre

@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 you are right, and france, but it doesn't matter. Regular german units also commited atrocities in belgium. Against civilians, not army. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinkt_massacre

Oveida the german lufffwaffe killing fugitive Belgain people from the air, this iswath my graend parents tell us,

I'll upload the final part of the Narva series in July, it will be around 30minutes I think, so I need a bit of time to finish it. I also want to upload it closer to the dates that the Tannenberg line battle was fought. Anyway, it will appear somewhere at the start of July if everything goes well. Thanks for the interest!

@@TheAceDestroyer Thanks for the reply! Keep up the great work, bro!

Thank you very much! Welcome to the channel!

The Panzers were still further back. It was mainly the advance guard of the division. The Ardennes was still difficult terrain for tanks. In fact, a lot of the Panzers divisions had initial traffic jams during the first moments of the offensive as so many vehicles had to pass through the designated roads. Having the infantry go first to secure important areas was key to keep the divisions going.

@@TheAceDestroyer Ok. Thank you.

My pleasure! I'm happy to help.

Interesting that armored cars showed up first. More mobile?

@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 Dont know. If i had to guess it maybe the formation deployment. Its hard to believe infantry will be sent without any armor support, especially on a battalion level. I hope he answers.

Oh get lost you awful Russsian troll. Just you know thousands of Muslims from current day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan died face down in the snow before the gates of Moscow and st Petersburg. They were some of the most dedicated and effective fighters of the Red Army So many of you Russians are truly loathsome

@Anthony Roic Considering that the SS started executing 97 BEF prisoners a few weeks later: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Paradis_massacre

@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 the fate of prisoners is always collateral without damage.

@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 cause the germans got treated better ye ? dumb troll

@@Peipzz No, it merely shows that Allied soldiers had to be fortunate, in the early days of May 1940, not to fall into the hands of the wrong Germans. SS units were still green troops when the war started and when a rumour was started that their commanding general, had been killed. 97 British POWs massacred at Le Paradis, 27 May 1940. 80 British POWs massacred at Wormhoudt, 28 May 1940. In the end, the SS General turned out not to have been killed so that was some consolence to the stressed out SS troops.

Don't be fooled by the names, they do not indicate whether a person is a Flemish, French or German-speaking Belgian. The Chasseurs Ardennais was a Walloon French-speaking unit.

If you have the opportunity, visit some of the Brialmont forts of Liège that fought in WWI. Look at the names on the memorials. Same thing. Lots of Flemish and Walloons fighting together under one flag.

The battles of Eben Emael, Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt are still on my to-make list, but I need to go there first to shoot my own footage, that way it will be easier for me to make the video without having to use old footage only.

@@TheAceDestroyer I'm looking forward to it. Keep in mind that most of us have read about Eben Emael from only one perspective!

@@TheAceDestroyer respect ... i live 20 miles from eben emael

De G, yeah, I live at the opposite side of Belgium, so it's a 2h30 hour drive for me. It will be for a weekend trip some day.

Yes, the fifth and final part will be released in July, closer to when the battle for the Tannenberg line was fought. Also because it will be a longer video than usual, so I've planned to spread the work over a longer period.

First off, by your definition, all wars are just a lot of piss in the wind. Humbles fightings for a village, a road, a bridge were 90-95% of WW2 and prior conflicts. Gigantic operations of simultaneous battles on a large frontline being counted only on fingers of both hands. A case of a small unit being ridiculously outnumbered and holding the legendary Ghost division for almost a day in their infamously efficient blitzkrieg is - by far - worth mentioning. Secondly, "Belgium only had itself to blame" ... Seriously ? Are you that stupid ? Do you even understand the concept of neutrality ? Before it was clear Germany would be the one violating the border, the Belgians were planning for both a potential intrusion from Germany OR France. Germany had recognized Belgium neutrality and had no casus belli whatsoever to justify her invasion. Denying your country being used as an extension of the defense line of someone who is not you ally against someone who is not your ennemy in a war that do not concern you is f***** common-sense.. Peoples who do not want war do not have to be blamed because some maniac broke all international conventions by breaking treaties and invading a neutral country without war declaration. Has Hitler invaded Switzerland, would you also blame the swiss ? Let's not forget that nobody at that time knew what we know today about the true intentions of Hitler for Europes. They were anticipating yet another grim war, not a world domination campaign fuelled by madness.

Wargeek Then the Belgium leadership was very stupid and naive. They should have learnt from the First World War.

The British got they re ass beat like every one else, don't put the blame on Belgium.

8 30-06 rounds *ping*

flip, en de eerste W O??????,,, en de bevrijjding van Nederland door de Belgische brigade Pirron in 1944 1945???

@@robertneven7563 En Ambiorix.. jaja

@@phil36310 welk eenheid heeftu respect volle vader gedient aan het Albert canal??? mvg Rob

@@phil36310 en welk wapen uit de eerste W O?

@@phil36310 trouwens ikga je helpen , mijn nonkel(man is al jaren overleden heb hem maar vaag gekend was gelegerd aan het canal Albert, Carabiniers, en wat je lult over het eerste W O wapen heb ik ook me n twijfels, het Belgisch leger hadt in de eerste W O een Comblain geweer( enkele schot) tot 1915 ongeveer , toen is de Mauser gekomen, 5 schoten , vaste lader, met een schuiflatje, horizontaal binnen brengen, me n overgrootvader heeft 2 jaar aan de yzer gevochten tegen de pinhelmen, heb ze n dossier kunnen inkijken in Everen, dus je zou beter je groot bakkes houden onbenul, en volgens mij ben je een ollander , geen Belg , sukkeltje