Belgium - Navy - History
After the Belgian Revolution, the country became independent in 1830. The Belgian Navy was created as the Marine Royale (English: Royal Navy) in 1831. This force has operated in various forms throughout Belgian history. Belgium, unlike its Dutch neighbor to the north, was never a great sea power. At its formation in the 1830's, Belgium shared many similarities with the Netherlands to which it was roughly equivalent in size and population, but Belgium had no ambition to become a major shipping or naval power. Instead, a fortuitous location with abundant quantities of water and other natural resources allowed Belgium to become a leader in the industrial revolution.
Commercial and trade interests were, especially in the ward of Antwerp, closely linked with the nation's former ruler, the House of Orange. The provisional government believed that any attempt to challenge the naval supremacy of the Netherlands, let alone England and France, would have threatened the survival of the country as an independent state.
The fledgling Belgian nation was preoccupied with the need to organize the complicated elements which constitute the machinery of the state. Political leaders were overwhelmed by the requirement to hold their delicate coalition government together. All decisions concerning the establishment of a military naval force were repeatedly set aside. Besides, the treasury was exhausted and no funds were available to make the necessary procurements for a navy.
The history of the Belgian Navy from 1830 to 1906 is a series of half -measures executed in times of impending crisis. The actions of the government were always too little, too late, which resulted in the nation being continually unprepared to provide adequate coastal defense and protection to its merchant fleet. The existence of the navy depended on the whims of the parliament despite ardent support from the monarch who wanted to provide the nation with a navy capable of carrying out colonial schemes and providing the nation the protection it required.
The heritage of the Belgian Navy lies not in its past grandeur, but rather in the ardent and persistent efforts of its ancestors to provide a suitable naval force to protect Belgium's coast and its commercial interests. Armed neutrality without a navy was considered to be nothing more than naked neutrality by the proponents of a navy. The navy's ancestors clearly recognized that even a small navy, properly organized and equipped, would provide significant service to the nation in peace, as well as in war.
By the end of the 19th century, the Belgian Navy had virtually ceased to exist. By 1914 the King of the Belgians was keenly interested in the question of creating a Belgian navy for the protection of Belgian interests in the Congo, and for the defense of the mouth of the Scheldt. It seemed most probable that the idea that underlay this scheme of affording a career to Belgian fishermen, was to create a body of men of Belgian nationality, accustomed to sea life in ocean-going vessels, and then to purchase one or two gun-boats for fishery protection duties, which would form the nucleus of a future navy.
Before the Great War the Belgian naval force consisted of coast guard and transport vessels only. It was not until the end of the Great War that attempts were made to re-form it. It was proposed to build several submarines. Belgian engineers were sent to Italy to take a course in submarine construction.
As an economic saving the Belgians disbanded their navy in 1926. The old British 'Flower' class sloop Zinnia (built 1915, 1200t, light guns, 17kts) was retained as a fishery protection vessel. The Zinnia, Wielengen and West Diep were used as civilian manned fishery protection vessels during the period Belgium had no navy. The men were incorporated into the army. A reserve depot continued in existence maintaining a list of naval personnel.
Under international law a neutral country has the right and obligation to defend its territory. If it fails to do so a belligerent can undertake such actions as it deems appropriate to ensure that the neutral's territory is not used in a manner detrimental to that belligerent's interests. To ensure that Belgium met these obligations as a neutral it re established its navy on 15 September 1939 when it partially mobilised its marine corps. On 18 September 1939 the Marine Korps (Corps de Marine) was formed into 3 squadrons based at Antwerp, Bruges and Ostende supported by a training/reinforcement squadron at Ostende.
The Navy included the sloop Zinnia, which was employed by the Germans as Barbara. It also included a pair of disarmed WW1 German TB's, Wielengen & West Diep. The former was scrapped by the Germans whilst the latter became the training vessel Reiher and then Warendorp. Finally the incomplete Artevelde (1640t, 4x4.1guns, 120mines, 28.5kts), which was intended to be a royal yacht/patrol boat was captured. The Germans completed the vessel and renamed it Lorelei and later K4.
The main mission of the Belgian Navy within the NATO Cold War framework was to protect the maritime lanes of communication that pass through the English Channel and the North Sea. The shallowness of Belgian waters and the narrow access to Belgian ports make them vulnerable to mine and submarine attack. The Belgian Navy had three different missions: antisubmarine warfare, antimine operations, and defense of the coast and ports. These are both NATO and national responsibilities in time of war.
In peacetime the navy is also responsible for other tasks, such as pro tection of fisheries, antipollution operations, sea rescue and, if necessary, the clearing of mines. In late 1984 the Belgian Navy assisted the British and French navies in removing radioactive material from a cargo vessel that had accidentally sunk in the North Sea.
The Belgian Navy, which was not more than a small coastal defense force in 1947, received 7 ocean mine sweepers and more than 30 coastal and in shore mine sweepers that provided them with the nucleus of their fleet through the 1970s, with 17 of those ships still in active service in the late 1980s.
The Belgian navy owned two frigates in the early 1950s and operated some large steel minesweepers as escorts until 1969, but the commissioning of four Weilingen-class frigates in 1978 marked her most effective participation in the mission of helping to protect shipping in the Channel. The rest of the Belgian navy had been a minesweeping force, which declined along with those of other NATO navies but which was to be renewed by construction of 10 tripartite minehunters in the 1980s.
The navy had approximately 4,550 personnel in 1984, of which about one-quarter were conscripted. As in the other services, their organization was based on three functions: operations, training, and logistics. Naval ships were stationed in the ports of Oostende, Zeebrugge, and Kalloo. The combined Belgian-Dutch Anti-Mine Warfare School is located in Oostende.
To fulfill its mission, the navy assigned a number of vessels to NATO. In 1984 these included seven ocean-minehunter/sweepers, six coastal minesweepers, and 14 shallow-water minesweepers. Two ships, the Godetia and the Zinnia, have served as logistical and command-support ships. Four frigates armed with French-made Exocet ship-to-ship missiles and Sea Sparrow surface- to-air missiles have been available to protect merchant vessels against submarine threats. In addition to the main fleet, a number of smaller ships have been assigned to specific tasks, such as oceanographic study, river patrols, and ammunition and water transport. Three Alouette III helicopters were used as well.
Belgian Navy procurements in the 1970s and 1980s were mainly limited to support equipment for its frigates and minesweepers and participation in the 10 nation NATO SEASPARROW (RIM-7H/M) missile consortium which Belgium joined in 1970.
By 1983 Belgium was building 10 new type mine hunter-sweepers (project developed jointly with France and the Netherlands). They were to be commissioned prior to 1987. It was also proposed that the Navy order five additional such ships.
The Belgian Navy, smallest in NATO at approximately 4,500 men, consisted in 1987 of four AAW frigates and a mix of about 30 mine warfare hunters and sweepers, the majority of which were assigned full time to NATO's CINCHAN for the defense of the sea approaches to Western Europe. Despite its small navy, Belgium deployed two minesweepers anda support ship to the Persian Gulf for mine clearance operations in September 1987.
The national naval forces in 1988 were made up chiefly of minesweepers, the overwhelming majority of which (24 units) were built in the late 1950s. The navy recently received five new "Aster" minehunters ("Tripartite" type), and another five were in different stages of construction or had been ordered from industry. The program was to be completed by 1992. The issue of building another series of minesweepers jointly with the Netherlands, and possibly with Norway, in the 1990s was being studied.
The other principal direction in development of the fleet's forces would be continued modernization of four "Wielingen" class guided missile frigates—in particular, installation of Goalkeeper close-range seven-barrel 30-mm antiaircraft artillery systems (with a total rate of fire of 4,200 rounds per minute).
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