- 28 May 2024 13:20
#15316671
May 28, Tuesday
Belgian king tells army to surrender
On orders from King Leopold, Belgian forces lay down their arms at 11:00 am today. At Ypres, a few units without communications continue fighting for two hours.
Leopold’s action has been denounced as “illegal and unconstitutional” by his cabinet ministers, who have fled to Paris. Britain’s liaison officer to the Belgian king, Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, passes on a message from King George VI appealing to Leopold to escape and lead resistance from England. Leopold brushes this aside, saying it is a repetition of what his ministers have been saying. “The cause of the Allies is lost,” he says.
Leopold has been little liked by the British and French. In peacetime, he pulled Belgium out of its alliance with them, and when war came, he failed to rejoin it although the German threat was manifest. His troops have fought valiantly. Not once, under relentless bombing and repeated tank assaults, have they broken during the eighteen days of fighting against overwhelming odds.
It has been learned that Leopold decided to surrender several days ago after an all-night row with his ministers, during which he refused to allow them to be seated. Then, two days ago, the king sent this message to the Allies: “The Belgian command intends to continue the fight to the very end. But the limits of resistance have now practically been reached.”
Yesterday, he sent General Derousseaux, his deputy chief of staff, to ask the Germans for an armistice. Almost six hours later, after being fired on by German troops, Derousseaux returned with an answer: the Fuhrer was demanding unconditional surrender. Leopold capitulated.
This morning the German High Command makes a further demand, requiring Leopold to give unhindered passage through the Belgian lines to the sea. Half an hour later, German columns move on Ostend and Dixmude and encounter resistance from British forces led by Lieutenant General Alan Brooke.
Belgian king tells army to surrender
On orders from King Leopold, Belgian forces lay down their arms at 11:00 am today. At Ypres, a few units without communications continue fighting for two hours.
Leopold’s action has been denounced as “illegal and unconstitutional” by his cabinet ministers, who have fled to Paris. Britain’s liaison officer to the Belgian king, Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, passes on a message from King George VI appealing to Leopold to escape and lead resistance from England. Leopold brushes this aside, saying it is a repetition of what his ministers have been saying. “The cause of the Allies is lost,” he says.
Leopold has been little liked by the British and French. In peacetime, he pulled Belgium out of its alliance with them, and when war came, he failed to rejoin it although the German threat was manifest. His troops have fought valiantly. Not once, under relentless bombing and repeated tank assaults, have they broken during the eighteen days of fighting against overwhelming odds.
It has been learned that Leopold decided to surrender several days ago after an all-night row with his ministers, during which he refused to allow them to be seated. Then, two days ago, the king sent this message to the Allies: “The Belgian command intends to continue the fight to the very end. But the limits of resistance have now practically been reached.”
Yesterday, he sent General Derousseaux, his deputy chief of staff, to ask the Germans for an armistice. Almost six hours later, after being fired on by German troops, Derousseaux returned with an answer: the Fuhrer was demanding unconditional surrender. Leopold capitulated.
This morning the German High Command makes a further demand, requiring Leopold to give unhindered passage through the Belgian lines to the sea. Half an hour later, German columns move on Ostend and Dixmude and encounter resistance from British forces led by Lieutenant General Alan Brooke.
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke
—Edmund Burke