"1914 WW1 Belgian Infantry Battalions" Topic

Does anyone know the 1914 ww1 strength of a Belgian infantry battalion? I can find lots of information on division make up, and numbers. I just need the battalion strength. Thank you.

This link has what you need but unfortunately it is in Dutch and I had to loose Google translate on it for you. The result is decent this time. :-)

Cheers

Fons
mmps.asia

Thank you very much. If I do the math correctly each battalion has 4 companies of around 145 men each. So each battalion has 580 men at full strength. With around 500 in an active battalion. Does this sound correct?

Remember though that these are peace time establishments. The numbers increased when war broke out.

Robert

So what is the correct number?

If I remember correctly, around 800 men/batalion in 1914 wartime.

I did eventually find an Internet source for the breakdown of a Belgian Bn in 1914 but I can't find it now.

My memory is that wartime strength was about 225 men per company but that few, if any, regiments ever achieved that.

Belgium was also very short of officers and many of the 2nd regiments (called up in wartime) had only a few experienced officers, the rest were often poorly trained and with no experience.

With so many counts against them it is quite incredible that they put up the resistance that they did. It certainly came as a surprise to the Germans and they got VERY nasty about it, blaming partisans/franc-tireur for actions by Belgian soldiers and killing civilians in revenge.

The Belgium units were very understrength, which is odd since Belgium mobilized first. If I remember right there should have been 150,000 men when fully mobilized, yet there was only 100,000 men under arms when the war started. So just have each unit at 2/3 strength should work.

So 2/3 of 800 would come out to 533. Which is about half way between the 580 and 500. From what I have read I am going to with this calculation.
Thank you all for the help.