Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia

Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia
Mors-Minerva armoured car of the Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, c. January 1916
Active	1915–1918
Disbanded	July 1918^[1]
Country	Belgium
Allegiance	Russian Empire (1915–17) Russian Provisional Government (1917)
Branch	Imperial Russian Army
Type	Mechanised
Role	Mobile reconnaissance
Size	444 men (total)^[1]
Garrison/HQ	Peterhof, Saint Petersburg (1915)
Equipment	Mors, Minerva and Peugeot armoured cars
Engagements	Eastern Front

The Belgian Expeditionary Corps of Armoured Cars in Russia (French: Corps Expeditionnaire des Autos-Canons-Mitrailleuses Belges en Russie) was a Belgian military unit sent to Russia during World War I. It fought alongside the Imperial Russian army on the Eastern Front. Between 1915 and 1918, 444 Belgian soldiers served with the unit of whom 16 were killed in action.^[1]

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History

In August 1914, the German Empire invaded neutral Belgium. The campaign was initially very successful, pushing the Belgian, French and British forces westwards. By the end of 1914, however, the Western Front had stabilised into static trench warfare. Following the Battle of the Yser in October, the Belgian army remained entrenched along the Yser Front and was left with a number of armoured cars which could not be used. In early 1915, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II formally requested military support from King Albert I and a self-contained unit was formed for service in Russia.^[2] As Belgium was officially an independent neutral power rather than an ally of the Russian Empire, Belgian soldiers in this unit were officially considered as volunteers in the Imperial Russian Army itself.

The first contingent of the Belgian Expeditionary Corps (333 volunteers equipped with Mors and Peugeot armoured cars) arrived in Archangel in October 1915.^[1] The unit fought with distinction in Galicia and was mentioned in the Order of the Day five times.^[3]^[4]

After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Belgian force remained in Russia until the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk withdrew Russia from the war. After the ceasefire, the unit found itself in hostile territory. As the route north to Murmansk was blocked, the soldiers destroyed their armoured cars to prevent their capture by Bolshevik forces.^[3] The unit finally reached the United States through China and the Trans-Siberian railway in June 1918.^[1]

A similar, slightly larger British unit, the RNAS Armoured Car Expeditionary Force (ACEF), also served in Russia during the same period.

Notable personnel

The unit was never particularly numerous, but included some notable personnel:

Henri Herd, known as "Constant le Marin [fr]", who was a prominent wrestler and 4-time World Champion.^[5]
Henry George, track cyclist who won a gold medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Julien Lahaut, politician and later head of the Communist Party of Belgium who served from 1915 to 1918.^[6]
Marcel Thiry, Walloon poet, who served in the corps with his brother Oscar.^[7]
Théo Halleux, construction contractor who built the first high multi-story buildings in Liège.

Commemoration

From 1931, soldiers who had served with the unit were awarded the 1914–1918 Commemorative War Medal with a bar (reading "1916—R—1917" or "1916—R—1918") denoting service in Russia.^[8] The last veteran of the unit died in 1992.^[1]

In 2014–15, the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels raised 40,000 euros towards building a replica Mors-Minerva armoured car. The vehicle went on display in the markings of the Expeditionary Corps in 2015.^[9]

In fiction and popular culture

The 2015 Belgian animated drama-action film Cafard ("Cockroach" in French) tells the story of a boxer, Jean Mordant (based on the real-life Henri Herd, known as Constant le Marin), who joins the Expeditionary Corps in order to avenge the rape of his daughter by German soldiers in Occupied Belgium.^[10]

The band 1914 wrote a song called Corps d’autos-canons-mitrailleuses (A.C.M) in the album 'Where Fear and Weapons Meet' about their experience during their time on the Eastern Front, and their subsequent journey to get home after two years and the Bolshevik Revolution.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Belgian Armoured Cars in Russia". www.greatwardifferent.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
^ White, B. T. Tanks and Other Armoured Fighting Vehicles 1900-1918, Blandford Press, 1974. p129-130.
^ ^a ^b "WWI – Belgium Armoured Car Division in Russia". www.philatelicdatabase.com. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
^ August Thiry & Dirk Van Cleemput (2015), King Albert's Heroes - Hoe 400 jonge Belgen vochten in Rusland en de VS veroverden, Antwerpen, Houtekiet, 428 p & 100 p photo's
^ Portugaels, Lila (28 November 2004). "Constant-le-Marin et les autos-canons de 1914-1918". La Libre Belgique (in French). Retrieved 7 July 2023.
^ Pirlot, Jules (5 October 2010). "Lahaut, Julien Victor". Le Maitron (in French). Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
^ "Pourquoi Marcel Thiry et 300 militaires belges ont-ils rejoint l'armée russe en 1915 ?". La Première (in French). RTBF. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
^ "The Russia-bar "1916-R-1917"". Retrieved 21 December 2012.
^ "2015, elle va renaître". Klm-mra.be. Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
^ ""Cafard", l'un des rendez-vous de la rentrée". Le Soir. 23 September 2015. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.

External links

King Albert's Heroes: How 400 young Belgians fought in Russia and conquered the United States, lecture by August Thiry (Thomas More College, Mechelen) to the Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley. Uploaded to YouTube 1 Oct 2018.

This page was last edited on 1 April 2024, at 21:45

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