German Forces

Free Belgian Forces - Force Publique.

Unknown author (?Kingdom of Belgium)

Members of the Belgian Congo's Force Publique at target practice, Belgian Congo, 1943. The Force Publique was a gendarmerie force that exercised military and policing functions in the Belgian Congo. While the particular circumstances of Belgium's occupation by the Germans, the scope for developing formal metropolitan Belgian forces opposed to the Axis was somewhat limited. The situation in the Congo was somewhat different. The colonial government flatly refused to accede to the King's surrender, and declared for the Government in Exile in London. This resulted in the Belgian Congo becoming an important source of raw materials for the western Allies, notwithstanding the legal complications created by the position of the King back in Belgium (largely ignored). It also allowed troops to be raised on a limited, but coherent basis. As a result, the Force Publique was raised to a wartime complement of some 40,000 organized, as usual, with white Belgian officers and NCOs commanding black African rank-and-file. The Force Publique proved very useful to the Allies. Apart from performing garrison duties in a number of British colonies including Palestine and Egypt (freeing up troops for the North African and south European campaigns, several brigades of the FP campaigned actively in the East African campaigns conducted by the British against Italy, suffering some 500 fatalities in the process. One limitation on the employment of the FP outside the Congo was the fact that native tensions in the country were greatly magnified by the pressure on the colonial government to maximize war production for the Allies, not least in the extractive industries. Many workers were, effectively, forced into the mines and factories on a less-than-well-planned way, generating substantial and often explosive industrial relations problems and inter-communal clashes. Substantial FP forces were required within the country to deal with these problems; unfortunately, from time to time, they became part of the problem rather than the solution. Overall, however, the FP were a definite asset to the Allies. Best regards, JR.