The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-10
BELGIAN ARMY IS AGAIN READY
 FOR OFFENSIVE
Now Has Ten Divisions of Well Equipped and Patriotic
 Troops.

Havre, Dec. 10.-The Belgian army was composed of 117,000 men at the beginning of the war, increased by 20, 900 volunteers in August, 1914, and was reduced to 60,000 men after the battle of the Yser. By measures ap- piled to Belgian refugees and by the enlistment of volunteers who braved the live wire barriers raised on the Holland frontier, it now has been brought up to 10 divisions of well trained forces ready to take their part iii the offensive of Flanders whenever the word is given by the Commander inChief. The Associated Press is in- formed by the Belgian Minister of War:
 "If our Army has not undertaken operations of a wider scope up to this time," said the Minister, 'it is because it does not devolve on it to decide the moment when these operations should begin. The Army is only a part of the combined allied forces acting in unison and in accordance with care fully developed plans. The Army has valiantly filled the role, more ungrate- full than glorious, that has been as- S4SISu u It. IL I1TS JuSl pIONSu ny it's brilliant participation in the last offensive in Flanders that it is ready to attack with fervor and awaits i'm patiently the hour"
 Summarizing the work of the Bel gian Army during the war and refer ring to it's difficulties and lack of equipment, the Minister recalled that in August, 1914, the Army had only one machine gun for each 1000 men, was short of 3-inch guns and had am intuition for only about 800 shots for each piece. It had no light nor tars, no heavy artillery, no grenades no trench equipment, no ambulances, no pontoon crews, and not single motor cycle. It had only 1000 biz cycles, two captive balloons, a few superannuated airplanes and a few posts of wireless te7egraphyh.
 we had only 32,000 infantry after the battle of the Yser," said the Min ister and it's equipment was in a pitt able state, munitions were lacking and all of the different organisms were damaged when the Army base was transferred to foreign soil. This rem rant of an army not only barred the
 
 reorganized and reinforced until now 1t counts three times the number of men that the battle of the Yser left valid. The front held by the Belgian Army has been gradually heightened from about 12 1-2 miles after the bat tie of the Yser to 19 miles in June 1916. "The Belgian Army organized this front and held it alone until the middle of this year, when, as a conse- Quence of the operations of; the AL lied offensive in Flanders it was re- duced, enabling the Army to dispose of considerable reserves.
 f'The Belgian Army prepared more than 250 miles of trenches and re- built more than 20 miles of road. Eighty different lines of normal gauge railroads were built. Battery em- placements were constructed by hun dreds, and thirteen thousand miles of telephone wires were put up, or laid underground.
 "In August, 1917, the army had twelve times as many machine guns as in 1914, seven times as many field guns and heavy pieces with five times as much ammunition as was on hand at the outset of hostilities. It has ten times as many airplanes.
 "Be1s 4an aviators during three months normal activity executed nearly 2,O00 flights, of which 1,020 were in pursuit of adversary planes. All the different arms of the service have progressed and been improved in the ratio indicated by these figures.
 '"The impression that has gone abroad that the Belgian army was re- organized and re-equipped entirely by our Allies is an error," the Minister added. Belgium, exiled and depriv- ! ed of all her resources. received gen. erous hospitality and powerful aid from her glorious allies. It was on French and British soil that all was to be done, but Belgians themselves took up the work of reconstruction. ] The Belgian army created by its own efforts the greater part of what was indispensable for it to live and fight. It is building its own cannon, making it's own powder and it's own pro5ecz tiles. Our valiant troops have held in front of them continually a far greater number of German troopg than the public has supposed"