page_title: Belgian Army order of battle (1914)
section_title: Fortifications
hierarchical_section_title: Belgian Army order of battle (1914) / Organisation / Fortifications
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of onroerend erfgoed number 200698
context_page_description: This is the order of battle for the Belgian Army on the outbreak of war in August 1914, at the start of the German invasion of Belgium.
context_section_description: The second component of the army were the garrisons deployed to Belgium's three fortified cities. These fortress garrisons numbered approximately 80,000 men. The fortress troops were under local command and the soldiers themselves were generally older and less well-trained than soldiers in the Field Army.
  Before the war, the Belgian government invested resources in constructing and reinforcing fortifications around the country. These included the National Redoubt at Antwerp, with further fortified chains around the cities of Namur and Liège. The forts, many designed by Henri-Alexis Brialmont, a noted military architect of the nineteenth century, formed an integral part of the Belgian strategy. Between 1859 and 1870, 13 forts had been built around Antwerp and a further 17 were still unfinished by 1914. 12 were built at Liège and eight at Namur.
caption: The Fort at Dorpveld, near Antwerp, completed in 1912
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