Between 1914 and 1918, discipline in the Belgian army was deeply modified by the extreme living, working and fighting conditions of the trenches. Trench warfare not only modified the equipment, technics and tactics used by the military, but also the relationships between officers, NCO’s, corporals and their men. I will claim that the Belgian Army - generally spoken - made a swift move from a rigid and formal discipline towards a more loose and informal discipline based on mutual respect. My presentation will be based on military archives, war diaries and archives from the courts-martial of the 1st Army Division.
Senior Captain Tom Simoens (Royal Military Academy, Brussels – Department of Conflict Studies)
Venue: Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, Darwin College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, England, CT2 7NY
In Flanders Fields Museum, Gateways to the First World War and the University of Kent organize a series of eight seminars, accessible to all. Full details of all the seminars can be found here.
