Small and ill-equipped?

Common history books about May 1940 often focus on the German, British and French army and neglect the Belgian (and Dutch) army. They often summarise it as follows: "The Belgian army was small, ill-equipped and surrendered quickly." After that, they continue writing about the three major powers. I have written in my previous post that Belgium raised a fighting force of 610.000 men. Not exactly a small force and even larger than the British Expeditionary Force with 450.000 men. The Belgian Navy and Army Airforce were poorly equipped. That is true. The ground force, however was reasonably well equipped. It is important to keep the trade-off between quantity and quality in mind. The BEF was well equipped and mobile, but with 10 combat ready infantry divisions rather small compared to the forces of Germany and France. The forces of France and Belgium on the other hand were very large compared to the size of their population and resources. Officers, NCO's, weapons, communication and transport equipment... All of it was spread amongst more units instead of concentrated in a smaller professional force. Germany, with a larger population, had a slightly better balance of quantity versus quality and could make use of captured Czech and Polish weapons to equip some units.

Population numbers

Belgian population in 1940: 8,3 million

Dutch population in 1940: 8.8 million

French population in 1940: 40 million

United Kingdom population in 1940: 48 million

German population in 1940: 70 million (+ the resources of Czechoslovakia and Poland)

Combat divisions available for the German front in 1940

Belgium: 22                                     divisions/million population: 2.65  

Netherlands: 10                                divisions/million population: 1.14

France: 94                                        divisions/million population: 2.35

UK: 10                                             divisions/million population: 0.21

Allies: 136                                                  divisions/million population: 1.29

Germany: 135                                  divisions/million population: 1.93

This simple calculation only includes combat divisions available for the front in North-West Europe. It doesn't include navies, Air Forces or units in Norway, colonies or other places. The British Royal Navy, for instance fought the Kriegsmarine in Norwegian waters. The Norwegian Campaign from 9 April - 10 June 1940 occurred at the same time as the Battle of Belgium 10 - 28 May 1940.

Both France and Great Britain sent ground units to Norway. These troops landed in several places. They did not operate at divisional stength. These units had the size of a regiment or battalion. One could say that the Allies had the equivalent of one British and one French division in Norway.
Germany sent two mountain divisions and five infantry divisions to Norway. The Norwegian army counted six divisional military districts. In reality each district could only muster a unit of brigade size. Norway had a population of 2,9 million in 1940. I would say that Norway had the equivalent of three normal divisions. (1.03 division equivalents/million of population)

These figures are important to interpret the strenght and armament of the Belgian divisions. We can see that Belgium had a very large force compared to its size. If Belgium had 1.93 divisions per million of population like Germany, then it would have a force of 16 divisions. This means that the six poorly equipped divisions of 2nd reserve did not have a German equivalent. 

Now let us look at the firepower of the Belgian active and 1st reserve divisions:

Quantity and weapon	Belgian active and 1st reserve division
Manpower	+- 17650 all ranks
Sub-machineguns	80
Scoped rifles	120
Flamethrowers	0
Anti-tankrifles	0
Light machineguns	344
Heavy machineguns	148
Light mortars DBT (50mm)	246
Medium mortars M76 (76mm)	24
Towed anti-tank guns	48
T13 tankhunters	12
Field guns C75TR or C75GP (75mm)	36
Howitsers Ob105GP (105mm)	12
Anti-aircraft machineguns MG08/15	64

Belgian 2nd reserve:

Quantity and weapon	Belgian 2nd reserve division
Manpower	+- 12205 all ranks
Sub-machineguns	0
Scoped rifles	42
Flamethrowers	0
Anti-tankrifles	0
Light machineguns	356
Heavy machineguns	116
Light mortars DBT (50mm)	0     (They had 324 VB riflegrenade launchers.)
Medium mortars M76 (76mm)	0
Towed anti-tank guns	0
T13 tankhunters	0
Field guns C75TR or C75GP (75mm)	24
Howitsers Ob105GP (105mm)	0
Anti-aircraft machineguns MG08/15	24

A German infantry division from the 1st Welle:

Quantity and weapon	German 1st Welle
Manpower	+- 17734 all ranks
Sub-machineguns	312
Scoped rifles	unknown
Flamethrowers	9
Anti-tank rifles	90
Light machineguns	435*
Heavy machineguns	110
Light mortars (50mm)	84
Medium mortars (81mm)	54
Light infantry gun leIG18	20
Heavy infantry gun sIG33	6
Towed anti-tank guns	75
Tankhunters	0
Light armoured cars	3
Medium Howitsers (105mm)	36
Heavy Howitsers (155mm)	12
Anti-aircraft guns (20mm)	12*

* Some of the LMG’s were used as anti-aircraft weapons.

A German infantry division from the 2nd Welle:

Quantity and weapon	German 2nd Welle
Manpower	+- 15273 all ranks
Sub-machineguns	unknown
Scoped rifles	unknown
Flamethrowers	9
Anti-tank rifles	90
Light machineguns	345*
Heavy machineguns	114
Light mortars (50mm)	unknown
Medium mortars (81mm)	unknown
Light infantry gun leIG18	26
Heavy infantry gun sIG33	0
Towed anti-tank guns	75
Tankhunters	0
Armoured cars	3
Medium Howitsers (105mm)	36
Heavy Howitsers (155mm)	12
Anti-aircraft guns (20mm)	0*

* Some of the LMG’s were used as anti-aircraft weapons.

The divisions of the other waves (Wellen) had a bit less firepower than the 1ste Welle and counted less men, around 15000 all ranks.

A good source is: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/inhaltsverzeichnis1.htm

The Germans have a bit more LMG's, sub-machineguns and flamethrowers. They also have more medium mortars and infantry guns. Their artillery had larger calibres. This gave them a bit more offensive power. 

The Belgian divisions had more light mortars and heavy machineguns. Their artillery was largely made up of fast-firing field guns. This gave them an adequate defensive power. It is also apparent that a Belgian divisions had more armoured vehicles than a German division. This is expected due to differences in doctrine.

The Belgian divisions on 2nd reserve were very poorly equipped. But as I said earlier this is a consequence of the very large size of the Belgian Army. 

I think that we can conclude that a standard German division did not have a decisive advantage in firepower despite some differences. Many German infantry divisions had participated in the Polish campaign and were trained in the Stosstruppen tactics. They benefitted more from their experience and training, than from superior weapons.