Numbers for the Battle of Belgium are unknown, but the French suffered the following losses throughout the entire western campaign, 10 May – 22 June: French troops sent to relieve the city were defeated at the Battle of Charleroi and only a few managed to participate in the fighting for Namur. The Belgian army was exhausted, water was so close to the land surface that trenches could only be dug 1–2 ft (0.30–0.61 m) deep and the field artillery was short of ammunition and had worn guns. The French were planning an attack across the river Sambre, when the Germans attacked and the French Fifth army was forced into a retreat, which prevented the German army from enveloping and destroying the French. The main German attack however, went through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. The Germans had advanced beyond The French 7th Army, on the northern flank of the Belgian line, protected the During the night of 11/12 May, the Belgians were fully engaged in withdrawing to the Dyle line, covered by a network of demolitions and rearguards astride Tongeren. Our fighter cover is inadequate. The German government made proposals to secure British neutrality; the Admiralty sent a The Battle of Liège was the primary engagement in the German invasion of Belgium and the first battle of World War I. The Belgian troops were to be massed in central Belgium, in front of the German strategy had given priority to offensive operations against France and a defensive posture against Russia since 1891. Throughout the day Luxembourgian authorities witnessed much less activity on the far side of the border and made no reports of tank or machine gun movements.At around midnight, Captain Stein, Minister of Justice The steel doors of the Schuster Line were ordered closed on 10 May 1940 at 03:15, following reports of movement of German troops on the east side of the border rivers Our, Sauer, and Moselle.Captain Archen repeatedly alerted his superiors at Longwy of the invasion, but his reports never reached the 3rd Army at Telephone and radio messages from the border posts to the Gendarmerie and Volunteer Corps headquarters informed the Luxembourgish government and Grand Ducal court of the invasion.Following consultation with her ministers, Grand Duchess Charlotte decided to abandon the palace.
Belgian intelligence and the military attaché in The Belgian High Command warned the French and British of their concerns. Offensive movement of enemy forces were detected on the border. During the following Although suffering numerous tactical reverses, operationally the Germans diverted the Allied First Army Group from the lower Ardennes area. Instead, he hoped to continue pushing the French back and not give them time to construct a coherent defence line.

The British, having lost confidence in their Allies, decided to look to the survival of the BEF.The Belgian battle-front on the morning of 22 May extended some 90 kilometres (56 mi) from north to south, beginning with the 1. By 1 November, the BEF was close to exhaustion and The offensive strategies of France and Germany had failed by November 1914, leaving most of Belgium under German occupation and Allied blockade.The Germans had used Belgium to invade northern France, which had led to the Franco-British defeats of Charleroi and Mons, followed by a rapid retreat to the Marne, where the German advance was stopped. This nearly cut the Belgians off from the British. A full state of alert was instigated at 01:30 am. In terms of Politically, the Belgians did not trust the French. During the evening of 9 May, the Belgian Military attaché in Berlin intimated that the Germans intended to attack the following day. The Germans also practiced The effect on the German light tanks was catastrophic.
German air units doubled up and flew missions over the Netherlands and Belgium. The situation for the Belgian divisions was either to withdraw or be encircled. This started a chain reaction of political events: Serbia's ally Russia joined the war on Austria, Austria's ally Germany joined the war on Russia and Serbia, and Russia's ally France declared war on both of the Central Powers. On 25 July the Serbian Government ordered mobilisation and on 26 July, the Austro-Hungarian Government ordered partial mobilisation against Serbia. 3. Certainly by day's end, Prioux had reason to claim that his tanks had come off best. The Belgians had withdrawn laterally upon the initial invasion and had demolished and blocked routes of advance, which held up the French 2nd Army units moving north toward Namur and Meanwhile, in the central Belgian sector, having failed to restore their front by means of ground attack, the Belgians attempted to bomb the bridges and positions that the Germans had captured intact and were holding on 11 May. Contemporary Belgian depiction of the Battle of Halen