Radio Belgique

Radio station in London, England

Radio Belgique
Radio België

* London
* United Kingdom

Broadcast area| Belgium
Programming
Language| French and Dutch
Affiliations| Belgian government in exile
Ownership
Owner| BBC European Service

Sister stations

| Radio Londres
Londoner Rundfunk [de]
History

First air date

| 28 September 1940 (1940-09-28)[1]

Last air date

| 16 September 1944 (1944-09-16)

Radio Belgique (French) and Radio België (Dutch) were radio broadcasts transmitted to German-occupied Belgium from London during World War II. It was produced with the support of the Belgian government in exile and formed part of the BBC's European Service.

## Background

[edit]

Main article: Battle of Belgium

On 10 May 1940, neutral Belgium was invaded by German forces. After 18 days of fighting, the Belgian army, along with King Leopold III, surrendered and the country was placed under German occupation. The Belgian government fled, first to France and then to the United Kingdom, where it formed a government in exile in London. The national Belgian radio station, the National Institute of Radio Broadcasting (INR-NIR) sabotaged its transmitters and was banned by the Germans[2] though many of INR's employees followed the government to London.[3]

## Radio Belgique

[edit]

Radio Belgique was established on 28 September 1940 and broadcast in French and Dutch.[4] The French service was put under the control of Victor de Laveleye (a former Liberal government minister), while Jan Moedwil was put in charge of the Dutch service.[4] A press agency, INTERBEL, was founded for the radio, as a continuation of the pre-war BELGA agency.[4]

On 14 January 1941, the former Belgian cabinet minister Victor de Laveleye, known for inventing the V for Victory campaign, became the announcer on Radio Belgique and began encouraging the use of the V Symbol in occupied Belgium.[4][5] De Laveleye was also responsible for inventing one of the station's most notable slogans: "We will get them, the Boches" ("Krijgen we ze wel, de moffen" in Dutch; "On les aura, les Boches" in French).[6] In 1942, Charles de Gaulle gave a speech on Radio Belgique, celebrating Franco-Belgian friendship.[7]

Though forbidden by the German occupiers, Radio Belgique was listened to by a majority of Belgians, far more than officially approved stations (like Radio Bruxelles) which broadcast German propaganda.[8] The journalist and former resistance member Paul Lévy also worked at Radio Belgique.

Radio Belgique's programmes were broadcast in both French and Dutch. Originally, the programmes were broadcast from 21:00 to 21:15 each evening in French and Dutch on alternate days, but from Spring 1941, a morning edition and separate 17:30 programme allowed at least one in each language per day. From March 1943, the BBC broadcast daily programmes from Radio Belgique at 19:15 (in French) and 20:30 (in Dutch).

## German response

[edit]

Recognizing the potential effect that Radio Belgique could have on their control of information in the occupied country, the Germans rapidly created collaborationist radio stations, also aimed at a Belgian audience, using the remaining assets of the INR,[2] the Francophone Radio Bruxelles ("Radio Brussels") and Dutch language Zender Brussel.[4] The Germans set up radio jammers to disrupt the signal and made listening to Radio Belgique illegal in December 1940.[4]

## Radiodiffusion National Belge

[edit]

During the later stages of World War II, the Belgian government sponsored the creation of a new radio broadcaster, Radiodiffusion National Belge (RNB), which broadcast from London, New York City, and later from Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo.[4] However, it only began to be received in Belgium from September 1944 during the liberation and soon afterwards Radio Belgique was removed from the air.[4]

## See also

[edit]

* Belgium portal

* Radio Londres
* Radio Oranje
* Radio Congo Belge

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Dutry-Soinne, Tinou (2006). Les Méconnus de Londres: Journal de Guerre d'une Belge, 1940–1945 (vol. 1). Brussels: Racine. p. 114\. ISBN 2-87386-483-4.
2. ^ a b Rase, Céline. "Les Ondes en Uniforme: La propagande radiophonique allemande en Belgique Occupée" (PDF). Cegesoma. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
3. ^ "La radiodiffusion en Belgique avant 1955". La Pensée et les Hommes. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Gotovitch, José; Aron, Paul, eds. (2008). Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale en Belgique. Brussels: André Versaille éd. pp. 372–3\. ISBN 978-2-87495-001-8.
5. ^ Jacquemyns, Guillaume; Struye, Paul (2002). La Belgique sous l'occupation allemande: 1940–1944. Brussels: Éd. Complexe. p. 113\. ISBN 2-87027-940-X.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. ^ Lanneau, Catherine. L'inconnue française. La France et les Belges francophones 1944-1945. Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang. p. 74.
7. ^ Lanneau, Catherine. L'inconnue française. La France et les Belges francophones 1944-1945. Brussels: P.I.E.-Peter Lang. p. 69.
8. ^ Rase, Céline (June 2011). Les Ondes en Uniforme: la Propagande de Radio Bruxelles en Belgique Occupée (1940–1944). Namur: University of Namur. p. 206\. ISBN 978-2870377086.

## Further reading

[edit]

* De Lavayele, Victor (1949). Ici Radio Belgique... Les Meilleurs Commentaires de Victor de Laveleye. Ed. Goemaere.
* Various (1944). Voici la BBC. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
* Various (1944). Hier Radio-België!. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.
* L.R. Boogaerts (1940). Ici, Radio Belgique (Television production). Great Britain: Paramount G.B.
* Rase, Céline (2021). Interférences: Radios, collaborations et répressions en Belgique (1939–1949). Presses universitaires de Namur: Namur. ISBN 9782390291237.

## External links

[edit]

* We krijgen ze wel, de moffen Archived 30 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (program extract) at VRT
* Homepage Archived 27 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine at La Guerre de Ondes.

* v
* t
* e

BBC World Service

| Programmes|

* BBC OS
* The Bottom Line
* Business Daily
* The Forum
* From Our Own Correspondent
* Newsday
* Newshour
* Outlook
* Reith Lectures
* Science in Action
* Sportsworld
* Stumped
* World Book Club

|

Former programmes|

* A History of the World in 100 Objects
* Caribbean Voices
* Culture Shock
* Digital Planet
* Europe Today
* Everywoman
* Front Line Family
* HARDtalk
* Have Your Say
* Pop Club
* Radio Newsreel
* The Real Story
* The Strand
* Westway
* The Word
* World Briefing
* World Have Your Say
* The World Today
* World Update

Language services|

* Arabic
* Bangla
* Hausa
* Nepali
* Pashto
* Persian
* Polish
* Punjabi
* Russian
* Spanish
* Somali
* Ukrainian
* Urdu

Closed services|

* Albanian

* Romanian

Miscellaneous|

* BBC Media Action
* Bush House
* Current newsreaders and reporters
* Former newsreaders and journalists
* Gaza Daily
* Greenwich Time Signal
* John Tusa
* Lillibullero
* London Calling
* Prince of Denmark's March
* Radio Belgique
* Radio Londra
* Radio Londres
* Radio Oranje
* The World

Related articles|

* BBC Learning English
* BBC Monitoring
* BBC News
* BBC News Arabic
* BBC Persian Television
* BBC Radio 4
* BBC News (international TV channel)
* BBC World Service Television

Transmitter sites|

* Ascension Island
* British East Mediterranean Relay Station
* Orfordness
* Skelton
* Woofferton

Authority control databases |

* VIAF

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template