Belgium 1830–2030: Events that shaped the country

The flooding of the Yser plain was a strategic manoeuvre employed by the Belgian army in late October 1914 to halt the relentless advance of German forces along the Yser River. This controlled inundation involved the deliberate entry of seawater through the Ganzepoot lock complex located in Nieuwpoort, effectively filling the low-lying polder area situated between the river and the Nieuwpoort-Diksmuide railway embankment. The success of this operation relied heavily on the expertise and insights of two civilians: Karel Cogge, who served as the supervisor of the Veurne North Water Board, and Hendrik Geeraert, a local bargeman from Nieuwpoort. Their knowledge of the waterways and the mechanics of the sluices proved crucial in executing this desperate yet necessary strategy.

The liberation of Brussels ended more than four years of German occupation of the Belgian capital. On Sunday evening, 3 September 1944, shortly before 8 p.m., the first tanks of the British Guards Armoured Division rolled into the city while the Palace of Justice was still burning. The joy was immense, yet the initial weeks of freedom also revealed the fragile boundary between justice and revenge.

On 20 August 1914, the German army entered Brussels, and no shots were fired. Mayor Adolphe Max (1869–1939), a Liberal, deliberately left the capital undefended to prevent a massacre. The German occupation of Brussels lasted from 20 August 1914 until November 1918. Max's surrender was not submission: five weeks later the Germans arrested him for defying them.

The German ultimatum to Belgium was a demand issued on 2 August 1914 with a twelve-hour deadline: let the German army march through to France, or be treated as an enemy. King Albert I and his government refused during the night of 2–3 August, and on 4 August Germany invaded. That ‘no’ cost Belgium thousands of civilian lives, a million refugees and four years of occupation and made a small neutral country a symbol of law against power.