| abstract | - Despite this policy, Belgium was invaded without warning by German forces on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting, the Belgian military surrendered on 28 May and the country was placed under the control of a German military government. Between 600,000 and 650,000 Belgian men (nearly 20% of the country's male population) had been mobilized to fight. Unlike the Netherlands or Luxembourg, whose monarchies went into exile alongside the government, King Leopold III surrendered to the Germans alongside his army – contrary to the advice of his government. In the days before his surrender, he allegedly attempted to form a new government under the pro-Nazi socialist Henri De Man though this was never realized. He remained a prisoner of the Germans, under house arrest, for the rest of the war. Though the government briefly attempted to negotiate with the German authorities from exile in France, however the German authorities passed a decree forbidding members of the Belgian government returning to the country and the talks were abandoned.
|
