Belgian Land Component

The Belgian Land Component, also called the Belgian Army and known in Dutch as the Landmacht and in French as the Force Terrestre, is the land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. It dates from the founding of the Belgian state in 1830, after independence from the Netherlands, and is the oldest and largest of the four branches, with roughly ten thousand active personnel and over two thousand reservists as of 2022. The monarch is its commander in chief and a major-general serves as its chief of staff. Its first organization, set in a law of 1837, was built around line infantry, jager, grenadier and carabinier regiments, lancer, guide and chasseur cavalry, artillery, engineers and train companies. A larger reorganization authorized in 1912 was far from finished when war came in 1914, so only about 117,000 men could take the field, and in 1940 the army mobilised some 610,000 troops organized in infantry and cavalry corps.