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175-676: The Free Belgian forces (French: Forces belges libres , Dutch : Vrije Belgische Strijdkrachten ) were soldiers from Belgium and its colonies who fought as part of the Allied armies during World War II , after the official Belgian surrender to Nazi Germany. It is distinct from the Belgian Resistance which existed in German-occupied Belgium . In 1940, Belgian pre-war émigrés and former soldiers who had escaped occupied Belgium were formed into units within

350-622: A Belgian tricolor badge on the other. The Belgian army had traditionally used French-style uniforms, along with the characteristic Adrian helmet , meaning that from the First World War both armies had a very similar appearance. After the war, influenced by the Free Belgians and by British military advisors, the Belgian military instead adopted British-style uniforms and British-produced equipment. The Free Belgian forces formed

525-650: A Force Publique garrison in the town of Luluabourg mutinied against their white officers. A medical unit from the Congo, the 10th (Belgian Congo) Casualty Clearing Station, was created in 1943 and served alongside British forces in the Far East during the Burma campaign . The unit included 350 African and 20 European personnel and continued to serve with the British until 1945. Numerous Belgians served as secret agents for

700-578: A common ancestor with languages such as English, German, and the Scandinavian languages . All Germanic languages are subject to the Grimm's law and Verner's law sound shifts, which originated in the Proto-Germanic language and define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in

875-467: A schwa . The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance: A process of standardisation started in the Middle Ages , especially under

1050-601: A synod taking place in Corbridge , England , where the decisions are being written down " tam Latine quam theodisce " meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular". According to a hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northern West Francia (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during the Early Middle Ages , when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be

1225-736: A central office known as the Höheres Kommando der Marinedienststellen in Groß-Paris (Supreme Command for Naval Services in the Greater Paris Area) who in turn answered to a senior commander for all of France known as the Admiral Frankreich . After Case Anton , the "Admiral Frankreich" naval command was broken apart into smaller offices which answered directly to the operational command of Navy Group West . In order to suppress partisans and resistance fighters,

1400-576: A comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language . Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of them remain diverse and are found in the Netherlands and in

1575-467: A consequence evolve (along with Alemannic , Bavarian and Lombardic ) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Old Frisian and Old Saxon . Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to the original language of

1750-767: A famous bordello on the Rue Lauriston, which was near the Carlingue headquarters and was often frequented by German troops. The curfew in Paris was not upheld as strictly as in other cities. The Django Reinhardt song " Nuages ", performed by Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in the Salle Pleyel , gained notoriety among both French and German fans. Jean Reinhardt was even invited to play for

1925-603: A greater ratio of (older) officers to other ranks. Despite the formation of all-Belgian ground units from late 1940, many Belgian volunteers – especially those in the Royal Air Force – served in majority British units, particularly in the early years after the formation of the Free Belgian forces. In 1940, the Belgian government-in-exile decided to raise a military unit from pre-war Belgian émigrés and soldiers rescued from Dunkirk . The original forces were known as

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2100-585: A military force from Belgian soldiers rescued from Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo , refugees, and expatriates living in the United Kingdom. By July 1940, the camp numbered 462 Belgians, and nearly 700 by August and 900 by November. These soldiers were organized into the 1st Fusilier Battalion in August, and the government appointed Lieutenant-Generals Raoul Daufresne de la Chevalerie as commander, and Victor van Strydonck de Burkel as inspector-general of

2275-582: A minority language in Germany and northern France's French Flanders . Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the four language areas into which the country is divided ( Flanders , francophone Wallonia , and the German-speaking Community ) are largely monolingual, with Brussels being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of music , films , books and other media written or spoken in Dutch. Dutch

2450-670: A minority) and the province of Walloon Brabant . Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of Limburg while its strong influence on the East Flemish of East Flanders and eastern Zeelandic Flanders weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant ( Willemstad ), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, the Kleverlandish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being

2625-420: A number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible. The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known as vowel reduction , whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to

2800-579: A political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties. While a somewhat heterogeneous group of Low Franconian dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in the Netherlands and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Afrikaans , although to

2975-413: A result, Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, the term " Diets " was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name for Middle Dutch and its literature . Old Dutch can be discerned more or less around the same time as Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Old High German , Old Frisian , and Old Saxon . These names are derived from

3150-509: A result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between " held " (hero) and " geld " (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France

3325-473: A second or third language in the polyglot Caribbean island countries of Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the Dutch Language Union . The Dutch Caribbean municipalities ( St. Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire ) have Dutch as one of the official languages. In Asia, Dutch

3500-620: A ship named Godetia . There are numerous memorials to the participation of the Free Belgians forces in the liberation across the country and in areas liberated by the Free Belgians. The participation of soldiers from the Belgian Congo was, however, largely forgotten following Congolese independence in 1960 and decades of subsequent war, though in recent years the profile of the veterans has been raised by exhibitions creating greater public awareness. Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] )

3675-522: A significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separate standardised language . It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by various other languages in South Africa. West Frisian ( Westerlauwers Fries ), along with Saterland Frisian and North Frisian , evolved from

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3850-479: A somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages. Two dialect groups have been given the official status of regional language (or streektaal ) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border. The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces of Groningen , Drenthe and Overijssel , as well as parts of

4025-424: A source language, mainly for law and history students. In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students. Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies. In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gained proficiency in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business. Nevertheless,

4200-541: A substitute to gasoline, and wooden soles for shoes were used instead of leather. Soap was rare and made in some households from fats and caustic soda . Coffee was replaced by toasted barley mixed with chicory , and sugar with saccharin . The Germans seized about 80 percent of the French food production, which caused severe disruption to the household economy of the French people . French farm production fell in half because of lack of fuel, fertilizer and workers; even so

4375-552: A unique prestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties. In the Netherlands, the Hollandic dialect dominates in national broadcast media while in Flanders Brabantian dialect dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficial prestige dialects in their respective countries. Outside

4550-537: Is kantor , handdoek "towel" in Indonesian is handuk , or bushalte "bus stop" in Indonesian is halte bus . In addition, many Indonesian words are calques of Dutch; for example, rumah sakit "hospital" is calqued on the Dutch ziekenhuis (literally "sickhouse"), kebun binatang "zoo" on dierentuin (literally "animal garden"), undang-undang dasar "constitution" from grondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of

4725-608: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Military Administration in France (Nazi Germany) Its role in France was partly governed by the conditions set by the Armistice of 22 June 1940 after the blitzkrieg success of the Wehrmacht leading to the Fall of France ; at the time both French and Germans thought the occupation would be temporary and last only until Britain came to terms, which

4900-506: Is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium ). Dutch was one of the official languages of South Africa until 1925, when it

5075-466: Is a calque of the aforementioned Roman province Germania Inferior and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, Hoogduits ("High German") and Overlands ("Upper-landish") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states. Use of Nederduytsch was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out over Nederlands during

5250-473: Is a monocentric language , at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the same standard form (authorised by the Dutch Language Union ) based on a Dutch orthography defined in the so-called " Green Booklet " authoritative dictionary and employing the Latin alphabet when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks

5425-537: Is also an official language of several international organisations, such as the European Union , Union of South American Nations and the Caribbean Community . At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university. In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as

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5600-587: Is found in the Salic law . In this Frankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: Maltho thi afrio lito ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is Visc flot aftar themo uuatare ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the Utrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting with Forsachistu diobolae ... ec forsacho diabolae (litt.: "Forsake you

5775-522: Is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German, but far fewer than English. In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch is Nederlands (historically Nederlandsch before the Dutch orthographic reforms ). Sometimes Vlaams (" Flemish ") is used as well to describe Standard Dutch in Flanders , whereas Hollands (" Hollandic ")

5950-487: Is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands. English uses the adjective Dutch as a noun for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. The word is derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz . The stem of this word, *þeudō , meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and *-iskaz was an adjective-forming suffix, of which -ish

6125-514: Is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, the voiced velar fricative (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to a voiced glottal fricative (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As

6300-585: Is sometimes called French Flemish and is listed as a French minority language . However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish. Hollandic is spoken in Holland and Utrecht , though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisian substratum and, from the 16th century on, by Brabantian dialects ) are now relatively rare. The urban dialects of

6475-637: Is spoken in Limburg (Belgium) as well as in the remaining part of Limburg (Netherlands) and extends across the German border. West Flemish ( Westvlaams ) is spoken in West Flanders , the western part of Zeelandic Flanders and also in French Flanders , where it virtually became extinct to make way for French. The West Flemish group of dialects, spoken in West Flanders and Zeeland ,

6650-595: Is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) in Jakarta . Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there. In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language. Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as

6825-662: Is the Modern English form. Theodiscus was its Latinised form and used as an adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages . In this sense, it meant "the language of the common people". The term was used as opposed to Latin , the non -native language of writing and the Catholic Church . It was first recorded in 786, when the Bishop of Ostia writes to Pope Adrian I about

7000-404: Is the case with the ( standardised ) West Frisian language . It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province of Friesland . Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of

7175-530: Is the sole official language, and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue . Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers. A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language . Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. The lingua franca of Suriname, however,

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7350-705: The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht . The use and abuse of Paris in the visitations of German forces during the Second World War led to a backlash; the intensive prostitution during the occupation made way for the Loi de Marthe Richard in 1946, which closed the bordellos and reduced raunchy stage shows to mere dancing events. During the German occupation, a forced labour policy, called Service du Travail Obligatoire ("Obligatory work service, STO"), consisted of

7525-531: The 2006 New Zealand census , 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation. In contrast to the colonies in the East Indies , from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in the West Indies . Until 1863, when slavery was abolished in

7700-514: The Alps border, and a 50-kilometre (31 mi) demilitarised zone along the same. It was expanded to all territory on the left bank of the Rhône river after its invasion together with Germany of Vichy France on 11 November 1942, except for areas around Lyon and Marseille , which were added to Germany's zone sud , and Corsica . The Italian occupation zone was also occupied by Germany and added to

7875-678: The Ascq massacre . Large maquis where significant military operations were conducted included the maquis du Vercors , the maquis du Limousin , the maquis des Glières , the maquis du Mont Mouchet , and the maquis de Saint-Marcel . Major round-up operations included the Round up of Marseille and the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup . Although the majority of the French population did not take part in active resistance, many resisted passively through acts such as listening to

8050-694: The Battle of the Atlantic , the Caribbean and also as part of the escorting fleet during D-Day . The RNSB also operated the 118th Minesweeper Flotilla, composed of MMS-class minesweepers , from Harwich from 1943. The 118th served in the English Channel and North Sea clearing paths through German minefields. In November 1944, the flotilla was involved in clearing the Scheldt Estuary to

8225-578: The Bergakker inscription , found near the Dutch city of Tiel , which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such as vadam (modern Dutch: wad , English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of

8400-612: The British Eighth Army during the battles around Sangro river in the winter of 1943. In 1944, the troop was sent to Yugoslavia , where it raided numerous Dalmatian islands held by the Germans. In the autumn of 1944, the troop was part of Operation Infatuate to capture the island of Walcheren at the head of the Scheldt Estuary , alongside Free Norwegian, Free Dutch , Free French and British Commandos. The unit later moved into Germany. In 1942, 120 volunteers from

8575-400: The Brussels and Flemish regions of Belgium . The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes between a dialect and a streektaal (" regional language "). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is

8750-616: The Free French forces. Some 40,000 malgré-nous ("against our will"), citizens of re-annexed Alsace-Lorraine drafted into the Wehrmacht, became casualties. Civilian casualties amounted to around 150,000 (60,000 by aerial bombing, 60,000 in the resistance, and 30,000 murdered by German occupation forces). Prisoners of war and deportee totals were around 1.9 million. Of this, around 240,000 died in captivity. An estimated 40,000 were prisoners of war, 100,000 racial deportees, 60,000 political prisoners and 40,000 died as slave labourers. Military propaganda for European countries under occupation

8925-441: The Free French , whose army retained their national rank structure and much of its own equipment and uniforms, the Free Belgians were fully organized and equipped along British lines. Belgian troops adopted the British rank structure along with British Battle Dress uniforms and helmets . They were distinguished from other units by a rampant lion cap badge and a curved cloth badge inscribed " BELGIUM " worn on one shoulder, and

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9100-495: The High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to three grammatical genders  – albeit with few grammatical consequences  – as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and (similar) word order . Dutch vocabulary

9275-431: The Low Countries , its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed to Romance dialects , in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to

9450-473: The Low Franconian languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is the mutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are German , English and the un-standardised languages Low German and Yiddish . Dutch stands out in combining some Ingvaeonic characteristics (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over

9625-508: The Normandy and Provence landings . It formally existed from May 1940 to December 1944, though most of its territory had been liberated by the Allies by the end of summer 1944. Alsace-Lorraine had been annexed after the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 by the German Empire and returned to France after the First World War. It was re-annexed by the Third Reich (thus subjecting their male population to German military conscription .) The departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais were attached to

9800-476: The Randstad , which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam , The Hague , Amsterdam and Utrecht . In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of Friesland , where it partially displaced West Frisian in

9975-428: The SS security service when captured and liable to be summarily executed . As the war went on, garrisoning the Atlantic Wall and suppressing the resistance became heavier and heavier duties. Some notable units and formations stationed in France during the occupation: The " Appeal of 18 June " by de Gaulle's Free France government in exile in London had little immediate effect, and few joined its French Forces of

10150-406: The Southern Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequent Spanish , Austrian and French rule , the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, the Flemish Movement stood up for

10325-405: The United Kingdom where it formed an official government in exile in October 1940. In a broadcast on French Radio shortly after the Belgian surrender, the Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot called for the creation of an army-in-exile, originally intended to continue fighting alongside the French: With the same youthful courage that responded to the government's call, reunited with the elements of

10500-431: The antonym of *walhisk (Romance-speakers, specifically Old French ). The word, now rendered as dietsc (Southwestern variant) or duutsc (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to the Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. During the High Middle Ages " Dietsc / Duutsc " was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in

10675-471: The continental West Germanic plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of the High German consonant shift and had some changes of its own. The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For

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10850-434: The differences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay. Some regional languages in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example, Sundanese word Katel or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is " ketel ". The Javanese word for "bike/ bicycle " " pit " can be traced back to its origin in Dutch " fiets ". The Malacca state of Malaysia was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca

11025-406: The ligne de démarcation between the north zone and the south zone also required an Ausweis , which was difficult to acquire. People could write only to their family members, and this was only permissible using a pre-filled card where the sender checked off the appropriate words (e.g. 'in good health', 'wounded', 'dead', 'prisoner'). The occupied zone was on German time, which was one hour ahead of

11200-429: The military administration in Belgium and Northern France , which was also responsible for civilian affairs in the 20-kilometre (12 mi) wide zone interdite along the Atlantic coast. Another "forbidden zone" were areas in north-eastern France , corresponding to Lorraine and roughly about half each of Franche-Comté , Champagne and Picardie . War refugees were prohibited from returning to their homes, and it

11375-524: The pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age . The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: East (now extinct), West , and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period . Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots , Frisian , Low German (Old Saxon) and High German . It is characterised by a number of phonological and morphological innovations not found in North or East Germanic. The West Germanic varieties of

11550-413: The zone sud after Italy's surrender in September 1943 , except for Corsica, which was liberated by the landings of Free French forces and local Italian troops that became co-belligerents of the Allies. After Germany and France agreed on an armistice following the defeats of May and June, Colonel General Wilhelm Keitel and General Charles Huntzinger , representatives of the Third Reich and of

11725-459: The 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers ( Deventer , Zwolle , Kampen , Zutphen and Doesburg ) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area. Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low German dialect continuum . However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with

11900-476: The 16th century and is known as Stadsfries ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter alia Kleverlandish and North Brabantian , but without Stadsfries, are the Central Dutch dialects . Brabantian is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant , which corresponded mainly to the provinces of North Brabant and southern Gelderland , the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant , as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become

12075-569: The 1st Fusilier Battalion. A 2nd Fusilier Battalion was formed in Canada from Belgian émigrés in the Americas. In 1942, the various Belgian ground forces units in the United Kingdom were amalgamated into the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade , more often known as the Brigade Piron after its commanding officer, Colonel Jean-Baptiste Piron . The unit not only included motorized infantry, armoured cars and artillery but also various logistics and medical support units. In March 1944, an artillery battery of four 25-pounder guns operated by troops from Luxembourg

12250-499: The 2nd Fusilier Battalion were given parachute training and formed into a new unit, the Belgian Independent Parachute Company. The new unit was commanded by Commander Jean Thise , later replaced by Captain Edouard Blondeel . In February 1944, the company joined the élite British Special Air Service 's SAS Brigade . It was renamed the 5th SAS Regiment in March 1945, even though it was only battalion-strength. The 5th SAS were deployed on numerous missions behind enemy lines. In July 1944,

12425-502: The 7th century. It was replaced in France by Old French (a Romance language with a considerable Old Frankish influence). However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in the Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French. The term Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian refers to

12600-716: The Allied side against the Italians in East Africa . After the liberation of Belgium in September 1944, the Free Belgian forces formed the foundations of the new Belgian army. Belgian involvement in World War II began when German forces invaded Belgium, which had been following a policy of neutrality, on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting , Belgium surrendered on 28 May and was placed under German occupation. During

12775-650: The Allies within "T Section" of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Agents were parachuted into occupied Belgium to liaise with the resistance from October 1940. Many were civilians from professional backgrounds rather than soldiers. It was exceptionally risky and of around 300 agents parachuted into Belgium, 75% were captured by the German Gestapo . Those captured were liable for torture or execution and 150 agents were killed. Unlike

12950-512: The Atlantic coast, became the zone libre ("free zone"), where the Vichy regime remained sovereign as an independent state, though under heavy German influence due to the restrictions of the Armistice (including a heavy tribute) and economic dependency on Germany. It constituted a land area of 246,618 square kilometres, approximately 45 percent of France, and included approximately 33 percent of

13125-466: The Belgian air force in 1940. In November 1941, the all-Belgian 350 Squadron , was created. The regimental standard of the 2nd Régiment d'Aéronautique was smuggled out of occupied Belgium and presented to the unit. The incident was depicted in the 1943 British film The Flemish Farm . A year later, a second all-Belgian squadron, 349 Squadron , was created. Both units were equipped with Spitfires . By June 1943, some 400 Belgian pilots were serving with

13300-416: The Belgian military in France and Great Britain, a new army will be levied and organized. It will go into the line alongside those of our allies ... all the forces we have will be put at the service of the cause which has become ours ... It is important to assure immediately and in a tangible way, the solidarity which continues to unite the powers which have given us their support ... In Britain,

13475-614: The Belgian port of Antwerp to enable it to be used by the Allies. After liberation, the Belgian government decided to increase the size of the RNSB to 1,200 men which would later form the backbone of the fledgling Belgian Navy. The Force Publique (or "Public Force") was a combined police and military force of the Belgian Congo . It had a peacetime strength of 18,000, making it one of the largest standing colonial armies in Africa at

13650-648: The British military which later fought in the European and Mediterranean Theatres . These included an infantry formation, which later became the Brigade Piron , as well as Commando and paratroop units. Belgians also served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy , serving in Belgian-only units as well as in majority-British units. Significant numbers of soldiers from the Belgian Congo fought on

13825-417: The Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languages Limburgish is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon

14000-490: The Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite. After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by Indonesian , but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia: Indonesian Dutch , a regional variety of

14175-415: The Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations. As a foreign language , Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to

14350-531: The Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered a sister language of Dutch, like English and German. Approximate distribution of native Dutch speakers worldwide: Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in the constitution but in administrative law ), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire), Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . Dutch

14525-408: The Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985. Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms. One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words, many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g. kantoor "office" in Indonesian

14700-602: The Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very early final-obstruent devoicing . In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period. Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages. The oldest recorded

14875-467: The Free Belgian forces throughout the war, most crossing through occupied and Vichy France , as well as Francoist Spain . Because the French refused to provide any form of visa to Belgians of military age, many of those arriving in England tended to be old and to have already had long military careers. This created a problem for the Free Belgian forces, which was therefore generally " top heavy ", with

15050-625: The French government of Marshal Philippe Pétain respectively, signed it on 22 June 1940 at the Rethondes clearing in Compiègne Forest . As it was done at the same place and in the same railroad carriage where the armistice ending the First World War when Germany surrendered, it is known as the Second Compiègne armistice . France was roughly divided into an occupied northern zone and an unoccupied southern zone, according to

15225-479: The French surrender, many Belgian pilots escaped to England. 15 Belgian pilots served in fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain in June 1940 while a further 14 others served in auxiliary roles, such as navigators or gunners. All served in predominantly British squadrons rather than national units. By 1943, there were more Belgian pilots in the Royal Air Force than there had been in

15400-741: The German authorities with the propaganda and control of the French press and of publishing during the Occupation of France. Sections ( Staffel , "squadron") in each important town. After their victory in June 1940 , the occupation authorities first relied on the German embassy in Paris ( Hôtel Beauharnais ) to monitor publications, shows, and radio broadcasts. They then set up the Propaganda-Abteilung Frankreich (France Propaganda Department), which developed Nazi propaganda and censorship services called Propagandastaffel in

15575-634: The German military's control and free zones for the maquisards , so-called after the maquis shrubland that provided ideal terrain for guerrilla warfare . The most important anti-partisan action was the Battle of Vercors . The most infamous one was the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre . Other notable atrocities committed were the Tulle massacre , the Le Paradis massacre , the Maillé massacre , and

15750-554: The Germans seized half the meat, 20 percent of the produce, and 80 percent of the Champagne . Supply problems quickly affected French stores which lacked most items. Faced with these difficulties in everyday life, the government answered by rationing , and creating food charts and tickets which were to be exchanged for bread, meat, butter and cooking oil. The rationing system was stringent but badly managed, leading to malnourishment, black markets , and hostility to state management of

15925-653: The Gestapo in seizing members of the resistance and minorities including Jews for shipment to detention centres, such as the Drancy internment camp , en route to Auschwitz , and other German concentration camps, including Dachau , Buchenwald and Mauthausen . Some Frenchmen also volunteered directly in German forces to fight for Germany and/or against Bolsheviks , such as the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism . Volunteers from this and other outfits later constituted

16100-657: The Interior beyond those that had already gone into exile to join the Free French. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the French communist party , hitherto under orders from the Comintern to remain passive against the German occupiers, began to mount actions against them. De Gaulle sent Jean Moulin back to France as his formal link to the irregulars throughout the occupied country to coordinate

16275-740: The Liberation. One month after the occupation, the bi-monthly soldiers' magazine Der Deutsche Wegleiter für Paris  [ fr ] ( The German Guide to Paris ) was first published by the Paris Kommandantur , and became a success. Further guides, such as the Guide aryien , counted e.g. the Moulin Rouge among the must-see locations in Paris. Famous clubs such as the Folies-Belleville or Bobino were also among

16450-524: The Netherlands and Flanders . In French-speaking Belgium , over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia , and about 7,000 in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school). At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of neerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and

16625-412: The Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town of Kleve ( Kleverlandish ) is historically and genetically a Low Franconian variety. In North-Western France, the area around Calais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities of Dunkirk , Gravelines and Bourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by

16800-528: The Netherlands in April 1945, the brigade's units fought at Nijmegen and Walcheren . The British No. 10 Commando was made up of soldiers from across occupied Europe, organized by nationality in eight troops. No. 4 Troop, created in August 1942, was Belgian and was commanded by Captain Georges Danloy. The original volunteers spent nearly a year in training, before leaving for Italy to fight alongside

16975-539: The Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English. In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the Language Union Treaty . This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling. Dutch belongs to its own West Germanic sub-group,

17150-839: The RAF. The Belgian section of the RAF achieved its 100th "kill" in January 1944. Both squadrons served in the European theatre and were involved in the Normandy Landings . In 1943, a Belgian pilot from 609 Squadron , Jean de Selys Longchamps , strafed the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels, after flying through the streets at low-altitude. Operation Carthage an air raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 1945,

17325-609: The RNSB numbered 350 men with several hundred more Belgians serving on other British naval and merchant ships. Unlike the neighbouring Netherlands, which had possessed a sizeable navy, the Belgian Corps de Marine had had only few ships before the war. With the surrender in May 1940, many vessels, including A4 which had evacuated Belgian gold to Britain during the campaign, travelled to neutral Spain and interned themselves rather than return to occupied Belgium. Consequently, most of

17500-637: The STO, going underground to avoid imprisonment and subsequent deportation to Germany. For the most part, those "work dodgers" ( réfractaires ) became maquisards . There were German reprisals against civilians in occupied countries; in France, the Nazis built an execution chamber in the cellars of the former Ministry of Aviation building in Paris. Many Jews were victims of the Holocaust in France . Approximately 49 concentration camps were in use in France during

17675-610: The United Kingdom (5 universities). Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of the Dutch East Indies , the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots, as certain law codes are still only available in Dutch. Dutch

17850-621: The West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such as Papiamento and Sranan Tongo which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in the Colony of Surinam (now Suriname ) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication. In Suriname today, Dutch

18025-417: The allied forces. German anti-partisan operations claimed around 13,000-16,000 French victims, including 4,000 to 5,000 innocent civilians. At the end of the war, some 580,000 French had died (40,000 of these by the western Allied forces during the bombardments of the first 48 hours of Operation Overlord). Military deaths were 92,000 in 1939–40. Some 58,000 were killed in action from 1940 to 1945 fighting in

18200-724: The area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with the Romans referring to the region as Germania Inferior ("Lower" Germania). It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near the North Sea . From 1551, the designation Nederlands received strong competition from the name Nederduytsch (literally "Low Dutch", Dutch being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It

18375-473: The armistice convention "in order to protect the interests of the German Reich". The French colonial empire remained under the authority of Marshal Pétain's Vichy regime. French sovereignty was to be exercised over the whole of French territory, including the occupied zone, Alsace and Moselle, but the third article of the armistice stipulated that French authorities in the occupied zone would have to obey

18550-419: The banned BBC's Radio Londres , or giving collateral or material aid to Resistance members. Others assisted in the escape of downed US or British airmen who eventually found their way back to Britain, often through Spain. By the eve of the liberation, numerous factions of nationalists, anarchists, communists, socialists and others , counting between 100,000 and up to 400,000 combatants, were actively fighting

18725-624: The borders of other standard language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has broken the dialect continuum . Examples are the Gronings dialect spoken in Groningen as well as the closely related varieties in adjacent East Frisia (Germany). Kleverlandish is a dialect spoken in southern Gelderland , the northern tip of Limburg , and northeast of North Brabant (Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Limburgish ( Limburgs )

18900-489: The brigade was the second Allied unit to enter Brussels (after the Welsh Guards ). After the liberation of Belgium, the brigade was involved in fighting in the Netherlands until November 1944 when it returned to Belgium and reorganized, expanding on account of the new manpower. The reorganized brigade had three infantry battalions, an artillery regiment of six batteries, and an armored car regiment. Returning to combat in

19075-689: The cadre of the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) . Stanley Hoffmann in 1974, and after him, other historians such as Robert Paxton and Jean-Pierre Azéma have used the term collaborationnistes to refer to fascists and Nazi sympathisers who, for ideological reasons, wished a reinforced collaboration with Hitler's Germany, in contrast to "collaborators", people who merely cooperated out of self-interest. Examples of these are PPF leader Jacques Doriot , writer Robert Brasillach or Marcel Déat . A principal motivation and ideological foundation among collaborationnistes

19250-705: The campaign. After the Allied victory in Abyssinia, the Force Publique was redesignated the 1st Belgian Colonial Motorised Brigade and served as a garrison in Egypt and in British Palestine between 1943 and 1944. 13,000 Congolese soldiers also served in Nigeria as a garrison force. Despite its military success during the conflict, the Force Publique was vulnerable to internal agitation. In 1944,

19425-479: The case with the Gronings dialect , which is considered a variety of the Dutch Low Saxon regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which

19600-553: The close of the 18th century, with (Hoog)Duytsch establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period. In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with German dialectologists terming the German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany as Hochdeutsch ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated as Niederdeutsch ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists as Nederduits and Hoogduits . As

19775-690: The concept of foreign enlistment into the British army, or the creation of foreign armed forces on British soil, had been approved in the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 and Allied Forces Act 1940 . The first components of a Belgian military in Britain was created after the French surrender when the Camp Militaire Belge de Regroupement (CMBR; "Belgian Military Camp for Regrouping") was created in Tenby ( Wales ) in order to reform

19950-658: The core of the post-war Belgian army. The Brigade Piron , expanded and renamed "Liberation" Regiment , formed the core of the Belgian army of occupation in Germany . The Free Belgian special forces formed the basis for the creation of the 1st Commando Regiment , and the 1st Parachute Regiment which even kept the " Who Dares Wins " motto of the SAS. The history of the Free Belgian forces continues to be celebrated within Belgium. The Belgian Marine Component, for example, still operates

20125-404: The countryside and barter against cigarettes were also frequent practices during this period. These activities were strictly forbidden, however, and thus carried out at the risk of confiscation and fines. During the day, numerous regulations, censorship and propaganda made the occupation increasingly unbearable. At night, inhabitants had to abide a curfew and it was forbidden to go out during

20300-472: The course of fifteen centuries. During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since

20475-540: The declaration of independence of Indonesia, Western New Guinea , the "wild east" of the Dutch East Indies , remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known as Netherlands New Guinea . Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963. Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The 2011 Australian census showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home. At

20650-603: The development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the Salian Franks who occupied what is now the southern Netherlands , northern Belgium , part of northern France, and parts of the Lower Rhine regions of Germany. The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as

20825-474: The devil? ... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester , England . Since the sentence speaks to

21000-558: The disposal of the Royal Navy, for coastal patrols and launching barrage balloons . From October 1940, many joined the RNSB. The unit was placed under command of Lieutenant-Commander Georges Timmermans. Victor Billet himself was posted MIA during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The RNSB operated two small corvettes , HMS  Godetia and Buttercup , within the Royal Navy from 1942. Both corvettes served as convoy escorts during

21175-667: The eight major Résistance groups into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the National Council of the Resistance ( Conseil National de la Résistance ). Moulin was eventually captured, and died under brutal torture by the Gestapo . The resistance intensified after it became clear the tide of war had shifted after the Reich's defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943 and, by 1944, large remote areas were out of

21350-488: The end of summer of 1940: "And so the alien presence, increasingly hated and feared in private, could seem so permanent that, in the public places where daily life went on, it was taken for granted". At the same time France was also marked by disappearances as buildings were renamed, books banned, art was stolen to be taken to Germany and as time went on, people started to vanish. With nearly 75,000 inhabitants killed and 550,000 tons of bombs dropped, France was, after Germany,

21525-424: The end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until World War I , many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the catechism in Dutch in many parishes. During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both Prussia and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France,

21700-489: The fighting, between 600,000 and 650,000 Belgian men (nearly 20% of the country's male population) had served in the military. Most were made prisoners of war and detained in Germany, though some were released before the end of the war. Leopold III , king and commander in chief of the army, also surrendered to the Germans on 28 May along with his army and remained a prisoner for the rest of the war. The Belgian government fled first to Bordeaux in France , and then to London in

21875-455: The food supply. The official ration provided starvation level diets of 1,300 or fewer calories a day, supplemented by home gardens and, especially, black market purchases. Hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops. In the absence of meat and other foods including potatoes, people ate unusual vegetables, such as Swedish turnip and Jerusalem artichoke . Food shortages were most acute in

22050-401: The help of notable French collaborators like Paul Touvier and Maurice Papon , along with collaborationists French auxiliaries like the Milice , the Franc-Gardes and the Legionary Order Service . The two main collaborationist political parties were the French Popular Party (PPF) and the National Popular Rally (RNP), each with 20,000 to 30,000 members. The Milice participated with

22225-484: The huge swastika flags draped over the Hôtel de Ville and flying on top of the Eiffel Tower. The British historian Ian Ousby wrote: Even today, when people who are not French or did not live through the Occupation look at photos of German soldiers marching down the Champs Élysées or of Gothic-lettered German signposts outside the great landmarks of Paris, they can still feel a slight shock of disbelief. The scenes look not just unreal, but almost deliberately surreal, as if

22400-415: The imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence. Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch . The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed. There was at that time no overarching standard language ; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for

22575-467: The influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon ( Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of Antwerp . The 1585 fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. This influenced

22750-432: The language now known as Dutch. In the Low Countries Dietsch or its Early Modern Dutch form Duytsch as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonym Nederlands . This designation (first attested in 1482) started at the Burgundian court in the 15th century, although the use of neder , laag , bas , and inferior ("nether" or "low") to refer to

22925-463: The large cities. In the more remote country villages, however, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products permitted better survival. Some people benefited from the black market , where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Farmers diverted especially meat to the black market, which meant that much less for the open market. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation. Direct buying from farmers in

23100-512: The least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of the West Frisian language in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city of Ghent has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. The Brussels dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted from Walloon and French . Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across

23275-473: The military administration and that Germany would exercise rights of an occupying power within it: In the occupied region of France, the German Reich exercises all of the rights of an occupying power . The French government undertakes to facilitate in every way possible the implementation of these rights, and to provide the assistance of the French administrative services to that end. The French government will immediately direct all officials and administrators of

23450-470: The military administration cooperated closely with the Gestapo , the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) , the intelligence service of the SS , and the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) , its security police. It also had at its disposal the support of the French authorities and police forces, who had to cooperate per the conditions set in the armistice, to round up Jews , anti-fascists and other dissidents, and vanish them into Nacht und Nebel , "Night and Fog". It also had

23625-487: The mission. Later, the unit fought in the Netherlands and also served as a reconnaissance unit in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. After the war it was sent to Germany to arrest leading Nazis, and was responsible for arresting Karl Doenitz , Alfred Rosenberg and Joachim von Ribbentrop as well as numerous others. During the 18 Days' Campaign , the Belgian air force had lost practically all its equipment and 28 pilots had been killed. After

23800-437: The modern standard languages . In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while a perfect West Germanic dialect continuum remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the 5th century. These happened to develop through Middle Dutch to Modern Dutch over

23975-418: The new force. In July 1940, a British Mass Observation report remarked that Belgian refugees in civilian employment in the United Kingdom were causing friction with British workers because they were considered to be pushing British workers out of jobs. The same report noted the "possible need for a Belgian Legion". In February 1941, a Belgian artillery battalion was formed. Belgian volunteers continued to join

24150-409: The night without an Ausweis . They had to close their shutters or windows and turn off any light, to prevent Allied aircraft using city lights for navigation. The experience of the Occupation was a deeply psychologically disorienting one for the French as what was once familiar and safe suddenly become strange and threatening. Many Parisians could not get over the shock experienced when they first saw

24325-417: The occupation forces. Supported by the Special Operations Executive and the Office of Strategic Services that air-dropped weapons and supplies, as well as infiltrating agents like Nancy Wake who provided tactical advice and specialist skills like radio operation and demolition , they systematically sabotaged railway lines, destroyed bridges, cut German supply lines , and provided general intelligence to

24500-462: The occupied territory to comply with the regulations of, and to collaborate fully with, the German military authorities. The military administration was responsible for civil affairs in occupied France. It was divided into Kommandanturen (singular Kommandantur ), in decreasing hierarchical order Oberfeldkommandanturen , Feldkommandanturen , Kreiskommandanturen , and Ortskommandanturen . German naval affairs in France were coordinated through

24675-516: The occupied zone (with 14.2m in the unoccupied zone). This does not include the 1,600,000 prisoners of war, nor the 60,000 French workers in Germany or the departments of Alsace-Lorraine. The life of the French during the German occupation was marked, from the beginning, by endemic shortages. They are explained by several factors: Ersatz , or makeshift substitutes, took the place of many products that were in short supply; wood gas generators on trucks and automobiles burned charcoal or wood pellets as

24850-470: The original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them. Dutch, like English, has not undergone

25025-415: The predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers. Limburgish , spoken in both Belgian Limburg and Netherlands Limburg and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands. Limburgish has been influenced by the Ripuarian varieties like the Colognian dialect , and has had

25200-411: The provinces of Gelderland , Flevoland , Friesland and Utrecht . This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of streektaal ( regional language ) according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From

25375-408: The requisition and transfer of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Germany against their will, for the German war effort. In addition to work camps for factories, agriculture, and railroads, forced labour was used for V-1 launch sites and other military facilities targeted by the Allies in Operation Crossbow . Beginning in 1942, many refused to be drafted to factories and farms in Germany by

25550-455: The rest of the text lack any consensus. The Franks emerged in the southern Netherlands ( Salian Franks ) and central Germany ( Ripuarian Franks ), and later descended into Gaul . The name of their kingdom survives in that of France. Although they ruled the Gallo-Romans for nearly 300 years, their language, Frankish , became extinct in most of France and was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around

25725-438: The retreat of Italian army of General Pietro Gazzera at the Siege of Saïo in the Ethiopian Highlands , later accepting Gazzera's surrender with 7,000 of his soldiers. Over the course of the campaign in Abyssinia, the Force Publique received the surrender of nine Italian generals, 370 ranking officers and 15,000 Italian colonial troops before the end of 1941. Some 500 Congolese soldiers and 4 Belgian officers were killed during

25900-423: The rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardised francophony . Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in

26075-462: The same branch of the West Germanic languages as Old English (i.e. Anglo-Frisian ) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of

26250-518: The second most severely bomb-devastated country on the Western Front of World War II . Allied bombings were particularly intense before and during Operation Overlord in 1944. The Allies' Transportation Plan aiming at the systematic destruction of French railway marshalling yards and railway bridges, in 1944, also took a heavy toll on civilian lives. For example, the 26 May 1944 bombing hit railway targets in and around five cities in south-eastern France, causing over 2,500 civilian deaths. Crossing

26425-402: The set of Franconian dialects (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved from Frankish ) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages , from around the 5th to the 12th century. Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French. Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in

26600-492: The small groups from 5th SAS were dropped by parachute into northern France to perform reconnaissance and sabotage missions and to link up with the French Resistance . Amongst their missions was to harass the German retreat from the Falaise Gap . In August 1944, it was the first Allied unit to enter Belgium when it was deployed to the Ardennes and Limburg . The small team, mounted in armed Jeeps , managed to kill more than 300 German soldiers and destroy over 100 vehicles during

26775-424: The sought-after venues. A wide array of German units were rotated to France to rest and refit; the Germans used the motto "Jeder einmal in Paris" ("everyone once in Paris") and provided "recreational visits" to the city for their troops. Various famous artists, such as Yves Montand or later Les Compagnons de la chanson , started their careers during the occupation. Edith Piaf lived above L'Étoile de Kléber ,

26950-430: The time are generally split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that the Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch. The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being

27125-408: The time. During World War II, it was reinforced, numbering 40,000, and constituted the bulk of the Free Belgian forces. Like other colonial armies of the time, the Force Publique was racially segregated; it was commanded by 280 white officers and NCOs but other ranks were exclusively native Congolese. The Force Publique had never been allowed the more modern equipment given to the Belgian army before

27300-457: The total French labor force. The demarcation line between the free zone and the occupied zone was a de facto border, necessitating special authorisation and a laissez-passer from the German authorities to cross. These restrictions remained in place after Vichy was occupied and the zone renamed zone sud ("south zone"), and also placed under military administration in November 1942. The Italian occupation zone consisted of small areas along

27475-417: The transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when linguists can detect something of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch: Among the Indo-European languages , Dutch is grouped within the Germanic languages , meaning it shares

27650-426: The unexpected conjunction of German and French, French and German, was the result of a Dada prank and not the sober record of history. This shock is merely a distant echo of what the French underwent in 1940: seeing a familiar landscape transformed by the addition of the unfamiliar, living among everyday sights suddenly made bizarre, no longer feeling at home in places they had known all their lives. Ousby wrote that by

27825-465: The unoccupied zone. Other policies implemented in the occupied zone but not in the free zone were a curfew from 10 p.m to 5 a.m, a ban on American films, the suppression of displaying the French flag and singing the Marseillaise , and the banning of Vichy paramilitary organizations and the Veterans' Legion. Schoolchildren were made to sing " Maréchal, nous voilà ! " ("Marshall, here we are!"). The portrait of Marshal Philippe Pétain adorned

28000-420: The urban dialects of the province of Holland . In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling , the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, even Dutch Low Saxon , dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century. In

28175-500: The various regions of France . Each Propagandastaffel was led by a commander and employed some thirty people. There were Sonderführers (special directors) in charge of particular areas: censorship of shows and plays, publishing and press, cinematographic works, and public advertising and speeches. The directors, chosen for their skills in civil matters, wore military dress and were subject to military regulation. The census for 1 April 1941 show 25,071,255 inhabitants in

28350-403: The volunteers of the RNSB had been civilian fishermen or members of the Merchant Navy rather than career soldiers. Around 1,400 men of the Belgian fishing fleet had left for Britain after the Belgian surrender. Three Belgian trawlers even took part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk, rescuing 4,300 British soldiers between them. Their ships and crews were put at

28525-519: The walls of classrooms, thus creating a personality cult . Propaganda was present in education to train the young people with the ideas of the new Vichy regime . However, there was no resumption in ideology as in other occupied countries, for example in Poland , where the teaching elite was liquidated. Teachers were not imprisoned and the programs were not modified overall. In the private Catholic sector, many school directors hid Jewish children (thus saving their life) and provided education for them until

28700-440: The war, and consequently had to use outdated equipment and weapons, like the Stokes mortar and the Saint Chamond 70 mm howitzer . In June 1940, three battalions of the Force Publique were sent to Abyssinia alongside British forces to fight the Italians in the East African Campaign . In May 1941, the Force Publique , under Major-General Auguste-Éduard Gilliaert and Lt.-Col. Leopold Dronkers Martens, successfully cut off

28875-662: Was anti-communism . The Wehrmacht maintained a varying number of divisions in France . 100,000 Germans were in the whole of the German-zone in France in December 1941. When the bulk of the Wehrmacht was fighting on the eastern front , German units were rotated to France to rest and refit. The number of troops increased when the threat of Allied invasion began looming large, with the Dieppe raid marking its real beginning. The actions of Canadian and British Commandos against German troops brought Hitler to condemn them as irregular warfare . In his Commando Order he denied them lawful combatant status, and ordered them to be handed over to

29050-411: Was added to the brigade's artillery unit. 80 Luxembourgers were serving with the Brigade Piron by August 1944 when the Brigade landed in Normandy. The brigade arrived in Normandy on 8 August 1944 and was involved in the fighting in Northern France alongside British and Canadian units. The brigade was one of the first Allied units to enter Belgium, crossing the border on 3 September. The following day,

29225-407: Was believed to be imminent. For instance, France agreed that its soldiers would remain prisoners of war until the cessation of all hostilities. The "French State" ( État français ) replaced the French Third Republic that had dissolved in defeat. Though nominally extending its sovereignty over the whole country, it was in practice limited in exercising its authority to the free zone. As Paris

29400-403: Was extended to the free zone when it was invaded by Germany and Italy during Case Anton on 11 November 1942 in response to Operation Torch , the Allied landings in French North Africa on 8 November 1942. The Vichy government remained in existence, even though its authority was now severely reduced. The German military administration in France ended with the Liberation of France after

29575-411: Was headquartered in Potsdam . There was one Propaganda battalion in each occupied country, headquartered in the main town or capital. This was further subdivided at the regional level. Headquarters for France was at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, with propaganda sections ( Staffel ) in Bordeaux , Dijon , and other towns. A Propagandastaffel ("propaganda squadron") was a service charged by

29750-399: Was intended for German settlers and annexation in the coming Nazi New Order ( Neue Ordnung ). The occupied zone ( French : zone occupée , French pronunciation: [zon ɔkype] , German : Besetztes Gebiet ) consisted of the rest of northern and western France, including the two forbidden zones. The southern part of France, except for the western half of Aquitaine along

29925-431: Was led by a Belgian, Wing-Commander Michel Donnet , who had escaped from occupied Belgium in a home-made aircraft. During the course of the war, 1,900 Belgians served in the RAF, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). 225 were killed in action. On the initiative of Lieutenant Victor Billet, a Belgian sailor, the Royal Navy Section Belge (RNSB) was created in October 1940. By 1941,

30100-418: Was located in the occupied zone, its government was seated in the spa town of Vichy in Auvergne , and therefore it was more commonly known as Vichy France . While the Vichy government was nominally in charge of all of France, the military administration in the occupied zone was a de facto Nazi dictatorship, where the actual sovereignty of the French government was seriously limited. Nazi rule

30275-440: Was replaced by Afrikaans , a separate but partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered a sister language , spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia , and evolving from Cape Dutch dialects. In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname , and spoken as

30450-417: Was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the East Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence. Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language. After

30625-403: Was used in the Dutch East Indies (now mostly Indonesia ) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians, until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards. About a fifth of the Indonesian language can be traced to Dutch, including many loan words . Indonesia's Civil Code has not been officially translated, and

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