AHC: Rescue or kidnap the King of Belgium.

[Cook]

On the 10th of May 1940, after nine months of Phony War, the Wehrmacht launched their invasion of Western Europe. In ten days armoured spearheads had punched their way through the French army and had reached the English Channel, trapping the French, British and Belgian armies in a pocket further north where they were soon fighting for their lives.

By the 26th of May the allied armies were confined to an ever shrinking pocket centred on the port of Dunkirk, and the Royal Navy Admiralty sent out the signal:

“Operation Dynamo is to commence.”

Dynamo was the plan of evacuation of British and French armies. The most optimistic appraisal of the plan was that it would be able to successfully withdraw at most 40,000 of the trapped soldiers and none of their equipment. Trapped were the troops of the B.E.F, over 180,000 strong, and the similarly sized French First Army. The Belgian army, still larger after sixteen days of continuous fighting than both of these armies combined, was not informed of the planned evacuation, nor was any provision made for evacuating any of its men; the Belgian army was being abandoned.

Not however its Commander in Chief: Leopold II. On the 27th of May 1940, Winston Churchill sent the following telegram to Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, the British liaison officer to the Belgian Army:

‘Trust you will make sure he leaves with you by plane before too late… Vitally important Belgium should continue in war, and safety King’s person essential.’

In light of that telegram you have the following challenge:

Mission: Ensure the safe removal of the King to England. Persuasion is preferred but some force may be necessary. No harm must come to the King.

 

[Cook]

No one?................

 

[Captain Jack]

Slip something into his drink and put him on the plane while he's unconscious? I don't envision a scenario in which the King of Belgium is kidnapped to England going well.

 

[Arianneke]

First there should be a reason why the king's wish to share his soldier's fate in a war that seemed nearing it's end should be ignored by Churchill, who wasn't exactly pro-Belgian.
A possible solution could be the Belgian reserves which IRL were in the south of France. Change the decision to move them to the south by moving them to Brittany and the Brits would have about 400 000 Belgian reserves to evacuate before the Germans get there, an order the King might give, or be given by a Brit acting as the king. Suppose there are enough ships to take about 50-75% of these men over the channel without being bothered by the Luftwaffe who focus on the Brits. This would mean that there is a Belgian army in exile in the UK a bit larger than the British Expeditionary Force, which could be an asset.
The King, however, will hate those events: he'll be forced to fight a lost war and his own, trained, army of about 600 000 men has been abandoned in the Flemish fields. This will cause his popularity in Belgium to drop dramatically, although, with the blessing of hindsight later in the war he'd be the hero freeing his country.
Secondly, a general in the Belgian Army should side with the Brits in their plan. A man willing to go against the direct wishes of his commanding officer. This general should be fully informed of all British plans and their implications. He should be bribed in some ways, for example being offered command of the Belgian Army in Exile, evacuation of his family... This general and some British 'friends' should in a matter of hours transport the king, dosed perhaps, to a British ship and bring him over at the start of dynamo, while simultaneously ordering the Belgian reserves to cross from Brittany to England, where no preparations have yet been finished to give all these people food and shelter.
At the same time the Belgian army will have to fight on to saveguard the British flank, notes will be spread on which the king addresses his troops, as if he was still among them. The promise of going to POW camp with them will remain upheld. When the Belgian Army surrenders, let's say around the same time as IRL, Clemanceau will blame Leopold III for the impending French defeat, Churchill, having kidnapped the king and taken in his reserves will respond with a nuanced speech detailing that the Belgian Army in Belgium surrendered, indeed, because they had no way out. The king and his reserves, on the other hand, had vowed to continue the war on the side of the Allies. The defeat wasn't anyone's fault except for the Dutch, who had indeed abandoned the Allied cause after a few days.
The Belgian government in exile will get the news after the surrender and be urged to fly to the UK, once in London they'll be accused by the king of plotting against him and he fires them, and wants to assemble a new cabinet. The Belgian government can convince the king otherwise by accusing, and proving the accusation of the general the Brits convinced. To prevent a scandal the general is not deposed, but when another Belgian general escapes Belgium and rejoins the king he's given higher authority over the army than the first general.
Eventually Leopold resigns to his fate and becomes more passionate about continuing the war on the allied side, making his official goal liberating the captured Belgian army and soil or die trying. The Belgian Army is deployed in North Africa on the king's demand, also joined by units from the Congo. After Normandy the Belgian army liberates large parts of Belgium quickly.
Occupation in Belgium was run from a civilian government, causing a larger decimation of the Jewish population, Kings speeches called the Belgian people to rally to him otherwise resist passively. The Belgian institutions work the same as they did IRL.
After the liberation the presence of the Belgian Army makes the repression occur more peacefully and resistance movements pose less a threat than IRL. No King's Question delays the growth apart between Flemish and Walloons, great efforts are made to celebrate the king's victory that also needed to unite the country. The Flemish movement suffers major setbacks because of the collaboration, which causes a radicalization. Belgium will develop similarly as IRL, but slower.

 

[Cook]

A possible solution could be the Belgian reserves which IRL were in the south of France...have about 400 000 Belgian reserves to evacuate...

You what? What would 400,000 Belgians be doing in the south of France?

 

[katchen]

Also make it clear that Belgian, Dutch and Danish refugees who could make it to Allied or neutral soil would be accommodated and transported to their nation's colonies for the duration of the war. French to Algeria. Dutch to Suriname and Curacao (capital probably at Willemstad Curacao), Danes to Iceland (wartime capital Rejkavik) . Just like Chiang Kai Shek moving to Chongjing from Nanjing. Only the Poles, Czechs and Norwegians permitted to set up governments in exile on British soil since they have no colonies to speak of to retreat to (Svalbard is not enough for Norway). Make this clear at the outset in 1939 that civilians can start to evacuate via the UK (and in the case of Denmark, if possible, neutral Sweden) in order that as high a percentage of the country's civilian population will be outside Nazi control if the metropolitan country falls.

 

[Arianneke]

You what? What would 400,000 Belgians be doing in the south of France?

To be honest, I made an error, the amount of reserves were approximately 200 000, sorry for the mistake, I should have rechecked.
These men weren't trained reserves, but drafted and being trained. They were in the south of France because that was out of reach of the Germans, which I presume after the fall of the KW-line was no longer in Belgium. The army held hope that they could stop the Germans at the Scheld, or later near the end on the Lys, while many soldiers harboured hope the Yser would see the end of the German advance. The Yser was even seen as strategically smart by the British, but praktically impossible for the simple reason Belgian columns bring heavy material with them would be attacked by the Luftwaffe which at that moment utterly dominated the skies. Belgian ammunition had already severe difficulties to reach the Belgian lines.
Another addendum I didn't think of yesterday is a less successfull dynamo, which causes a fit of panic in Britain, and makes the Brits try to get all the available men, British or not to Britain.

Also make it clear that Belgian, Dutch and Danish refugees who could make it to Allied or neutral soil would be accommodated and transported to their nation's colonies for the duration of the war. French to Algeria. Dutch to Suriname and Curacao (capital probably at Willemstad Curacao), Danes to Iceland (wartime capital Rejkavik) . Just like Chiang Kai Shek moving to Chongjing from Nanjing. Only the Poles, Czechs and Norwegians permitted to set up governments in exile on British soil since they have no colonies to speak of to retreat to (Svalbard is not enough for Norway). Make this clear at the outset in 1939 that civilians can start to evacuate via the UK (and in the case of Denmark, if possible, neutral Sweden) in order that as high a percentage of the country's civilian population will be outside Nazi control if the metropolitan country falls.

I don't understand this. Why would anyone start evacuating nations that might be occupied in the near future, they might not even be invaded at all. Without hindsight, this seems a needless drain on British and other nation's resources, while the 200 000 Belgians (again, sorry for the wrong number in my previous post) would aid the Brits defending the 'realm', these civilians in 1939 would have no purpose. I also don't see any politician forcing a large part of the population onto a boat, to England, onto another boat and the be shipped off to another continent.

 

[Cook]

First there should be a reason why the king's wish to share his soldier's fate in a war that seemed nearing its end should be ignored by Churchill, who wasn't exactly pro-Belgian.

The telegram I mentioned sent by Churchill to Admiral Keyes was sent; with the Belgian government already making arrangements to go into exile in London it was considered only natural that the king should go too so that the struggle could continue.

To be honest, I made an error, the amount of reserves were approximately 200 000, sorry for the mistake, I should have rechecked.
These men weren't trained reserves, but drafted and being trained. They were in the south of France because that was out of reach of the Germans, which I presume after the fall of the KW-line was no longer in Belgium.

Are you saying that in six days the Belgians moved 200,000 men to the south of France while dealing with everything else that was going on? And where did they get the man; that’s the equivalent of the annual conscription call up of all France!

 

[My Username is Inigo Montoya]

The telegram I mentioned sent by Churchill to Admiral Keyes was sent; with the Belgian government already making arrangements to go into exile in London it was considered only natural that the king should go too so that the struggle could continue.

The problem is that IIRC, Keyes got along too well with Leopold III to do that. He was part of a three person back channel between Leopold and George VII that excluded both the Belgian and the British cabinets. IOTL even after the the surrender, Keyes got Churchill to scrap a press communiqué that would have denounced Leopold as a traitor and a coward.
If you want this thing to work, you need to implicate the Belgian cabinet. Paul Van Zeeland was not exactly the most daring man ever, but if the British proposed it he would probably go along with it, if only because 'King of Belgium leaves for exile with cabinet' makes a better headline than 'King of Belgium abducted by the British at gunpoint'.

Of course, if you just want 'no Belgian surrender', an easier way to go about it is to have Leopold III killed in an air raid earlier in the campaign.

 

[Arianneke]

The telegram I mentioned sent by Churchill to Admiral Keyes was sent; with the Belgian government already making arrangements to go into exile in London it was considered only natural that the king should go too so that the struggle could continue.


Are you saying that in six days the Belgians moved 200,000 men to the south of France while dealing with everything else that was going on? And where did they get the man; that’s the equivalent of the annual conscription call up of all France!

The Belgian army had already been planning the war for a number of years, they knew what to do, and the draft was very efficient. France entered the war less prepared than Belgium.
Those reserves were the youngest of Belgian recruits. They were in the hands of the Centre de Recrutement de l'Armée Belge or were units in training. You can read about them in "Mei 1940: België op de Vlucht" I found a review of said book here: http://www.liberales.be/boeken/misjoe [in Dutch]
It's been a while since I read the book, if I had time I'd check in the library if they still have it.
When the Belgian Army surrendered the Belgian government wanted to go home, and asked the Germans if they couldn't enter occupied Belgium to set up a new government. Only a few people of the government were in fact already in London, and after the Germans refused the offer from the kabinet, they went to London. The units in training and the men from CRAB did go home after the surrender.
It may sound unlikely to you, but it did happen.

Point is that Keyes would be useless in kidnapping the king, just because he wouldn't [in light of "My Username is Inigo Montoya" comment]. Either somebody else does, or Keyes can convince the king otherwise. Easiest would be to create a valid reason for Leopold to continue a war that in the view of most Belgians and himself was was lost by then. Either by the approximately 200 000 men or by giving Leopold the chance to save his army, or a large part of it. But in light of the military situation at that time, I don't see how that would be possible.