A Small Army in the Great War

Besides the many commemorations of the war of ’14-’18, the Ministry of Defence has dedicated a book and a film to the Belgian soldiers, entitled ‘A Small Army in the Great War’. Both items were presented to the press in the martyred town of Dendermonde and a copy was handed over to Mayor Piet Buyse by the Minister of Defence Pieter De Crem.

The ad interim director general of the Defence Public Relations Directorate General, Colonel Pilot Koen Hillewaert, opened the press conference by showing an extract of the film made by Major Mark Damen. The film, composed of images from the archives of the Army’s Cinematographic Service, contains the first moving pictures of our soldiers in the Great War. “I wanted to create a certain atmosphere, rather than to give a historically accurate account”, says Major Mark Damen. “My film is intended for young people. I want to make them understand how cruel a war can be.”

The book was achieved after one year of research based on unique and hitherto unpublished material. The research team was composed of Major Rob Troubleyn of the Royal Army Museum, Warrant officer 2nd Class Patrick Brion of the Defence PR Department and 1st Staff Sergeant Malek Azoug of the Minister’s office. The Defence archives held a wealth of material belonging to soldiers, including thousands of personal notes and photographs.

“Especially all this personal material makes the book so unique”, says Warrant officer 2nd Class Patrick Brion. “The soldiers’ emotions are almost palpable. Captions are kept to a minimum so as to allow readers to really empathize with the soldiers on the photographs.” The Minister concludes by saying:”It is an excellent piece of work which casts another light on the war by showing private images made by the soldiers themselves.”