@scb250.bsky.social thanks for reading 😉

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 12 August 1831 ⚔️ 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇫🇷🇬🇧 Checkmate. By dawn three Dutch divisions launch their final coordinated assault, closing the trap around Leuven.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 11 August 1831 🇧🇪 A determined King Leopold drives the Dutch back at Boutersem. But a defiant Prince of Orange has no intention of stopping.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 11 August 1831 🇳🇱 While the Dutch vanguard is driven back at Boutersem the 2nd Division moves unseen. King Leopold stays at the front, personally directing reconnaissance as his troops launch an aggressive counterattack along the Leuven–Tienen road.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 10 August 1831 🇧🇪 The young kingdom is running out of ground. At Tienen, Belgian skirmishers and garde civique barricade the gates and fire from the gardens. When the Dutch 2nd Division arrives, the defence is overwhelmed. Tienen is lost.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 10 August 1831 🇳🇱 Only one Belgian army now stands between the Dutch and a decisive victory.

@jurdj.bsky.social bedankt voor het delen en de vind ik leuks he 😉

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 9 August 1831 🇧🇪 In the space of a few hours, King Leopold goes from asking the French to slow down to hurry them along. Belgium’s military position is collapsing.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 9 August 1831 🇳🇱 The illusion of total victory. After Hasselt, the Dutch army takes a rest day. Behind the scenes there is still much at play.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 8 August 1831 🇧🇪 Defeat or betrayal. Daine runs.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 8 August 1831 🇳🇱 The encirclement is nearly perfect. Three Dutch divisions closing on Hasselt. Nearly perfect. The Prince of Orange orders his divisions to converge on the town. He expects Daine to fight or to strike the 3rd Division in an attempt to escape.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 7 August 1831 🇧🇪 Winning the battle in the afternoon. Outmaneuvered by nightfall. Belgian forces prevail at Kermt. Morale is high. But by marching west and engaging, Daine has walked straight into the Dutch trap.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 7 August 1831 🇳🇱 Messy execution. Perfect result. The 3rd Division runs straight into an ambush in a hollow road near Schulen. Luckily the Belgians are poor marksmen and quickly retreat once the Dutch return fire.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 6 August 1831 🇧🇪 Belgium finally has a plan. Four days too late. And France isn't waiting for permission.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 6 August 1831 🇳🇱 No scouts. No intelligence. No idea what's ahead. The Dutch reserve division marches through rain before daybreak and stumbles into 14.000 Belgians with 18 guns arrayed in battle formation. General Daine and the entire army of the Meuse are waiting.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 5 August 1831 🇧🇪 Whispers of betrayal are spreading through the Belgian ranks. The Army of the Meuse is paralysed by conflicting orders. After a brutal clash with the Dutch reserves at Hechtel, Daine pulls his army back to Houthalen. Morale is plummeting. 1/3

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 5 August 1831 🇳🇱 Three Dutch divisions are converging. The Army of the Meuse is running out of escape routes.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 4 August 1831 🇧🇪 Antwerp remembers the fire bombing of 1830. At 21:30 the city can officially be targeted again. Families are fleeing. King Leopold's visit changes nothing. Panic remains and Belgium is running out of time.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 4 August 1831 🇳🇱 The Dutch are advancing. But their supply situation is getting ugly. Soldiers fall dead while marching. The heat and yesterday's bad water are taking their toll. 14,000 bread rations sit useless in Breda because nobody can find carts to move them.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 3 August 1831 🇧🇪 "We will meet him halfway!" Bold words from a general with no subordinate commanders, no chief of staff, and an army falling apart.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 3 August 1831 🇳🇱 Turnhout falls without a fight. Belgian general Niellon performs only a token two hour defence before pulling back, handing the Dutch their first major city. A lot of activity is occurring along the Scheldt.

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 2 August 1831 🇧🇪 The sudden invasion catches the Belgians completely off guard. King Leopold I is in Liège when he receives notice of Chassé's ultimatum. The King is furious at his cabinet's failure to put the country in a state of defence. 🧵 1/4

📜 Ten Days’ Campaign, 2 August 1831 🇳🇱🇬🇧 As Dutch troops crossed into Belgium, a sealed letter reached Britain’s Foreign Secretary. Its message was explosive. The Netherlands had resumed the war. Lord Palmerston allegedly put it in his pocket and hurried away. 🧵 1/5

📜 Ten Days Campaign, 2 August 1831 🇳🇱 Diplomacy ended at dawn. The Dutch invasion begins. Planning immediately meets reality. The Ten Days Campaign has begun. 🧵 1/7

📜Ten Days Campaign, 1 August 1831 🇳🇱 During the night, the Prince of Orange arrives at his headquarters in Breda. Orders are immediately dispatched for the movement on the 2nd. The operation begins. The army receives the signal it has awaited: “Voorwaarts!”. 1/7

📜Ten Days Campaign, 31 July 1831 🇳🇱 After the fighting in Brussels 1830, the Dutch army was disintegrating. Southern soldiers deserted. Garrisons collapsed. Troops were demoralised. The man ordered to rebuild it? Van Geen. A southerner. 🧵 1/7

📜Ten Days Campaign, 30 July 1831 🇧🇪 Belgium declared independence in 1830 without a national army. Not because they forgot. Many of Belgium's political leaders believed a large standing army was expensive, unnecessary and dangerous to liberty. 1/7

📜Ten Days Campaign, 29 July 1831 🇧🇪 85 kilometres. Five days. Simple. That was the Dutch plan to take Brussels before any major power could interfere. Then reports arrived from Aachen claiming southern Belgium might rise up for the House of Orange, and the plan doubled in length. 1/10

📜Ten Days Campaign, 28 July 1831 🇧🇪 Leopold has been King of the Belgians for just seven days when he begins a tour to inspect his new country’s armed forces. In Antwerp, he visits a city still overshadowed by a Dutch garrison holding its citadel under General David Chassé. 1/11

📜Ten Days Campaign, 26 July 1831 🇳🇱 Between them, the Dutch generals had survived Wagram, Waterloo, a two-month siege, colonial warfare in the East Indies, and fought under many regimes. None of them were strangers to complicated wars. Belgium would be just another.