WesWorld

1 January
At the Cockerill shipyard in Antwerp two ceremonies brought some extra excitement to the New Year’s Day celebrations in the city. The first was the keel-laying ceremony of a new training cruiser, the Queen Julianna. This ship has been purpose-designed as a training ship for service overseas and also capable of use as a cruiser in times of war. She is the first major warship of this class and size to be designed and built wholly in Belgium, our previous cruisers having been Australian designs.
The second ceremony in the afternoon was the launching of the Spa Class escort Nieuwpoort, the sixth and final vessel planned in the class. Her sister Rochefort was launched at Zeebrugge shipyard by the Mayoress of the city.
In other naval news, the destroyer tender DT-1 Groenendael will very soon begin a modernisation refit.

8 February
A terrible bus accident in Warsage in the province of Liege has left 24 passengers dead, police are currently investigating the cause of the accident.

12 February
The Finance Ministry has confirmed that the Navy's plans for a repeat world tour this year have been refused approval on the basis of high cost. It has emerged that with the change-over to oil fuel from coal that the Navy has been hamstrung by a lack of oil fuel reserves and last year's voyage used a large portion of the fuel fund, especially with overseas charges. It is believed that the Navy may be able to send one ship to either to southern Europe or West Africa this year.

17 February
Belgian politician's are relieved that Queen Juilianna has not been embroiled in the constitutional crisis underway in the Netherlands. Some have even voiced quiet thanks that Queen Wilhelmina had taken Kongo of their hands many years ago. There can be no coincidence in a large publicity campaign launched today, emphasising Belgian coal, steel and engineering prowess which has seen showcases and public posters appearing in several capitals across Eastern and Southern Europe. To modern Belgium the technological age will be the foundation of their new 'Empire' built on trade rather than possession of bits of foreign continents.

22 February
The destroyer DD-7 Francois Bovesse and the training ship TS-1 Artevelde have left Antwerp this afternoon to begin a two-week flag visit to Nordmark and Great Britain.

26 February
The Central Iconographic Archives of National Art and the Central Laboratory of Belgian Museums has been established today. Its founder and first director is Paul B. Coremans. The organisation will study and conserve the artistic and cultural assets of Belgium.

Paul Coremans has world leading experience in the field. He studied Latin and Greek at Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerp from 1920 to 1926. After completing a doctorate in analytical chemistry at the Free University of Brussels, he stayed on as a library assistant. In 1934, Jean Capart, curator of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Brussels, invited him to assemble a laboratory and to reorganise the RMAH's system for photographic artefacts. Analysis through radiography, thermography, and ultraviolet light enabled Capart to study objects quickly. In 1935, Coremans published his initial researches into the air conditioning of museums. He also took courses in metallography at ULB, spectroscopy at the University of Liège and the history of Flemish painting in the fifteenth century at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. From 1941 Capart asked Coremans to oversee a cultural heritage documentation project. where volunteers would photograph monuments and public art around Belgium, to complete the collection of 30,000 negatives belonging to the photographic service of the Royal Museums of Art and History. In 1942, he was assigned director of the laboratories of the Royal Museums of Art and History.

Speaking OOC, Belgium is quite welcome to send a trade delegation to Belgrade for discussions.

They'll be on the next sleeper express to Belgrade!

Quoted from "Hood"

They'll be on the next sleeper express to Belgrade!

I trust that they will not be on the one that Monsieur Poirot and his friend Hastings are travelling on.
;)

No way, they would all die in mysterious circumstances!
For the same reason they never take afternoon tea with Miss Marple either, or attend charity cake sales anywhere in the Home Counties. Even Walter's nija's or Swampy's smoking Filipinos can't handle a chance encounter with the little Belgian or the busybody little old lady!

Quoted

No way, they would all die in mysterious circumstances!

Either that or they are the suspects...

Quoted

Even Walter's nija's or Swampy's smoking Filipinos can't handle a chance encounter with the little Belgian or the busybody little old lady!

It is against the code of the ninja to beat up senior citizens.

.. and Japan has various individuals that can easily deal with the little Belgian or the busybody little old lady...

There are Japan's special Special Forces...

... and Japan's special police force...

... and the Three Guardsmen of the Labyrinth of the Imperial Castle...




And finally, there is the terror of the Orient, a person so terrible, so fearsome that only a link will be given so people do not see most terrible person immediately when reading this post and run away in fear.

5 March
Belgian Fruit Lines have ordered a new ship from John Cockerill SA as its first new-build refrigerated fruit carrier. The Frubel Monica when completed will replace one of the three currently leased Nordish vessels currently in use.

11 March 1948
The Belgian trade mission departed from Belgrade today after spending more than a week in talks with both ministers of the Government and industry leaders. The delegation was one of the largest in recent years and comprised seventy participants from twenty-seven private enterprises and officials from the Ministries of Industry and Finance. The private sector firms that made up the mission are engaged in urban planning and management, banking and investment, infrastructure development, consumer goods, agriculture, and manufacturing. One of the agreements publicised immediately on the trade mission's departure was the sale of Forges de Zeebrugge machine tools and plant equipment to the Jasenica Equipment and Machinery Company. It is also believed that Minerva has made a deal to supply automotive parts, including suspension, chassis and engine components, to the growing Yugoslav car producing industry.

17 March
The Navy has announced that it will construct a small aircraft carrier to support the main combat units of the Navy. The Finance Ministry has approved the funding of the nation's first aviation vessel and a modest expansion of the Naval air arm in terms of manpower. It is hoped that the vessel will be laid down later this year.
Rumours of a submarine being constructed have been denied, although it is clear that such vessels have been studied as several Japanese and French designs have appeared in several naval and shipbuilding journals.

20 March
The new minesweeper MS-5 Tongeren commissioned with the 2nd Mine Warfare Squadron at Ostend today.

12 April
The two patrol ships of the Fishery Protection Squadron, the Zinnia and Godetia have been very busy monitoring the various goings on in the North Sea and making sure that Belgian waters and shipping are free from interference. To bolster their patrols the Navy has sent out the new escort ships Spa, Mechelen and Heist of the 1st Escort Squadron.

18 April
The 32nd Tour of Flanders cycling classic was held today. The race started in Ghent and finished in Wetteren , a course totalling 257km. Belgian Briek Schotte won the race in a four-man sprint. It was Schotte's second win in the Tour of Flanders (his first was in 1942). A record number of 265 riders, of which 50 were non-Belgians, started the race 85 of them finished.

20 April
The cruiser Wielingen, the destroyers De Brouwer and Georges Truffaut and the tanker Krekel have left Antwerp this morning on a six-week training cruise to the West Indies.

24 April
The newly commissioned minesweeper MS-5 Tongeren today fulfilled her task unexpectedly when during a training exercise a Great-War era mine was caught in her sweep. The mine, possibly of British or German origin, was safely detonated at sea.

28 April
The 1/5 Escadrille at Duerne Aerodrome today took over the first of its twelve Renard R.45 twin-engined light transports from the manufacturer, Constructions Aeronautiques Renard et Stampe (CARS). The R.45 is has clamshell doors to aid loading and can accommodate up to 48 passengers or troops and is powered by two 2,375hp Minerva Condor II 24-cylinder radial engines.

7 May
Cockerill has begun testing its new C 90 / L32 90mm anti-tank gun, developed to meet an Army requirement. It is hoped this new light anti-tank gun will begin deliveries as early as next year if all the firing trials go as planned.

20 May
The new minesweeper MS-6 Merksem commissioned with the 2nd Mine Warfare Squadron at Ostend today.

23 May
At the Heysel Stadium in Brussels this evening 20,000 spectators watch Flemish boxer Cyrille Delannoit defeat the reigning European middleweight champion Marcel Cerdan.

30 May
The Army has sent several teams to represent Belgium in the competitions of the 1948 Militariad held in Russia against some of the best military completion teams from across Europe.
A team drawn from the 2nd d’Anvers Fortress Regiment participated in the Pioneer's Challenge which tested the skills of combat engineers in building a four-span pontoon bridge (capable of bearing tanks), clearing a roadway through a forested area, constructing defensive trenches, laying a (dud) minefield, barbed wire obstacles and building a timber-roofed bunker to a set of specifications. In a very closely fought contest the Belgian team came in third place, close behind Germany and Russia.
A team from the 2/4th Chasseurs à Cheval Regiment joined the Equestrian Patrol which tested the skills of horsemen in a patrol, obstacle course and team relay. The team consisted of ten horses and riders. The Chasseurs rode magnificently to claim first place, beating the defending champions Poland, who came second. The 2/4th Chasseur’s barracks in now the proud home of the small silver Horseman's Trophy for this year and the team have also won four thousand roubles of prize money.
Other teams who competed in several events, with less success, were; two teams drawn from the 1st Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais and the Regiment Carabiniers Prins Boudewijn– Grenadiers in the Grenadiers Challenge, another team from the Regiment Carabiniers Prins Boudewijn– Grenadiers in the Presentation, a team drawn from the 3rd Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais in the 250km Raid, a team from the 12th Regiment of the Line in the Flying Column and a team from the 1st Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais in the Sapper’s Challenge. Overall Belgium came seventh in the final rankings, just behind the Netherlands.

1 June
At the Cockerill shipyard in Antwerp the hull of the new training cruiser, Queen Julianna, was launched by the wife of the Minister of Defence, Claire de Fraiteur.

7 June
Deliveries of the new Cockerill T-22A tank destroyer to the Army have begun. A hundred of these fast and powerful destroyers armed with 90mm guns have been ordered.
Trials of the T-22B armed with a Dutch 105mm L20 M1945G howitzer have also recently begun and fifty-five are currently on order for the Army. Also on order are 115 T-22C, this is a utility tractor variant of the basic T-22A with the turret removed. The former turret space can be used to carry up to seven troops or the type can tow a field howitzer and gun crew. Cockerill is working on a private-venture version with an amphibious hull.

16 June
Today marks the first step in the replacement of the Motor Torpedo Boat fleet. Forty-eight such craft were licence-built from a Mexican design in the early 1930s but now this fleet is aging and is considered too large for the Navy’s needs. A new design has been drawn up by Navy architects and features an armament of two twin 23mm FN-Madsen mounts and two 533mm torpedo tubes or eight depth-charges and four 1,200hp Werkspoor M48MD diesels driving four shafts to give a speed of 43kts. The first two M-48 Class boats, MT-1 and MT-2, commissioned today with the 1st Motor Torpedo Squadron at Zeebrugge. It is thought twenty-four boats will be built.

18 June
Today the prototype Renard et Stampe (CARS) RS-11 biplane light aircraft made its first flight at Evére. The RS-11 is a single-seat variant of the RS-6, which itself is a variant of the successful SV.4 powered by a 185hp Mathis G.7R engine. Several orders have already been received for the aircraft.
Meanwhile the company is setting up its production line for the RS-7 monoplane trainer, of which forty have been ordered by the Aéronautique Militaire. Deliveries should begin later this year. Another development of the RS-7, the RS-7B, is an aerobatic competition aircraft fitted with a 145hp Blackburn Cirrus Major II engine. A prototype is being readied for a first flight quite soon.

29 June
The Spa Class escorts PC-5 Rochefort and PC-6 Nieuwpoort commissioned with the 1st Escort Squadron at Zeebrugge today.

1 July
At the Cockerill shipyard in Antwerp today two new large warships were formally laid down in a huge boost to the fortunes of the workers of the yard and the city of Antwerp. The two ships are the first aircraft carrier to be built in Belgium, the Wandelaar and the new light cruiser Westdiep of similar design to the Queen Julianna, herself launched last month from the same slip, but with three main turrets. The Westdiep will replace the Wandelaar on completion. Some critics have highlighted the recent expensive refitting of the Wandelaar with new machinery and updated equipment, but it is clear that the design is aging and of declining effectiveness. Westdiep herself is a compact design and possibly one of the smallest and lightest cruisers in Europe but features one of the most advanced gunnery batteries of any light cruiser. The aircraft carrier is a surprising move for the Navy but vessel will be smaller than most other carriers and is designed for the operation of autogyros to support the fleet in reconnaissance, mine-spotting and anti-submarine duties.

In other naval news, the destroyer tender DT-2 Zenobe Gramme will soon begin a modernisation refit.

11 July
Fabrique Nationale de Herstal unveiled a revised model of their M.XIII tri-car motorbike, which went on sale last year. The unusual Swiss coil sprung girder front fork has been replaced with an adaptation of the rubber rear suspension for an improved ride.

14 July
The heavy cruiser King Albert left Antwerp today, bound for the Kongo on a training exercise. Accompanying her will be the destroyer Francois Bovesse.

18 July
The heavy cruiser King Albert and the destroyer Francois Bovesse made a flag showing visit to Gibraltar where they spent the day at anchor. Both ships are bound for the Kongo on a training exercise. Accompanying her will be the destroyer Francois Bovesse.

25 July
The heavy cruiser King Albert and the destroyer Francois Bovesse have arrived in Matadi, the Kongo, for training exercises with the Dutch naval forces stationed there, including the 4th Cruiser Division and the 8th Escort Flotilla.

26 July
Women celebrate today as universal suffrage is introduced. Some campaigners however lament that the changes have come after last year’s elections.

4 August
Fabrique Nationale shares went up today as the company confirmed it is working on a new gas-operated rifle, the FAL, with strong interest from several export nations for prototype weapons for evaluation. It is thought both Belgium and the Netherlands will adopt the type as their new standard rifle.

7 August
The Army has begun testing Fabrique Nationale's new rifle. The Army has ordered a trials batch of twenty rifles. The FN FAL is chambered for the standard 7.62x53 Mauser round and is a development of the SLR40 which appeared in prototype form a decade ago. It is hoped production examples will be ready as early as 1950 if testing goes as well as hoped.