BELGIUM
"Police Militaire"

Police Militaire   This page are based on information from the official Belgian Army site and various magazine and book articles. The photographs were taken from those pages.

The original Belgian Army page can be found here
History.

Before and during World War Two, personnel from the Belgian Gendarmerie performed military police duties for the Belgian Army personnel that escaped to Great Britain after the fall of France and the Low Countries. The illustration at right shows a member of the Belgian Gendarmerie in London during 1942.

His collar patches are red and the brassard is yellow with red lettering.		 Belgian MP - London 1942
After the end of World War Two two police organisations were established within the Belgian Army
  • the Military Police ("Police Militaire"), and
  • the Regimental Police ("Police Regimentaire")
Regimental Police are drawn from personnel belonging to different regiments and units, and wear the badges of the regiment or unit to which they belong, and a brassard and white webbing when they are on duty.

More about the history of the Belgian 6th Military Police Company can be found here.
Organisation.

The 6th Military Police Company is part of the Divisional troops of the 1st Mechanised Division. The company consists of a company HQ and four platoons. The company HQ and one platoon is based at Saive near Liege. The other two are based at Marche-en-Famenne and Leopoldsburg, the third has elements at Spich and Vogelsang in Germany. The platoons have territorial authority and exercise their missions in the provinces of Limburg, Liège,  Luxembourg and the area of the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany
Jurisdiction.

Not known.
Duties. Besides tasks such as gathering information and providing help and assistance, missions of the Police Militaire can be divided into three categories:
  • maintaining law and order by going on patrols to ensure all military personnel follow military rules and regulations.
  • traffic control by checking military vehicles; accompanying military columns on their way to different training area's; and the organisation of parking grounds during large ceremonies. Furthermore the military police can be called on during accidents involving military vehicles.
  • ensure security mainly trough surveillance missions such as identity control at the entrance of barracks or headquarters, escorting VIP's, ...
Selection and Training.

Not known.		  
International Missions.

The Belgian Military Police have been utilised in the following areas:
  • UNMP : military police of a UN contingent.
  • CIVPOL : assisting or instructing a local police force.
  • Observation missions of the European community.
     
Military Police Vehicles. The 6th Military Police Company uses several types of vehicles to accomplish its missions:
  • BMW R80 RT (800cc) motorcycle
  • the FORD TRANSIT light van
  • ILTIS jeep
  
   
Military Police Weapons.

Not known.		  
   
Military Police Uniforms.  
The Military Police is an independant organisation and have their own arm-of-service badge and collar patches. The Military Police use the arm-of-service badge on their headdress whilst the pentagonal collar patches are scarlet and white . Rank stars are silver for warrant officers and gold for officers.

 Arm-of-service badge

Belgium MP Warrant Officer collar patch
Apart from the wearing of a peaked cap by all ranks when they are on duty, they also wear white webbing equipment and brassards.

The arm-of-service badge is worn on the greatcoat shoulder straps. When the peaked cap was not worn, military police personnel used to wear a khaki beret with the "Police Militaire" badge attached to it on a red backing. Personnel from the 6th Military Police Company are now seen to be wearing a red beret.

Old type Belgium MP beret - note red patch
New Belgium MP beret
Brassards

During the 1970's both the Military Police and the Regimental Police organisations wore black brassards with red lettering.

It is believed that the brassard was replaced by a sewn-on patch during the 1980's. The arm patch was also later replaced with a military police brassard with a version using white letters on black similar to that of the US Army Military Police. It can be seen from current photographs that the brassard remains in use.
1970's MP Brassard 1970's RP Brassard New type brassard
Train patrol Traffic control
Olive green fatigues with white belt & crossbelt over right shoulder. An MP badge is worn on left hand breast of jacket. They wear caps with a red plastic cap cover and the flaming grenade cap badge. Their collar patch is red with white edging
Military Police Premier Sergeant Major (WO2) of 1st Belgium Corps. He wears black motorcycle leathers with five silver rank chevrons on black backing on epaulettes of jacket. Motorcycle helmet is white with black lettering MP centred at front. He has white motorcyclist gloves with white leather belt, cross-strap and pistol holster.
Belgian MP in IFOR Traffic control
Belgian MP in IFOR
Photo - Belgian Army
Traffic Control - 6th MP Company
Photo - Belgian Army
     
Other Sources

Rosignoli, G. 1983. World Army Badges & insignia Since 1939 (Omnibus Edition). Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press.