Outrageous Fortune: The Tragedy of Leopold III of the Belgians, 1901-1941

This book , outrageous fortune tells the true story of a man who did his best to prevent his people from having to go through the agony of another war. Although written by an Englishman, Roger Keyes, the son of Admiral Roger Keyes. The book reports the true facts based on the Admirals eye witness accounts of the dramatic events of May 10 - May 28 1940. carefully documented and passed on to his son of the same name , Keyes refutes the status quo historical bias , as written by numerous English speaking historians. Anyone interested in the truth will soon see that Leopold III became a scape goat for the disasterous defeat of the French army and the withdrawal of the British at Dunkirk. If you look up any article on Leopold III, it almost always points to his surrender of the Belgian Army and his separate peace with the Germans. Leading ultimately to his exile and ongoing dispute with the war time Belgian government. Leopold III as commander in chief of the Belgian army courageuosly shared the fate of his troops and people. The title of Belgian Kings is " The King of the Belgians " A King at that time of Belgium's two distinct races. The flemings and the walloons.These two races played a significant role in the fate of Leopold desire to remain on the Belgian throne. Its time that historians revisit those terrible times and look at the true facts . So that perhaps the historical article on Leopold III would read.KING LEOPOLD III , Surrendered the Belgian army to the Germans on May 28 1940. After 18 days of bitter fighting and retreating in compliance with allied commands. King Leopld III surrendered his army and was taken as a prisoner of war by the Germans. Fullfiling his duty to the Belgian people and championing the policy of armed neutrality. Leopold III attempted shield Belgium from the conflict which was about to engulf western europe with another war.What many western historians failed to understand was that the policy of armed neutrality was backed by over 85 % of the Belgian population.A Foolish policy ? Not to the average Belgian who was faced once more with the prospects of her bully neighbours resolving their deferences on Belgian soil. This aspect of the events of 1939 - 1940 very rarely ever gets mentioned with any relevance towards the making of a historical oppinion of Leopold's loyalty to his own country and people.Thank you Mr. Keyes for publishing your fathers memoirs and true facts on this subject.

Keye's "Outrageous Fortune" casts a strong light into the part of World War II that most would rather forget. It is also a systemic antidote to the hagiographic musings of Stephen Ambrose. The further I get into the book the more impressed I am by Leopold III. Given the thankless task of spending 24% of the budget on rearming, feebly buttressed by hypnotically apathetic French and woefully incompetent British, and having a howling Nazi war machine on the border would snap lesser men in half. The thrust of the book thus far is that 1] Leopold had clear intelligence from within Germany 2] His vigilance postponed the Nazi invasion from Nov '39 thru to June '40, 3] that the Belgian defense was far superior to anyone else's [including artillery, which was a big surprise to the Wehrmacht]. What else: Leopold managed to sideline homegrown Belgian Fascist Leon Degrelle by dint of personal authority and leadership. Only after capitulation did Degrelle get any play. There is a sympathetic treatment of Leopold's youth and early years, including his service with father Albert on his summers off from Eton, on the remaining 20 sq miles of Belgium free of German occupation. The book also highlights Leopold's difficulties with fractious Belgian politics and double-dealing by Churchill. His accomplishments in national unity were nothing short of astonishing. None of the political parties (Belgian, French or British) come out looking very good. I would recomend this as an essential part of any serious scholar or laymen's understanding the antecedents to the Second World War.