On this day, 83 years ago, on August 20, 1942 (July 9, 1942 in the lunar calendar), Belgium was occupied by Germany. On August 3, 1914, German troops occupied the neutral country of Luxembourg with 1.2 million troops. On the next day, without declaring war, he crossed the border and began to march towards neighboring Belgium. However, when attacking the Fort of Liege, which was about 10 miles in diameter on the high slopes across both sides of the Meuse River, it encountered tenacious resistance from the Belgian garrison. On the morning of August 4, the German advance force approached Viese on the Meuse River, just in time to find that the bridge had been blown up and the Belgian soldiers were all gathered on the West Bank. The German commander, General Otto von Emich, immediately ordered the two cavalry regiments to gallop three miles south, wading across the river. Under such circumstances, the Belgian army stationed in Vise quickly retreated to Liège for fear of being surrounded. In the evening, the German infantry also crossed the Meuse River at Vise and headed for the Fort of Liège. During the invasion of Belgium, the German army frantically shot and killed unarmed civilians in the places it passed through, shelled or burned village houses, committing heinous atrocities. Although General Gérard Le Mans, the commander of the Belgian army stationed in Liège at that time, had less than 40,000 troops under his command, he still refused Emish's persuasion to surrender, withstood many fierce German ground and air attacks, and was determined to delay the enemy's advance with tenacious resistance and hold firm until the arrival of French and British reinforcements. Under extremely harsh environment and conditions, a division was sent to support the King's army defending the capital Brussels. The fighting continued until August 9. The German army had paid a heavy toll of 30,000 casualties, and the bodies of the dead piled up like mountains in front of the battery. On August 10, Emich's remaining troops, covered by artillery fire from the newly arrived German-made giant howitzer "Große Berta", spent another six days finally conquering the Fort of Liège on August 16. In this fierce battle, General Le Mans faced enemies several times his number without fear, bravery and tenacity, and made great contributions to the Allies 'ability to quickly reverse the entire war situation. Therefore, after being injured and captured, he was also treated like a hero by the enemy. Later, the German army took advantage of the victory and advanced, defeating French reinforcements sent to Belgium in the border battle. On August 20, the German army marched into Brussels and Belgium fell. Comment: Belgium did not recover it until the end of World War I.