Belgian revolution

The Belgian Revolution that began in August 1830 led to the secession of the southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium. The Dutch king William I intended to suppress the Belgian Revolution^[6] by invading Belgium on 2 August 1831. Over the course of the next few days Belgian forces were defeated several times in battle and Dutch troops advanced deep into Belgian territory until, on 8 August, the Belgian government appealed to France for support. Following the Ten Days' Campaign of the French Armée du Nord under Marshal Étienne Gérard, the Dutch troops started to withdraw. The King of the Netherlands ordered the Dutch General David Hendrik Chassé to hold the Citadel of Antwerp at all costs with 4500 men.^[7]

Siege of Antwerp

From the citadel, Chassé bombarded the city of Antwerp, setting fire to hundreds of homes and causing many casualties among the civilian population. These events led to the second intervention by the French. On 15 November 1832, the French Armée du Nord and its siege specialist François Haxo began to lay the Dutch troops under siege, quickly occupying Fort Montebello situated to the east of the citadel and to the south of the city from which they started firing at the citadel.^[8]

The "Monster Mortar" saw action on 21 December and 22 December 1832 but was abandoned in Fort Montebello soon after.^[9] The mortar used during the Siege of Antwerp exploded during a test firing on 18 May 1833 in Brasschaat, near Antwerp.^[10] This mortar was apparently later repaired as it is currently (2024) sitting outside Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History. A second monster mortar was manufactured in Liège in 1834^[11]