When we talk about Belgium during the Second World War, the eighteen-day campaign almost always comes to mind. However, it is frequently overlooked that war had already been raging across Europe since September 1939, months before the German invasion of the Low Countries. During those nine months Belgium did not sit idly by. It mobilized all men who had completed their military service during the last fourteen years, forming an army of around 650 000 men, the largest in its history. Over those nine months, the Belgian army conducted maneuvers and built defensive positions, all whilst they were plagued by several general alarms, the constant fear of invasion, defeatist propaganda, cramped living conditions, boredom, financial difficulties, linguistic tensions and family separations. How did soldiers cope with these difficulties and how did the army respond to this? By analyzing personal diaries, memoires and correspondence, this project aims to build a social history from below through the eyes of the ordinary Belgian soldier during the Phoney War (September 1939 – May 1940). This perspective is further complemented by examining judicial records, army dispatches, general correspondence and military papers to map out the widespread nature of the issues faced by the soldiers and identify the strategies the army undertook to tackle them. By doing so, this study will be the first to shed light on a forgotten period in Belgium's turbulent history, as seen through the eyes of the common soldier.