The fighting in the advance-positions.
The Franco-Belgian troops had hardly taken up their defensive positions
when, on October 15, the guns began to roar in the direction of Dixmude.
On October 16 and 17, strong German reconnoitering parties, supported
by field artillery, came into contact with the Allies' positions.
On the 18th, the enemy hurriedly attempted to crush the defenders,
before reinforcements arrived. After a violent bombardment, a powerful
attack was launched against the Mannekensvere-Schoore-Keyem-Beerst
line, held by units of the Belgian 2nd, 1st and 4th Divisions.
[Illustration]
Assault after assault was beaten off, but finally, after very heavy
losses, fresh enemy masses carried Mannekensvere and Keyem, where they
were held by the volley fire of the Belgian 75's. The defenders of
Mannekensvere withdrew behind the Yser, while those of Keyem (units of
the 1st Division) held their ground on the right bank of the river.
The same night a spirited counter-attack gave them back their lost
positions.
On the 19th, the attacks doubled in fury, the enemy's main effort being
made against the two wings.
Nieuport and the advanced lines of Lombartzyde were violently
bombarded. The Belgian 2nd Division stood firm, and beat off three
German assaults.
On the right wing, the Germans, driven out of Keyem on the previous
day, attacked this village again and also Beerst, further south. Under
a terrific artillery fire, the defenders gave way.
However, the Belgian 5th Division and the French Marines debouching
from Dixmude, captured Vladsloo and Beerst, in spite of considerable
losses. With their left threatened, the enemy's efforts before Keyem
weakened.
This brilliant counter-offensive was held by a new menace. Strong enemy
columns were signalled to the south-east, debouching from Roulers and
marching on Dixmude.
The 5th Division and the Marines fell back upon their original
positions before Dixmude, their retreat bringing about the fall of
Beerst and Keyem, whose defenders withdrew beyond the Yser.
On the 20th the Germans threw themselves against the advanced positions
of Lombartzyde. The defenders were supported by the artillery of the
British monitors, whose guns swept the coastline. To the south-east of
Lombartzyde, Groote-Bamburg Farm was first lost, then reoccupied after
a spirited counter-attack.
The Germans redoubled their costly efforts, and succeeded in getting a
footing in Lombartzyde in the evening, but were unable to debouch.
Only after five days of sanguinary fighting, were the enemy able to
reach the Allies' main line of defences, formed by the Yser and the two
bridgeheads of Nieuport and Dixmude.
The Battle on the Main Line of Defence.
The situation was none the less critical, and the battle waxed more and
more furious. The Yser front was continuously deluged with shells. The
Belgian batteries of 75's were unable to engage the German heavy guns.
None of the villages could be held; Nieuport and Dixmude were in flames.
Supported by the Brigade of French Marines, the remains of the six
Belgian Divisions still defended, single-handed, the twelve-mile front
between St. Jacques-Cappelle and the sea. They were reinforced by the
6th Division near Lampernisse and Pervyse, thus strengthening the
centre.
Against these depleted, exhausted and ill-revictualled troops, crushed
beneath a continuous bombardment, the Germans brought up heavy
reinforcements from Roulers.
The Attack on Dixmude and Nieuport.
[Illustration]
Nieuport and Dixmude formed the bastions of the Allied defences, and
their capture meant the falling of the Yser and the railway lines into
the enemy's hands.
The brunt of the German attack was directed against Dixmude.
The French Marine Brigade and the mixed brigade of the Belgian 3rd
I. D. under the command of Admiral Ronarc'h, were deployed in a
semi-circle, about 500 yards from the outskirts of Dixmude, resting on
the Yser. A second line was established along the canalised river.
On October 20, after an artillery preparation which lasted all the
morning, the enemy made an unsuccessful attack on Dixmude. A fresh
attack the same night was likewise repulsed. Meanwhile the town
continued to burn.
On the 21st, at dawn, the bombardment redoubled in violence. The
Germans attacked again, only to be mown down and repulsed.
In the afternoon, new enemy reinforcements delivered converging attacks
of great violence, combining them with a furious thrust against the
Schoorbakke Pass, situated half-way between Dixmude and Nieuport. At
both points the German rush was broken.
In exasperation, the enemy threw fresh battalions into the battle.
This time the blow was aimed directly at the town itself and the canal
to the south, but the defence remained unshaken. Simultaneously, the
Germans were threatening the entire front, and in particular, the
bridgehead of Nieuport. This town suffered the same fate as Dixmude.
Still the Yser remained impassable. Both Dixmude and Nieuport held out,
and the end of the day registered a fresh enemy check.
The Breach in the Centre of the Line.
After their failure before Nieuport and Dixmude, the enemy made a
surprise attack against the centre, on the night of the 21st.
Between Nieuport and Dixmude, the easterly loop in the Yser at Tervaete
facilitated flank, enfilade and rear firing, and was consequently a
weak point in the defences.
Under cover of darkness, the enemy threw a bridge over the river, near
Tervaete, and effected a crossing. The situation was critical, as if
the front were pierced, the two centres of resistance, Nieuport and
Dixmude, which until then had proved impregnable, would be taken in the
rear.
[Illustration]
In a supreme effort, units of the Belgian 1st Division counter-attacked
furiously, and in spite of terrible losses, held the enemy.
Reinforcements of Grenadiers and Carabiniers succeeded, in a further
attack, in driving back the Germans across the river, and in
reoccupying their positions. However, on the night of the 22nd, the
enemy recaptured Tervaete, but the Belgians remained masters of the
line between the two ends of the loop.
On the 23rd, the situation was still very critical. To fill the gaps
in the fighting line and to "hold out to the last, in spite of all",
in accordance with the orders of the Belgian General Headquarters, the
last reserves were thrown into the battle.
Fortunately, the first French reinforcements,--the famous "Grossetti"
(42nd) Division which General Foch, at Fère-Champenoise, in the centre
of the battle-line at the Marne, had thrown against the flank of the
German columns, thereby turning the scales at the psychological moment
_(See the Michelin Guide: The Marshes of St. Gond--part 2 of The First
Battle of the Marne)_,--arrived at this juncture.
The first units to arrive relieved the exhausted Belgians before
Nieuport. Meanwhile, the bombardment of the town and bridgehead had
reached an incredible degree of violence.
In the centre, the situation was still more serious, the exhausted
remnants of the Belgian 1st and 4th Divisions having reached the limit
of endurance.
The enemy threw ten battalions with machine-guns and artillery into the
loop at Tervaete. The bridgehead of Schoorbakke, attacked from the rear
was captured.
On the 24th, the 83rd Brigade of Grossetti's Division was moved to the
centre, to oppose the German thrust, at the time when the enemy had
just carried the Union Bridge.
Encouraged by the advantage which they had just secured, the Germans
renewed their efforts against Dixmude, where their left wing was being
held in check.
They had already gained a footing on the left bank of the Yser, north
of the town, and were threatening to outflank it from the west.
[Illustration: +General Grossetti, commanding the 42nd Division.+]
A supreme effort was made against the bridgehead, no less than fifteen
assaults being delivered on the 24th.
The fierceness and horror of the struggle were indescribable, the men
grappling with one another in pitch darkness.
However, the German _furor_ spent itself against the heroism of the
Belgian Infantry and French Marines who, for more than a week, remained
in the breach day and night.
Dixmude remained inviolate.
[Illustration: +Pontoon Bridge across the Yser.+]
The Inundations.
October 25 brought a pause in the German thrust, the enemy being
visibly exhausted.
But the Belgian Army also was exhausted; many of their 75's were out
of action through intensive firing; scarcely a hundred shells per gun
remained. Would they be able to hold out against another desperate
assault?
_The General Staff were considering a retreat on Dunkirk--which
would have spelt disaster--when, informed of this by telephone, Foch
hurried to the G. H. Q. where he arrived during a sitting of the War
Council. In despair, the last dispositions for the retreat were being
discussed, when in his simple unaffected way, Foch indicated a line of
resistance and suggested inundating the country. "Inundation formerly
saved Holland, and may well save Belgium. The men will hold out as best
they can until the country is under water"._ (Commandant +Grasset's+,
"Foch").
[Illustration]
To Staff-Captain Nuyten, assisted by Charles Louis Kogge, a
"wateringue" guard of long experience and thoroughly acquainted with
the working of the system of canals and locks, was entrusted the task
of carrying out the plan.
The plain between Dixmude and Nieuport, being level with the sea, is
protected at Nieuport against high water by a system of locks (sketch
opposite). The canals and the Yser are dammed by embankments. The
railway itself runs along a wide straight dike three to six feet in
height.
Under bombardment, Belgian Engineers transformed this railway
embankment into a water-tight dike, by stopping up all the openings
through which the roads passed and then made wide breaches in the
embankments of the drainage-canals, so as to allow the water to spread.
The whole plain, between Nieuport and Dixmude was thus transformed into
a vast basin closed on the Belgian side by the railway embankment, the
latter being at the same time organized as a line of resistance.
Certain locks were secretly opened at high-tide, through which the sea
gradually and imperceptibly invaded the basin.
While the sea was thus preparing to play its all important rôle, a
fresh enemy attack forced the Franco-Belgian troops, on the 26th, to
withdraw behind the railway. Orders were given to hold the latter at
all cost.
Nieuport and Dixmude were still holding out. At Dixmude, two battalions
of Senegalese relieved the most exhausted units of the defenders.
Behind the railway, units of the 42nd Division and a few battalions of
Territorials supported the desperate efforts of the Belgians.
On the 26th and 27th, while the bombardment continued, the water began,
little by little, to invade the trenches of the enemy, who, however,
did not yet realise the position.
On the 28th, the water began to rise and, on the 29th, spread
southwards.
An extremely violent bombardment on the 29th preceded the German
attacks of the 30th, against the railway. Thanks to their
_minenwerfer_, the Germans gained a footing on the railway, and
advanced as far as the villages of Ramscappelle and Pervyse. It was a
critical moment, the main line of resistance being pierced.
[Illustration: +Fortified Embankment at Ramscappelle.+]
The defenders pulled themselves together for a last effort, and after a
violent concentration of artillery fire, counter-attacked.
On the 31st, at nightfall, the 42nd Division and Belgian
units--remnants of battalions belonging to the 6th, 7th and 14th line
regiments--charged furiously with the bayonet, to the sound of the
bugles. The enemy was thrown into disorder, Ramscappelle recaptured,
and the line re-established.
Imperceptibly but relentlessly the floods invaded the enemy's
entrenchments, turning their retreat into a rout; their dead, wounded,
heavy guns, arms and munitions were swallowed up in the huge swamp. The
Battle of the Yser was over.
_The Belgian Army, whose original mission was to hold out for
forty-eight hours, had, with the help of 6,000 French Marines, fought
first single-handed, and then with the support of a single French
Division, continued the struggle until October 31, thus fighting for
fifteen days without interruption._
[Illustration: +The Allies' Supreme Resource: The Inundations.+]
[Illustration: +Belgian Patrols on rafts.+]
_Throughout these 360 hours of deadly strife, the entire Belgian forces
had been in the thick of the battle, without respite. Crouching in
their shallow half-formed trenches, or in the muddy ditches, with no
shelters, ill-fed, and fully exposed to the inclement weather, the
men nevertheless stood firm. In their tattered muddy uniforms, they
scarcely looked human. The number of wounded during the last thirteen
days was more than 9,000, that of the killed and missing over 11,000.
The numbers of sick and exhausted ran into hundreds. The units were
reduced to skeletons. The losses in officers were particularly heavy;
in one regiment only six were left._
_Thanks to the sacrifices stoically borne, the Belgian Army barred
the way to Dunkirk and Calais; the Allies' left wing was not turned,
and the enemy failed to reach the coast, from which they expected to
threaten England in her very vitals._
_For the Germans, the battle ended in total and bloody defeat. For
Belgium the name "Yser", which their gallant king caused to be
embroidered on the flags of his heroic regiments, is that of glorious
victory._ (Comm. Willy +Breton+).
[Illustration: +Building a temporary bridge.+]
[Illustration: +Temporary Bridges across the inundated Plain.+]
The fall of Dixmude.
The useless sacrifices on the Yser did not turn the Germans from their
plans for taking Calais.
They now attempted to pierce the Allied front in the neighbouring
sector, between Dixmude and Ypres, where the 87th Territorials,
42nd Division, (withdrawn from the Yser front), and the 9th Corps
strengthened the defences.
On November 9, the bombardment grew more violent. On the 10th, from
Dixmude to Bixschoote, along the whole of the canalised Yser and the
Yser-Ypres canal, huge masses of enemy troops attacked in deep column
formation.
After prolonged sanguinary street fighting, in which the French Marine
Brigade again distinguished itself, Dixmude succumbed. The Germans
were, however, unable to cross the Yser, and the respective front lines
became fixed on the canal embankments. The battle spread eastwards,
around the salient of Ypres _(See the Michelin Guide: "Ypres and the
Battles of Ypres".)_
[Illustration: +The Cloth Hall at Ypres, in 1919.+
_See the Michelin Guide: "Ypres, and the Battles of Ypres"._]