=Dixmude= was a small ancient town of some 4,000 inhabitants, situated
in the midst of fields on the right bank of the Yser.
It was entirely destroyed. Of the town's monuments and buildings,
traces of the parish-church of St. Nicholas only remain _(on the left
side of the square)_. The chevet dated from the 14th century, the
rest of the building being early 16th century. The church contained a
magnificent rood-loft of finely carved white stone (1540). Above the
high altar was a fine _Adoration of the Wise Men_, by Jordaens (1644).
The rich ancient furnishings comprised: a marble font with a bronze
cover (1626), choir-stalls, pulpits, a "Calvary" altar, a carved oak
organ-loft, wrought copper chandeliers, candlesticks, etc.
From the heap of stones and débris--the remains of the church
tower--there is a good view of the ruined town. In the same square
stood the Hôtel-de-Ville, Gothic in style, built about 1870. It was
entirely razed _(Photo below)_.
[Illustration: +Dixmude, seen from the ruined Church (1919).+]
[Illustration: +Dixmude. The Hôtel-de-Ville, before the war.+]
_The left-hand road leads to the bridge over the Handzaeme Canal_, one
of the most picturesque parts of Dixmude. Close by, to the left of the
road, stood the +Béguinage+, comprising some twenty houses grouped
around a small chapel, and a fine garden. The place is now overrun with
weeds.
The Defence and Capture of Dixmude.
Dixmude was the scene of most desperate fighting from October 15 to
November 10, 1914. The French Naval Brigade--6,000 men commanded by
Admiral Ronarc'h--with a brigade of the Belgian 3rd Division under
General Meiser, and a few battalions of Senegalese troops, held out
heroically for a month against enemy forces six times more numerous and
supported by masses of heavy artillery.
[Illustration]
On October 16, along the roads encumbered with refugees from the region
of Thourout, the Marines, in their retreat from Melle to Ghent, reached
Dixmude in the pouring rain, accompanied by the Belgian batteries under
Major Pontus. Under enemy pressure the advanced positions of the town
were abandoned.
At that time, the river formed the only line of defence against the
enemy thrust, there being no trenches, shelters, or wire entanglements.
In spite of great fatigue, due to the forced marches, the Marines
and Infantry, with the help of some companies of Belgian Engineers,
organised defences in the vast plain. Trenches were made round the
town, 1 km. beyond its outskirts, whilst the bridges, footways and
dikes of the Yser Canal were fortified at the same time.
[Illustration: +The Chevet of the church before the war.+ _(Photo E.
Thill.)_]
The defences of the bridgehead of Dixmude were divided into two
sectors, separated by the Caeskerke Road.
Having no aeroplanes or heavy artillery, the 6,000 French Marines, with
5,000 Belgians of the Meiser Brigade--11th Regiment (Col. Leermans) and
12th regiment (Col. Jacques)--were attacked by three German Army Corps.
After an unsuccessful feint attack on October 16-17, the Germans,
having meanwhile received reinforcements and siege artillery from
Antwerp, renewed their assault with increasing violence.
On the 20th, at 11 a.m., the first big shell fell in the town. In
conformity with the Burgomaster's orders, the civilians left the town,
except the Carmelite Nuns and a few other persons, who were forced to
leave a few days later.
[Illustration: +A street in Dixmude, in 1918.+]
[Illustration: +The Yser at Dixmude, before the war.+ _(Photo Nels.)_]
The first shells fell on the church, which was burnt. Fires broke out
everywhere and soon destroyed the town. The troops stoically awaited
the attack, which came simultaneously from the north, east and south.
The assaulting columns were in massed formation, sixteen lines deep.
They were literally mown down, and after a desperate struggle their
scattered remnants were thrown back on their starting positions.
The attack continued on the following days, without appreciable enemy
gain. Whenever, by force of numbers, they penetrated the defences,
reserve sections of Marines drove them back at the bayonet's point.
[Illustration: +Admiral Ronarc'h.+]
Dixmude was none the less in imminent danger. German troops crossed the
Yser at Tervaete, and slipped along the left bank of the river with the
intention of turning the position. In the thick of the battle and in
spite of the incessant frontal attacks, Admiral Ronarc'h dispatched two
battalions to the threatened point. Although the men were "half-dead
with the cold and lack of sleep", a front was improvised between the
Yser Canal and the embankment of the Nieuport-Dixmude railway. The
manœuvre was a difficult one, but by prodigies of heroism the new line
stood firm and became fixed.
On the 24th, a bombardment of unprecedented intensity was opened on
the town and its defences, including the station of Caeskerke, where
the Admiral's headquarters were situated, but the defenders held their
ground unflinchingly under the terrible deluge of flying splinters.
Towards evening, the enemy made a tremendous effort against the
bridgehead of Dixmude. Eleven assaults in the north and north-east
sector, and fifteen assaults in the south-east sector were successively
repulsed. The German dead accumulated in heaps, right up to the Allies'
trenches. The struggle continued hand-to-hand until midnight, in pitch
darkness, the men floundering blindly in the mud.
[Illustration: +The Yser at Dixmude, after the war.+ _(See opposite.)_]
Exhausted by their tremendous efforts the enemy gave way. Dixmude was
still inviolate, but on the morrow, as soon as the morning mists had
risen, the bombardment began again along the whole line. Little by
little the town fell into ruins.
On the night of the 25th, a company of German infantry managed to slip
into the town. About a hundred of them crossed the bridge-road and in
close formation made a dash for Caeskerke, with fife and drum at their
head. That the men were drugged, explains their foolhardy exploit. A
few prisoners, including several Belgian doctors, Commandant Jeanniot
and some marines were captured. Held up soon afterwards, the Germans
attempted to get back to their lines, shooting most of their prisoners
at dawn. The doctors and a quarter-master alone were spared, being
eventually delivered by a section of French Marines.
The troops under Colonel Jacques, exhausted by the struggle, were
relieved by two battalions of Senegalese and a battalion of the Belgian
1st Line Regiment.
Keeping up their daily bombardment, the enemy now directed their main
effort between Nieuport and Dixmude. However, they were held by the
inundations which soon spread southwards. Moreover, the ceaseless rain
had transformed the ground into a veritable sea of mud, which gradually
invaded the trenches. Shivering with cold and fever, and up to their
knees in slime, the Marines still stood firm.
The Capture of Dixmude.
On November 10 the Germans, infuriated by their repeated checks,
attacked again with overwhelming forces. Part of the defences in the
southern sector, between the railway and the Eessen road, held by
Belgian infantry, gave way beneath the shock, bringing about the fall
of the sectors on either side, held by the Senegalese troops. The
line was pierced in the centre. The enemy swarmed through the breach,
crossing the Handzaeme Canal to the north, while to the south, in the
direction of the cemetery, they attacked the companies of Marines
who continued to resist desperately. The Germans entered the town,
the fight continuing from street to street and house to house, with
countless surprises and ambuscades. Unarmed prisoners were made to
march in front of the assailants, who proceeded to attack the positions
on the Yser. Amongst them was Naval-Lieutenant Sérieyx, who, wounded in
the arm, had just fought with his men to the last cartridge.
[Illustration: +The Minoterie.+ _(Flour Mill.)_]
On being ordered by the German Commandant to indicate the fordable
places in the river, one of which was only some fifty yards away,
the French officer, to gain time, made a complicated sketch of the
position, placing himself and his men the while in front of the
Germans. Becoming impatient, the German ordered the Frenchmen to call
on the defenders of the canal to surrender.
"But how can you expect them to surrender", was the calm rejoinder,
"seeing that there are ten thousand of them". In reality, they numbered
about two hundred.
At this point, heavy rifle fire to the north drew the attention of the
enemy elsewhere, seeing which, the wounded officer, exhorting his men
to follow him, jumped into the river and swam over to the other side.
[Illustration]
When night fell, the bridges and flour-mill--a powerful blockhouse in
reinforced concrete--were blown up, the whole of the Franco-Belgian
troops having meanwhile been withdrawn behind the embankment of the
Yser Canal, which they held under gunfire. The Germans sought to
organise the ruins of the unfortunate town, whose destruction was now
being completed by the Allies' artillery.
The inundations reached Dixmude, forming an impassable barrier for the
enemy.
On November 26, 1914, the French Naval Brigade, which later further
distinguished itself on other fields of battle, and whose flag was
eventually decorated with the _Légion d'honneur_ _(fourragère)_, was
mentioned in the Army Orders, in the following terms:
_Gave proofs of the greatest energy and devotion in the defence of a
most important strategic position._
[Illustration: +Admiral Ronarc'h saluting the Flag of the French
Marines.+]
Until October 1918, the enemy's front lines followed the banks of the
canal and the Death Trench, dominated by the ruins of the flour-mill
situated upstream from the destroyed bridge-road. For four years,
violent raids and bombardments kept this sector, successively held
by French Marines, Territorials, Zouaves, and Belgian Infantry, in a
perpetual state of activity.
Finally, in September 1918, during the great Liberty Offensive, the
Belgian 4th Division attacked the banks of the Yser Canal, turned
Dixmude from the east, and in a single rush reached the banks of the
Handzaeme Canal. On September 29, Dixmude, reduced to a chaotic waste
covered with shapeless masses of débris and tangled barbed wire, and
cut up entirely with trenches, was retaken by the Belgians.
[Illustration: +Watching a Review of the French Marines.+]
[Illustration: +Eessen Church.+]
On January 25, 1920, in the presence of King Albert, President Poincaré
conferred the French _Croix de Guerre_ on Dixmude, with the following
mention.
"Won undying fame in the first days of the War by heroic,
never-to-be-forgotten combats. Proved herself worthy of this glory by
the fortitude with which she daily supported bombardments and fires,
confident that her sacrifices were helping to save the Country and the
Common Cause."
_From the canal, return to the Grand'Place and take the Roulers
Road, turning into the first by-road on the left; 3 kms. beyond the
level-crossing, leave the Clercken Road leading to Houthulst Wood, on
the right, and keep straight on to =Eessen= (3½ kms.)_ The belfry of
the ruined church was long used by the Germans as an observation-post
_(Photo above)_.
[Illustration]
_In front of the church, turn left and cross the railway. The road
leads to =Vladsloo=_ (large German cemeteries). _Behind the church,
turn left. On reaching the high road, turn left and enter the village
of =Beerst= (5 kms.)_
Beerst and, further north, Keyem served as advance posts in October
1914 to the Belgian 4th Division which was then defending Tervaete.
Violently attacked on October 18, they were lost and retaken, being
finally abandoned on the morrow. In a desperate effort to save Beerst,
the French Marines captured it twice at the point of the bayonet,
covering themselves with glory, but all to no purpose. Beerst was
completely ruined. Many cellars, transformed by the Germans into
fortified shelters, may still be seen.
_On reaching the road to Dixmude, turn left, pass through Dixmude (3½
kms.) and leave the town by the road previously followed. Take the
first road on the left to =Loo= (1½ kms.)_
This small, ancient town is situated on the banks of the Yser canal.
Its large 15th-16th century Gothic church, formerly an abbey, contains
paintings and several fine tombs.
_Keeping straight ahead beyond the Grand'Place, in which stands_ the
Renaissance Hôtel-de-Ville, _the tourist will notice, immediately
on the left, an +Old Gate (Westpoort)+_, a vestige of the ancient
fortifications. A sycamore tree, probably some four or five centuries
old, near by, is said by the inhabitants to have been used by Julius
Cæsar as a picket for tethering his horse.
[Illustration: +Loo.+
_1. Westpoort Gate, and the "Julius Cæsar" Sycamore Tree;_
_2. The Grand'Place. The Hôtel-de-Ville (on the right), and the ruins
of the Church._]
_Return to the Grand'Place, turn to the right, and cross the Yser.
=Reninghe= (5 kms.) (razed) is next reached. To the right of the
Square, take the street along which runs the local railway, leaving the
church on the left. Before turning, the tourist will notice just beyond
the church_ a small château dating from 1648 _(Photo below)_. _Follow
the railway as far as =Oostvleteren= (4 kms. 300), where cross the
Furnes road to reach =Westvleteren=, 1 km. 300 further on. Turn to the
left, beyond the church of the latter village, keeping straight on to
=Poperinghe= (10 kms.), via =Eikhock=._
[Illustration: +Reninghe.+
_1. The 17th century Château;_
_2. Ruins of the Church._]