Save for an unimportant suburb beyond the Handzaeme Canal, Dixmude lies
entirely on the right bank of the Yser. Nevertheless, our general line
of defence on October 16, both up and down stream, went beyond the line
traced by the course of the river. From Saint-Jacques-Cappelle to the
North Sea, by way of Beerst, Keyem, Leke, Saint-Pierre, etc., little
rural settlements but yesterday unknown, drowsing in the gentle Flemish
calm, the arc of the circle it described followed, almost throughout its
course as far as Slype, the roadside light railway from Ypres to Ostend.
The Fusiliers flanked this front from Saint-Jacques to the confluence of
the Vliet. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th Belgian Divisions occupied the
rest of the horse-shoe, but the effectives of these reduced divisions
had not been made up; some of the regiments had been reduced from 6,000
to 2,000 men; whole companies had melted away. The remnants continued
to stand their ground with fine courage. Until when? They had been
asked, like our Fusiliers, to hold out for four days, and it was not
until October 23, at the end of nine days, that General Grossetti and
his reinforcements arrived.[26]
The Admiral had divided the defence of Dixmude into two sectors, cut by
the road of Caeskerke; the north sector was entrusted to the 1st
Regiment, under Commander Delage, the south to the 2nd Regiment, under
Commander Varney. His Command Post he established at Caeskerke station,
at the junction of the lines of Furnes and Nieuport, keeping only a
battalion of the 2nd Regiment at his own disposal. Of the two batteries
of the Belgian group, one was sent to the south of the second level
crossing of the Furnes railway, the other to the north of Caeskerke. A
telephone line connected them with the great flour factory of Dixmude,
at the head of the High Bridge. A platform of reinforced cement
belonging to this factory provided us with an excellent observatory. The
thickness of this mass of concrete, as costly as it was incongruous with
the importance of the establishment, but very well adapted for heavy
guns, which would command the whole valley of the Yser, did not fail to
suggest certain reflections. This was perhaps one of the few instances
in which ante-bellum preparations had turned against their authors. The
machine-gun company was stationed at the intersection of the roads to
Pervyse and Oudecappelle; in the trenches of the Yser we had mainly
Belgian troops; finally, to the south, debouching from the forest of
Houthulst with four divisions of cavalry, General de Mitry threw out a
bold advance post towards Clercken, and relieved us a little on that
side, although he was unable to control the German offensive, which
began in force at 4 p.m.[27]
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE AND FLOUR FACTORY
(From a picture by M. Leon Cassel)]
The enemy had begun in his customary manner by preparing the ground with
his artillery, which from the hollow where it was posted, near Eessen,
to the east of Dixmude, rained projectiles upon us from 10 and
15-centimetre guns. Scarcely had the last smoke clouds of the German
batteries lifted, when the infantry advanced to the attack. The action
was very hot, and was prolonged throughout the night and the morning of
the 17th, with violent alternations of advance and retreat. The enemy,
anxious to deal a decisive blow, came on in compact masses, in which
our machine-guns and rifle fire tore bloody breaches. These mobile
bastions wavered for a few seconds, filled up the breaches, and then
returned to the charge in the same close formation as before. No network
of barbed wire protected the approach to our trenches; most of them had
neither roofs nor parapets. In these haphazard defences, successful
resistance depended solely on the intrepidity of the men and the skill
of the commander. Certain "elements" were taken, retaken, lost, and
retaken again. But as a whole our line held; the enemy failed to break
through it. At dawn, discouraged, he suspended his attack, but, like a
dog who makes off growling, he never ceased shelling us till 11 a.m.
"After this," notes Fusilier B., "all noise ceased. Dixmude has not
suffered much. The damage caused by the shells is insignificant." True,
the enemy had not yet received his heavy artillery.
We profited by the respite granted us to repair the trenches of the
outskirts, which were somewhat damaged, and begin the organisation of
the others. This work, indeed, was resumed whenever there was a lull,
but it was carried on chiefly at night, and in the morning, from 5 to 9
o'clock, until the mists lifted. At this hour and the coming of light
the German batteries generally awoke. We had not enough guns to reply
efficaciously to the enemy. The brigade was therefore greatly rejoiced
by the reinforcements it received during the day of the 17th: five
batteries of the 3rd Regiment of Belgian Artillery (Colonel de
Weeschouwer), which, added to the Pontus group, gave the defenders of
Dixmude the respectable total of 72 guns. Unhappily their range was not
very great, and the metal of which they were made was not strong enough
to bear the strain of our .75 shells. Such as they were, however, our
front was in much better case when they had been distributed from
Caeskerke to Saint-Jacques-Cappelle. The Admiral, who wished to direct
their operations himself, had these batteries connected by telephone
with his quarters; a battle is directed from a study-table nowadays.
Nevertheless, he gave a standing order that the batteries were to open
fire instantly, whether by day or night, on the approaches to Dixmude,
whenever rifle fire or the sound of machine-guns indicated that an
infantry attack threatened our trenches.
The check received on October 16 had perhaps made the enemy more
cautious. He had allowed us breathing time in the afternoon of the 17th,
and he gave us a quiet day on Sunday, the 18th. Only two or three
cavalry patrols were reported near Dixmude, and these were rapidly
dispersed by a few salvoes. That day, too, our Fusiliers had a pleasant
surprise. A tall, silent officer, with serious eyes, in a closely
buttoned black dolman, came to visit the trenches of the Yser with the
Admiral. His inspection seemed satisfactory to him. He pressed the
Admiral's hand, and when he had regained the river bank, he paused a
moment, gazing at the triangle of marshes, all that remained to him of
his kingdom. It was Albert I.[28]
Other news from the front arrived, and gave us confidence. In spite of
the fall of Lille, our Armies of the North had taken the offensive with
marked success from Roye to the Lys. Orders had come from the English
headquarters to the 1st Corps to concentrate at Ypres, whence it was to
attempt to advance towards Bruges.[29] This strategic movement had even
been initiated, and the French cavalry which had just seized Clercken
might be considered the advance guard of Sir Douglas Haig's corps. It
asked the Admiral to support it in flank, to enable it to push on to
Zarren and Thourout. He at once sent forward Commander de Kerros with a
battalion of the 1st Regiment and two Belgian armoured cars towards
Eessen.[30] The road was free; it was strewn with the carcases of dead
horses, and even with dead soldiers, as if there had been a precipitate
retreat. The enemy seemed to have evaporated. But the church of Eessen,
which he had turned into a stable, just as afterwards he turned the
church of Vladsloo into a cesspool, with the immemorial Teuton taste for
sacrilege, showed evidences of his recent passage. These tracks of the
beast did not, however, tell us which way he had gone. Several roads lay
open to him. It seemed most probable that, hearing of the movement of
the French cavalry, he was retiring upon Bruges by way of Wercken or
Vladsloo. Taking his chance, Commander de Kerros had installed himself
to await the morning, while two Turco regiments,[31] which had been
placed at the Admiral's disposal and ensured his _liaison_ with the main
body operating on Thourout, set out as foragers towards Bovekerke and
the woods of Couckelaere. Morning dawned, and the execution of the
French plan seemed about to be realised normally, when a terrible thrust
by the enemy at a wholly unexpected point suddenly upset all
calculations.
[Illustration: Cl. Meurisse