End of the Line

[TwoBob]

Has anyone any details,maps,photos of how the Western Front ended at the North Sea?

Is it true that the Belgians weren't trusted to hold the line north of Dixmunde?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

[Robert Missinne]

Bob,

Go to The Great War in Flanders Fields and click on 'Overview all the battles of the Great War in Flanders Fields' (on the left panel) and choose 'The Yser Front' ('Under construction').

Robert

[zijde26]

Bob,

Very roughly the front in Belgium during ww1 can be divided in three parts :

Belgian Coast - Yser (Diksmuide) : Belgian Army

Yser (Diksmuide) - North Ypres : French Army

North Ypres - Franco/Belgian border : UK (=GB, ... ) Army

Regards,

Gilbert Deraedt

[Robert Dunlop]

Is it true that the Belgians weren't trusted to hold the line north of Dixmunde?

Bob

I do not think this is true. The ability of the Belgians to hold the Germans at bay during the unfolding of the Schlieffen Plan, and then to prevent the Germans crossing the Yser, earned them considerable respect. The section of the line between Nieuport and the sea was, at various times, held by the French and the British.

There may have been some British commanders who looked down on the Belgians, just as they did the New Army and the Dominions. And we know how well both of these 'inferiors' acquitted themselves

Robert

[Robert Dunlop]

Bob

Check out the following references to the proposed landing on the coast:

http://www.1914-1918.net/BATTLES/hush/hush.htm

and the German's pre-emptive strike to forestall the landing:

http://www.1914-1918.net/BATTLES/hush/strandfest.htm

There are some maps of the coast.

Robert

[CROONAERT]

Belgian Coast - Yser (Diksmuide) : Belgian Army

Though by 1917, it was the British Army that was holding the area of the dunes, replaced in 1918 by the Belgians once again.

Dave.

[CROONAERT]

Here's a scan of a trenchmap that shows the "end of the line" in July 1917 (at time when , I believe that it was the 10th Manchesters who were getting their feet wet in the English Channel)...

Dave.

[TwoBob]

Thanks for the help gents.

Please bear with me with some more questions.

'StrandFest' means StreetFight?

'Bains' on the map I suggest is 'Baths',there being in time of peace sea-baths as with a seaside holiday resort?

Is 'The Pimple' along the coast what the Germans called the Affenberg sand dune position with its commanding heights?

I was under the impression that the Yser River was the front line until now,both sides along its banks.Appears not.

Why did the French and British hold a small pocket like position eastwards from the Yser?Why not use the river as a better defensive position?

Thank you,

Bob

[Robert Dunlop]

Strandfest means 'beach party' or 'beach festival'

There may well have been baths in the area. The coastline is a resort area. Souttar mentions this was the case pre-war as well, in his book 'A surgeon in Belgium'.

There was a bridgehead retained north of the Yser.

Every piece of Belgium was considered precious and worth retaining. This was one of the issues that led to the delay in withdrawing back to the GHQ line in Second Ypres for example. Later, the British wanted to exploit the bridgehead as a jumping off point for the capture of the coast. I don't know if this was a factor earlier in the war.

Robert

[mebu]

Twobob, one of the main reasons for maintaining a hold on the far/eastern side of the river was to maintain control of the 6 sluice gates which are on the eastern side of the town: control of these sluice gates meant control of the flooded land which was kept almost impassable to the Germans. Peter.

[derwisj]

The place on the north side where the british lines were is now a military base of the belgian army; I did my training there in the early eighties, and when digging pits we found lots of remains from the war. Even unexploded ordnance.

I think "the pimple" is a high sanddune in the camp. On the dune is a small monument to an british pilot from WW I. I hated this dune because we were always running on and off it during our training.

Before the first world war this area was a domain of the royal family; there was even a small golf court on it. There are still some ruins from the royal villa.

pascal

[Joris Ryckeboer]

Hello to all!

Yes Bob! It was an luxury resort before the war. 'Les Bains' means that the rich could roll there their cabins into the sea, so they could step down into the sea without crossing 'le plage'!

There where several reasons why they hang on to Nieuwpoort.

First of all the plans changed every hour. Ostend was pakked with wounded soldiers. There they were put on board and shipped to England. On 13 october, Ostend was still RAwlinsons place to embarque. But Ostend was taken by the Germans and Rawlinson was moved to Ypres. The wounded moved to Niuepoort and later to De Panne.

At that time, the Allied HQ was at Nieuwpoort-Bad, like it is called nowadays. AND there was an excellent communication line with England; a wireless telegraph, the

'marconi'! And the undersea wire with England which started at De Panne was well out of reach of the enemy.

Secondly; it was the last usefull harbor on Belgian teritory to embarque troops in a final attempt to escape.

But the Germans where fast and followed down the coast over Ostend coming from the Duth border. Their distination Dunkerke and Calais to cut of the Allied supplys, but they faced Belgian resistance at Lombardzijde in the dunes. Meanwhile the idea was growing to inudate a part between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide as a natural defence and to reduce the number of frontline occuped by the remains of the Belgian Army (They were holding a 40 kilometer line with 50000 guns, from Ypres to the coast). We all now the effects and result of the flooding. And the Germans were totally surprised because they didn't know the land was below sea-level!!

And that part of the line could not be flooded (the dunes).

O yes! The Belgian Army received help by the French and a lot of bombs sended by Hoods fleet of the Royal Navy after being outnumbered by the Germans in fierce bajonet fights at Lombardzijde!

After the stabilisation of the frontline, it was held by French and Britisch troops while we tried to recover.

Greetings

Joris

PS: I made an attempt to explain shortly the important role of the last part of the Line because it could not be flooded, but the whole operation is a very difficult thing.

(Read also; http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/yser.htm contributed Chris)

[BatterySergeantMajor]

Just an addition. I think Joris means "rifles" and not "guns". Also 50.000 seems abit on the low side. 65.000 to 75.000 is more correct imho. Belgian Army was also exhausted and desorganised when arriving at the coast, so it was a small miracle that they could stop the German advance. If it hadn't been of the inondation, they wouldn't hav been able to whitstand much longer.

The area at the coast is partly military barracks, partly (inaccesible) nature reserve at the moment.

Erwin

[Joris Ryckeboer]

Of course, Erwin! With such an ammount of artillery...

About the ammount of rifles; I agree with your number of 75000 (some sources state 80000), but these are the remaining men. But several sources state as numbers capable of firing a rifle 48000, some 52000 (that was the max I read).Some of them had even no more shoes and were wearing the wooden blocks, no food, no ammo,...!

And I agree too that the Belgian Army was exhausted and it could not run any more, but with the help of their allies (the battle of the Marne was finished), they turned around at the Yser and stopped the Germans, with the help of the inondation of course. Without the inondation...

Greetings from Westouter,

Joris

[Joris Ryckeboer]

Pascal,

When I was there for target practice, I went on top of the hill (Hoge Duin). There is indeed a small monument. But it is to a French Luitenant Thuret.

Joris

[derwisj]

Joris,

you may be right; it is over twenty years ago, so memory is not the same as then. And at that time I was not interessed in the war as now.

Target practice; i did it once also; do they still use those little airplanes with a bag behind it?

pascal

[domsim]

We stayed in the old lighthouse keepers cottage next the light house and army base last year. It is used as a field study centre by the Belgian Geological survey (we were doing an archaeological survey in the area) and is right on the old frontline on the east bank of the Yser. A really beautiful place to stay.

If you want to see some good photos of this area go to the Australian War Memorial site:AWM site

Hit collections search and type in 'Nieuport'

Attachment is one of the photos of the ruined lighthouse area where we stayed taken from across the river in Nieuport in 1915.

Cheers

Dominic

[Joris Ryckeboer]

Thanks for the AWM link, Dominic!

Joris

[TwoBob]

Thanks for the great help gentlemen.

Bob