[63] For the period between October 24 and November 6 the names of the following officers who fell must be added to those already given: killed or dead of their wounds, Lieutenants Cherdel and Richard, Second-Lieutenants Rousset and Le Coq; among those wounded, but not mortally, Lieutenants Antoine, "son of Admiral Antoine and the model of a perfect officer" (private correspondence), and Revel, who, when severely wounded in the thigh, ordered his decimated company to retire, "leaving him in the trench where he had fallen." [64] Marcotte de Sainte-Marie was provisionally succeeded at the head of his battalion by Lieutenant Dordet, who acquitted himself admirably. [65] And yet these cemetery trenches afforded comparative security. Before reaching them it was necessary to cross a perfectly flat zone of 60 metres, continually swept by rifle fire and shrapnel. "This we passed at the double, in Indian file, our knapsacks on our heads, and popped, those who had not been left on the way, into the cellars under the caretaker's house with an 'Ouf!' of relief." (Georges Delaballe.) [66] It must be remembered that the Belgians had been fighting for three solid months, and that until the 23rd October they had faced the Germans alone, if not at Dixmude at least as far north as Nieuport. [67] To say nothing of a captive balloon. "Violent bombardment of our trenches, directed by 'sausage' balloons; feeble reply of French and Belgian artillery," is the entry, under date of the 8th, in an officer's note-book, where also we find under date of the 9th: "Bombardment continued. Night attack on the outposts, which were driven in." [68] Dr. Caradec says the German artillery, consisting of batteries of 105's and 77's, was posted 2,000 metres away, behind the Château of Woumen, and near Vladsloo, Korteckeer, and Kasterthoeck. [69] Before that, however, at half-past nine, a lively attack had been directed against the front of the ninth and tenth companies of the 1st Regiment, which occupied towards Beerst one end of the arc described round Dixmude by our trenches; the extremities of this arc rested on the Yser. The Germans tried to push between the Yser and the flank of the ninth company. This attack was repulsed by the two companies, assisted by fire from the remaining trenches and a battery of 75's. [70] Rather above Dixmude station, between the railway embankment and the Eessen road.