This trick of the Germans, which might have figured in their war annals, as a glorious page, simply lengthened the list of their crimes. On the other hand, it set of more than ever the admirable qualities of the French and Belgian armies: the confidence of the troops in their chiefs, their character and above all their generosity perhaps somewhat exaggerated when addressed to individuals deformed by a barbarous “Kultur”. The action of the bridge-head ended with the battle of the Yser, the 1^{st} of November 1914; anyhow for reasons purely moral, it was still kept there. The occupying troops were reduced. The defensive artillery was also reduced in too large proportions owing to the reason that a great quantity of pieces had been disabled, moreover the munitions were deficient. Many empty ammunition limbers could not be replenished, already for several days the wants surpassed the means of supply. The days of the 9^{th} and 10^{th} of November 1914 marked out the agony of Dixmude which began by a general bombardment of great violence, to which our twenty guns of 7c5, with only the aid of a few heavy french guns, could but attempt a retaliation. The 3^d battalion of the 1^{st} line regiment and two battalions of Singalese kept the bridge-head. The 10^{th}, about 7 o’clock, a first German assault failed before our lines, to the great astonishment of the enemy who was convinced that he had annihilated all our defences. His plan of attack had to be completely altered. The XXII^{th} army corps of reserve was charged with this mission. Three convergent columns took the South and East sectors as though in pincers. The artillery carried on an infernal fire, casting and sowing death in the trenches, in the town and on all accessible roads to our reserves. The South sector resisted, the East one also, but unfortunately a portion of the trench, situated between the railway line and the road, and only guarded by the dead and wounded could no longer keep back the enemy who rushed the position and took it back handed. Then began a most terrific fight, the memory of which makes the ancients shudder. It was a serie of hand to hand fights, individual fights with the bayonet in the streets, in the houses, in the trenches, leaving on the ground at every step, the blood of the vanquisher as well as the vanquished. Unfortunately the admiral disposes of no reserves at hand. He cannot untrim the bank of the Yser which will have to face the attack if continued, and endeavour to bar the crossing of the river. And that is why under the pressure of numbers and after several hours of bloody struggle, the defenders of the bridge-head were forced to concentrate themselves in the corn-mill and in the trench preceding it. During several hours it is a resistance, where the resolute and determined courage of a few men, held the head to a numerous enemy which was struck down in heaps.