On the nights of the 28^{th} to 29^{th} of October, on the 3^d and 4^{th} of November 1917, detachments of the 5^{th} and 6^{th} of the line regiment crossed the Yser with magnificent spirit. The South and North trenches of the flour-mill were cleaned out without great difficulty, but when the detailed group attacked the flour-mill, there was a reaction, and a painful one which cost the life to many a brave man, a reaction which proved once more, the power of inactive and inert substance against which courage is nothing. Through their invisible loop holes and under the thick armour of their shelters immersed in concrete, the few occupants of the flour-mill soon overpowered the will and determination of our troops, who were forced to retreat taking away with them their dead and wounded. The Franco-British offensive could not be continued for several reasons, and our army resumed the life of the trenches which still lasted another year. At last there was the liberating offensive. The rapid progress of our troops forced the enemy to abandon Dixmude. Our soldiers entered there the 29^{th} of September 1918 and settled there till the 15^{th} of October, date of the second rush forward. The town was nothing but a heap of ruins and the flour-mill a grey shapeless mass, which will perpetuate the remembrance of this long war and the numerous heroes fallen there under its blows. 17.—Albert and Elisabeth Redoubts. 18.—The Joconde’s dwelling. 19.—Battalion commander’s Headquarters (all between kilom. 19 and 20 of Yser river, left bank). The fighting posts and shelters established after the battle of the Yser, in the ruins of the small buildings along the embankment, saw little by little their walls relined with a strong interior casing of concrete, and their lost roofs, replaced by thick concrete layers also. The house of the Joconde (so called, because of the good old proprietress, Mieke Bœuf, who during long weeks of trench warfare still occupied it and who became quite legendary with our soldiers), served as a lodging to the Commander of the company at the bridge-head, till a better appropriated shelter was built. It was occupied after, by the men of the Royal engineers, who were charged to keep in good order, the foot bridges giving access to the bridge-head. The next house to the one of the Joconde’s served as C. P. to the major on guard. After the organization of the bridge-head (see notice n^o 20), an allround plan fortifying the sector was elaborated. They foresaw the construction of little forts or redoubts with a distance of 600 meters between each and utilizing the embankment as a parapet and the Yser as obstacle.