The Admiralty Headquarters at Middelkerke is a wonderful display of luxury and it emphasises their taste for comfort. Nothing was left uncared for; in case of alarm the admiral could easily act in complete quiétude. He had his staff well at hand, his liaisons thoroughly assured and could deliver his orders and instruction with the maximum efficiency. 6.—The “Great Redan” at Nieuport. From the old fortified position of Nieuport, the part situated North of the harbour solely remained after the dismantling had been decided by the Belgian State, in 1859. Unproperly called during the war “Great Redan” that work—if one wants to be accurate—is formed of a non reveted horne work which must have belonged to the old fortification of Nieuport rebuilt in 1793, and preceded with a half moon work constructed after 1815. The whole place, in fact, had to be reconstructed following the Vauban system, with the funds accordingly allotted by the Paris treaty of 1815. The abandonment of those remains of fortifications since 1859 had evidently reduced them to mere ruins, when the battle of the Yser was fought in 1914. If the “Great Redan” was not utilized during the battle as firing line, at least it afforded a magnificent place of arms, to shelter the reserve troops for the defence of the “Little Bridge-head of Nieuport”. The latter place also known as the “Bridge-head of Palingbrug” extended itself from the right bank of the channel, at the hight of the old lighthouse to the brickwork (Plasschendaele canal) passing by the kilometer 14.500 of the Nieuport Westende road. It is from the evening of the 20^{th} of October 1914 onward that the defence clung to that position. To spare his men, Lieutenant General Dossin was contrived to flood the “Groot Noord Nieuwland Polder” up, by letting in the seawater in to the creek of Nieuwendamme, the dikes of which had been previously pierced. This inundation was stretched in the evening of the 21^{st} of October. After the epic fights at Lombarzyde and Groot Bamburg-Farm, in which heroism was lavishly displayed by our men, during the day and night of the 22^{nd}, the French troops under General Grossetti came at dawn on the 23^{rd} to relieve the Belgian troops in Nieuport. They were to resume the offensive movement the Belgian troops had started, but the foe having pierced the line at Saint-Georges and Tervaete, compelled the staff to withdraw the troops from Nieuport to take position on the bridge-head of Palingbrug, in order to dispose of a maximum of reserve to be arrayed on the threatened front and also to draft the counter-attacks which were more and more urging.