On the evening of the 26^{th}, Colonel Claudon, commanding the French troops at Palingbrug, judging his contingent too weak to hold on that position, retired on the left bank of the Channel, in doing so he gave up the bridge-head, the Great Redan, the five bridges and the locks, in one word that retreat meant the abandonment of the key of the whole hydrographic system of the region. Fortunately, the enemy not only worn out but much more concerned with the center of his front of attack, did not venture to keep in touch with the troops at Nieuport and failed to notice the leaving of the right bank of the river Yser, of which he might have so easely drawn advantage. The German, perhaps still believing in the existence of the fortress of Nieuport, did not attack. Up to the 3^d of November 1914 the Palingbrug was left abandoned. Though, it is during that period of time that the inundation was stretched. A first attempt took place on the morning of the 27^{th} of October, but was a failure, it is only at 5 a. m. on the 28^{th} that we managed to open and keep it so during the incoming tide, the old lock of Furnes. The inroad of water through that lock having been reckoned unsufficient, the Belgian G.H.Q. decided to make use of the Noordvaart lock, but the latter was since the evening of the 26^{th} right in “No man’s land”, position which rendered the operation most dangerous. Under the protection of 40 cyclists carabiniers who had to cross over in walking on the Furnes lock gates (the bridge having been blown up, by order of Colonel Claudon after the retreat of the 26^{th}), Captain Umé, of the Royal Engineers successfully managed to open the locks of Noordvaart. The following nights the operations were renewed and gradually the sheet of water rose and rose. Awestruck by that mystery, the enemy, fortunately realised it but too late. At last, on the 3^d of November, while the Yser battle had proved a victory, all along the Belgian line, reconnaissances were carried out in front of the advanced posts. On November the 4^{th}, detachment of the 2^d Army Division occupied again the bridge-head of Palingbrug and the Redan, which we pledge our word was never tred on by German heels. A few time afterwards an offensive movement took place and was undertaken by the Franco-Belgian troops, that operation forced the enemy to give up the channel North of the “Geleïde”. The front was then fixed on a position baptized “The Main bridge-head of Nieuport” on a line parallel to the channel and at about 600 meters East of the latter, running round the Western side of Lombartzyde and prolonging itself almost parallel to Plasschendaele canal up to the Boterdijk. That front never knew any alterations till July 1917.