_The Belgian Army, whose original mission was to hold out for forty-eight hours, had, with the help of 6,000 French Marines, fought first single-handed, and then with the support of a single French Division, continued the struggle until October 31, thus fighting for fifteen days without interruption._ [Illustration: +The Allies' Supreme Resource: The Inundations.+] [Illustration: +Belgian Patrols on rafts.+] _Throughout these 360 hours of deadly strife, the entire Belgian forces had been in the thick of the battle, without respite. Crouching in their shallow half-formed trenches, or in the muddy ditches, with no shelters, ill-fed, and fully exposed to the inclement weather, the men nevertheless stood firm. In their tattered muddy uniforms, they scarcely looked human. The number of wounded during the last thirteen days was more than 9,000, that of the killed and missing over 11,000. The numbers of sick and exhausted ran into hundreds. The units were reduced to skeletons. The losses in officers were particularly heavy; in one regiment only six were left._ _Thanks to the sacrifices stoically borne, the Belgian Army barred the way to Dunkirk and Calais; the Allies' left wing was not turned, and the enemy failed to reach the coast, from which they expected to threaten England in her very vitals._ _For the Germans, the battle ended in total and bloody defeat. For Belgium the name "Yser", which their gallant king caused to be embroidered on the flags of his heroic regiments, is that of glorious victory._ (Comm. Willy +Breton+). [Illustration: +Building a temporary bridge.+] [Illustration: +Temporary Bridges across the inundated Plain.+] The fall of Dixmude. The useless sacrifices on the Yser did not turn the Germans from their plans for taking Calais. They now attempted to pierce the Allied front in the neighbouring sector, between Dixmude and Ypres, where the 87th Territorials, 42nd Division, (withdrawn from the Yser front), and the 9th Corps strengthened the defences. On November 9, the bombardment grew more violent. On the 10th, from Dixmude to Bixschoote, along the whole of the canalised Yser and the Yser-Ypres canal, huge masses of enemy troops attacked in deep column formation. After prolonged sanguinary street fighting, in which the French Marine Brigade again distinguished itself, Dixmude succumbed. The Germans were, however, unable to cross the Yser, and the respective front lines became fixed on the canal embankments. The battle spread eastwards, around the salient of Ypres _(See the Michelin Guide: "Ypres and the Battles of Ypres".)_ [Illustration: +The Cloth Hall at Ypres, in 1919.+ _See the Michelin Guide: "Ypres, and the Battles of Ypres"._] THE PERIOD OF STATIONARY WARFARE. _Photos, pp. 19-21._