The enemy front was held by the German Marine Corps and Landwehr units. For four years, the whole sector in front of the Yser Plain remained relatively quiet, with occasional daring raids or short bombardments. Before Dixmude and Nieuport, the operations were more active. The "Boyau de la Mort", in front of Dixmude, cost the Belgians some losses, the trench, which ran alongside the Yser, being enfiladed. The enemy's rifle fire came mostly from the Flour Mill _(photo, p. 124)_, a large concrete building on the banks of the Yser, which it was difficult to destroy with the heavy artillery, on account of its proximity to the Belgian lines (about thirty yards away). The liveliest part of the sector was that in front of Nieuport. In 1914-1915, the troops under General de Mitry, and later the French Marines, succeeded in clearing the town, by capturing the great dune north of St. Georges and various redoubts on the east. In 1917, the Germans attacked units of the British 4th Army, which was then taking up its positions, and recaptured the dunes as far as the Yser Channel. [Illustration: +Line of Defence between Nieuport and Lombartzyde+ _(held by the Territorials.)_] [Illustration: _At top of page:_ +Two German Blockhouses wrecked by shellfire.+ _Underneath:_ +Line of Defence before Lombartzyde.+ _On the left (inset):_ +Belgian trench along the Yser, with splinter-proof Shelters.+ _On the right (upper):_ +Advance boyau on the coast, near the Grande Dune.+ _On the right (lower):_ +German Temporary Bridge partly captured during a raid, with chevaux-de-frise separating the Allied and enemy lines.+] [Illustration: _At top of page:_ +Donkeys bringing up supplies.--Machine-gun Dog Teams.+ _In the middle:_ +Building road on piles.--Making a log road.+ _At bottom of page:_ +Isolated Post surrounded by water, and raft used for revictualling same.--Front-line Post before the inundated plain.+] THE VICTORY OFFENSIVE. In 1918, after the fiasco of the enemy's Spring offensives, the initiative passed into the hands of the Allies. The latter, victorious on the Marne, Vesle, Aisne and before Compiègne, continued to press the enemy without respite. The battle spread northwards. On September 28, the "Liberty" Offensive in Flanders began. The group of armies operating in Flanders under the command of King Albert with General Degoutte as Major-General, comprised the valiant Belgian Army, the British 2nd Army, and the French 6th Army. On the 28th the first two enemy positions, north and east of the Ypres Salient, were captured. On the 29th, the Belgian 4th Division following up this success and pivoting east of Dixmude, captured Eessen to the north and occupied the banks of the Handzaeme Canal _(See p. 120)_. Dixmude, outflanked on the north, fell. All the heights of Flanders were now in the Allies' hands. In danger of being cut off, the Germans began to prepare their withdrawal from the Belgian Coast on September 28.