After an unsuccessful feint attack on October 16-17, the Germans, having meanwhile received reinforcements and siege artillery from Antwerp, renewed their assault with increasing violence. On the 20th, at 11 a.m., the first big shell fell in the town. In conformity with the Burgomaster's orders, the civilians left the town, except the Carmelite Nuns and a few other persons, who were forced to leave a few days later. [Illustration: +A street in Dixmude, in 1918.+] [Illustration: +The Yser at Dixmude, before the war.+ _(Photo Nels.)_] The first shells fell on the church, which was burnt. Fires broke out everywhere and soon destroyed the town. The troops stoically awaited the attack, which came simultaneously from the north, east and south. The assaulting columns were in massed formation, sixteen lines deep. They were literally mown down, and after a desperate struggle their scattered remnants were thrown back on their starting positions. The attack continued on the following days, without appreciable enemy gain. Whenever, by force of numbers, they penetrated the defences, reserve sections of Marines drove them back at the bayonet's point. [Illustration: +Admiral Ronarc'h.+] Dixmude was none the less in imminent danger. German troops crossed the Yser at Tervaete, and slipped along the left bank of the river with the intention of turning the position. In the thick of the battle and in spite of the incessant frontal attacks, Admiral Ronarc'h dispatched two battalions to the threatened point. Although the men were "half-dead with the cold and lack of sleep", a front was improvised between the Yser Canal and the embankment of the Nieuport-Dixmude railway. The manœuvre was a difficult one, but by prodigies of heroism the new line stood firm and became fixed. On the 24th, a bombardment of unprecedented intensity was opened on the town and its defences, including the station of Caeskerke, where the Admiral's headquarters were situated, but the defenders held their ground unflinchingly under the terrible deluge of flying splinters. Towards evening, the enemy made a tremendous effort against the bridgehead of Dixmude. Eleven assaults in the north and north-east sector, and fifteen assaults in the south-east sector were successively repulsed. The German dead accumulated in heaps, right up to the Allies' trenches. The struggle continued hand-to-hand until midnight, in pitch darkness, the men floundering blindly in the mud. [Illustration: +The Yser at Dixmude, after the war.+ _(See opposite.)_] Exhausted by their tremendous efforts the enemy gave way. Dixmude was still inviolate, but on the morrow, as soon as the morning mists had risen, the bombardment began again along the whole line. Little by little the town fell into ruins.