The war has brought fresh importance to the town, but of a mournful kind. On the impact of the German and Anglo-French masses in Flanders in the autumn of 1914, it became the central pivot of the operations. The enemy dug his heels into the high ground in front of it; for, as an Englishman has written, it had become a point of honour to hold the town. YPRES lay so close to the front that our advance could be seen from its towers, and the enemy was able to use it for concealing his batteries and sheltering his reserves. For the sake of our troops we had to bring it under fire; for German life is more precious than the finest Gothic architecture. Thus the mythical death of YPRES became a reality: no tower now sends forth its light across the countryside, and a wilderness of wrecked and burnt-out houses replaces the pretty town so full of legend and tradition in the history of Flanders. The streams which run northwards from the hills about YPRES unite for the most part near the town and flow into the YSER canal, which connects the LYS at COMINES with the sea at NIEUPORT. This canal passes through the YPRES ridge near HOLLEBEKE and, following northwards the course of a small canalised tributary of the YSER, meets the YSER itself south of DIXMUDE. The dunes at NIEUPORT have been cut through by engineers for its exit to the sea. It is only from DIXMUDE northwards that the canal becomes an obstacle which requires proper bridging equipment for its passage. Its high embankments to the south of DIXMUDE, however, give excellent cover in the otherwise flat country and greatly simplify the task of the defender. The canal acquired a decisive importance when the hard-pressed Belgians, during the battle on the night of 29th-30th October, let in the sea at flood-tide through the sluices into the canal, and then by blowing up the sluice-gates at NIEUPORT, allowed it to flood the battlefield along the lower YSER. By this means they succeeded in placing broad stretches of country under water, so much so that any extensive military operations in that district became out of the question. The high water-level greatly influenced all movements over a very large area. By his order the King of the Belgians destroyed for years the natural wealth of a considerable part of his fertile country, for the sea-water must have ruined all vegetation down to its very roots.