In the area near WYTSCHAETE, the 11th November was the day of the heaviest fighting. In the woods north of it, Bavarians and Hessians pressed forward together, slowly but surely. A French battery and four machine-guns were taken by the 168th Infantry Regiment at a farm about 150 yards north of WYTSCHAETE, but the guns were so firmly embedded in the sodden ground, that they could not be got away by the infantry. When the buildings were evacuated again, owing to the heavy fire of the French on them, the guns, made unserviceable by us, remained as a neutral battery between the lines. It must be recorded here that in the fight for one single farm the Hessians took prisoners belonging to three different regiments, a fact that proves what masses the enemy had put in to the fight on the YPRES front, and to what an extent he had to concentrate his units to ward off our attacks. On and to the west of the MESSINES ridge the line remained almost unaltered during the 11th November. The very severe effect of the enemy's artillery fire from Mount KEMMEL on this front and the enfilade fire of artillery and machine-guns from PLOEGSTEERT Wood compelled our men to remain in their trenches. Taken as a whole the operations on the 11th November were a great success. A series of brilliant feats, many of which it has been impossible even to mention in this short account, far less adequately describe, gave us unchallenged possession of positions from which any concentration of the enemy near YPRES could be seen, and immediately opened on by artillery. It is true, however, that no break through of the enemy's lines had been accomplished: his numerical superiority and, more especially, the strength of his positions held up our offensive. The weather conditions, storm and rain, had also contributed towards the result.[111] The furious character of the fighting on the 11th November did not abate on the following day, but on the whole the situation remained unaltered. The general character of the operations on the entire front of the Fourth and Sixth Armies was now changed, and sapping was eventually resorted to, though here and there successes in open warfare were gained. For instance the XXII Reserve Corps managed to strengthen its detachments across the YSER at DIXMUDE, and on the 12th the 201st Reserve Infantry Regiment, under Major Baron von Wedekind, stormed the enemy's defences opposite it on the western bank of the YSER, and held them under great difficulties. Constant rain had filled the badly constructed trenches with mud so that our troops had to support the enemy's bombardment and resist his counter-attacks lying in the open.