On the 20th November the farm 150 yards north of WYTSCHAETE, for which such a severe fight had been made on the 11th, was finally captured by us. We thereby obtained a position in the WYTSCHAETE salient which, although overlooked from Mount KEMMEL, gave us such a commanding view of all the ground between Mount KEMMEL and the WYTSCHAETE-MESSINES ridge that surprise attacks by the enemy in this district were now out of the question.[113] On the rest of the Flanders front only small fights took place, and on the 17th November the commander of the Fourth Army decided to give up any idea of continuing the offensive; a decision to which he was compelled by the low fighting strength of his troops and the bad autumn weather, which was affecting their health.[114] The frequent downpours of rain during November had caused a constant rising of the water-level, and it became urgently necessary to provide regular reliefs for the troops, for they were worn out by the constant fighting under such bad weather conditions. Clear signs of exhaustion in the enemy's ranks on the front opposite the Fourth and Sixth Armies were also noticed. This permitted our gallant Fourth Army gradually to construct a good line of trenches and erect wire entanglements. As soon as these were completed rest-billets were allotted further to the rear and the men found quiet and pleasant quarters in the villages of Flanders untouched by war, with a not unfriendly population. The German General Staff fully concurred in the decision of the commander of the Fourth Army made on the 17th November. They at the same time expressed the hope that the Army would be prepared to hold its positions even against superior hostile forces. This expectation was completely fulfilled by the Fourth Army, and although at that time there were four and one-half French Corps, as well as the 25,000 Belgian troops, opposed to the forces of Duke Albert of Würtemburg, they never obtained a success of any consequence. The threat against our right flank ceased soon afterwards. British monitors appeared a few times towards the end of November off the roadstead of OSTEND. They bombarded the canal exit and our positions near by: but their fire was as ineffective as before. The 'glorious' activities of the British Grand Fleet along the Flanders coast came to a speedy end as soon as our ill-famed sea-rats, the U-boats, began to put in an appearance there.[115] The developments on the front of the Sixth Army during the second half of November 1914 were similar to those of the Fourth Army. For some time the sapping was continued, but from the 20th onwards strong detachments were taken from it and entrained for the Eastern Front, where General von Hindenburg was able, in the fighting round Lodz, to bring the Russian steam-roller to a standstill, and finally make it roll back again. From this time onwards the line of demarcation between the Fourth and Sixth Armies was the COMINES-YPRES canal. CONCLUSION