After capturing Antwerp the Germans pushed on to Ostend, an “open” or unfortified town, and occupied it with slight resistance from the Belgian army, which was reforming its broken ranks to the south, between Ostend and the French frontier, and preparing to contest the passage of the Kaiser’s forces across the River Yser.  Moving northward from Lille, the Allies encountered the Germans at Armentieres, which was occupied by a Franco-British force and there was also fierce fighting at Ypres, where there is a canal to the sea.  For more than a week the Belgians gallantly held the banks of the Yser in spite of the utmost endeavors of the Germans to cross, and it was not until October 24 that the latter finally succeeded in getting south of the river, with the French seaport of Dunkirk as their next objective point.  Bloody engagements were fought at Nieuport, Dixmude, Deynze and La Bassee.

At this time the battle line formed almost a perpendicular from Noyon in France north to the Belgian coast, south of Ostend.  A battle raged for several days in West Flanders and Northern France and both sides claimed successes.  The losses of the Allies and the Germans were estimated in the thousands and the wounded were sent back to the rear by the trainful.  In the Flemish territory the flat nature of the terrain, with its numerous canals and almost total absence of natural cover, made the losses especially severe.  The passage of the Yser cost the Germans dearly and Dixmude was strewn with their dead.  And their advance could get no farther.

The necessity of holding the French ports, Dunkirk and Calais, was fully realized by the Allies, who threw large reinforcements into their northern line.  The Germans also drew heavily on their center and left wing to reinforce the right, and for a while the forces opposing one another at the extreme western end of the battle front were greater than at any other point.  The Germans were firmly held on a line running from south of Ostend to Thourout, Roulers and Menin, the last mentioned place being on the border north of Lille.  Flanking attacks being no longer possible, as the western flanks of both armies rested on the North Sea, the Germans were compelled to make a frontal assault along the line formed by the Belgian frontier.  As the Belgian troops, assisted by a British naval brigade, were pushed back from the Yser, they were gradually merged into the army of the allies, by whom they were received with the honors due the men who had made, for twelve long weeks, such a gallant and determined defense of their country against invasion and despoilment.

BRITISH WARSHIPS AID BELGIANS

Soon after the German occupation of Ostend, several British warships shelled the German positions in and around the city and aided in hampering the German advance along the coast.  The principal vessels engaged in this work were three monitors which were being completed in England for the Brazilian government when the war started and which were bought by the admiralty.