On the German side General von Buelow held the front against General Maud’huy, the Bavarian Crown Prince against General Smith-Dorrien, while the Duke of Wuerttemberg commanded the forces on the balance of the line to the sea.  It is estimated that upward of thirty army corps covered the German front.

Throughout the balance of October, 1914, and well into November, 1914, a great many different actions and some of the heaviest fighting of this period took place all along this line.  On the 21st the new German formations pressed forward in great force all along the line.  On the south of the Lys the Germans assaulted Violaines.  On the north of the Lys in the English center a fiercely contested action took place near La Gheir, which village the Germans captured in the morning.  The German Twenty-sixth Reserve Corps pressed on to Passchendale, where they met with stout resistance from the English-Belgian forces.

On October 22, 1914, the Germans attacked from the La Bassee region and gained several small villages.  Both Allies and Germans suffered immense lasses.  Much of the slaughter was due to the point-blank magazine fire and the intermittent shrapnel explosions from bath sides.

The mast savage fighting was kept up all along the line, but no advantage accrued ta either side until Friday, October 28, 1914, when the Germans succeeded in crossing the Yser at St. George and forcing their way two miles to Ramscapelle; retaken on the 30th by General Grossetti.  This was accomplished by General von Beseler’s troops, opposing the mixed troops of the Belgian and French.  On that night fourteen separate attacks were made by the Germans on Dixmude and they were repulsed each time.

On October 24, 1914, about 5,000 German troops crossed the canal at Schoorbakke and next day there were more to come, so for the moment it looked as though the allied line on the Yser had been broken.  The struggle at this point continued until October 28, during which time the Allies contested every inch of ground.  The kaiser was with the Duke of Wuerttemberg on this day, expecting every moment that his great design to break through the lines and drive his forces to Dunkirk and Calais would be accomplished.

At the crisis the Belgians broke dawn the dykes and flooded the country for miles around.  Heavy rains during the last weeks had swelled the Yser.  The Belgians had dammed the lower reaches of the canal; the Yser lipped over its brim and spread lagoons over the flat meadows.  Soon the German forces on the west bank were floundering in a foot of water, while their guns were waterlogged and deep in mud.  The Germans did not abandon their efforts.  The kaiser called for volunteers to carry Ramscapelle—­two Wuerttemberg brigades responded—­and gained the place, but at terrible loss.

On the 30th of October, 1914, again the Wuerttembergers advanced to the attack.  They waded through sloppy fields from the bridgeheads at St. George and Schoorbakke, and by means of table taps, boards, planks and other devices crossed the deeper dykes.  So furious was the attack pressed home that they won the railway line and held their ground.  They were to do some severe fighting, however, for next day French-Belgian and African mixed troops fought fiercely to drive the Germans back but failed.