by Paul Van Pul
By now the position of the squadron was more precarious than ever. owing to the batteries that the Germans had concealed all along the occupied coast, it was increasingly difficult for the vessels to get any appreciable results from their fire. Solely by constantly keeping on the move at high speed could heavy casualties be avoided. Also the threat of submarine attack was growing daily.
Sensing the importance of this successful and certainly undisturbed opening of the North Vaart gates Captain Thys immediately asked High Command to have the Five-Bridges Road and the lock complex re-occupied.
It is not clear though if his request was fulfilled right away. We should keep in mind that, from the coastline up to and including Nieuport, French units had taken over the front. Only at the Goose Foot, Belgian engineers still had some control over the situation. This improvised patchwork of various units from different nationalities did not simplify the chain of command. Somewhat later a French soldier apparently captured sixty prisoners in the lock house near the Bruges Canal, north of the Yser which indicates that the French had at least moved onto the lock platform.
Maintaining the flooding and at the same time keeping the Allied lines dry was the main role of the inundation company. Here we see a temporary grave for a fallen soldier in the water a few metres behind the railway embankment, just south of Nieuport in January 1915.
Nieuport 1914–1918, R. Thys, 1922.
The flood seen from the church tower in Nieuport, early in the war. one can see the sharp line between the water (left) and the dry land behind the railway (see the arrow).
Nieuport 1914–1918, R. Thys, 1922.
Later in the day, with a better understanding of the changing hydraulic conditions, Thys proposed to speed up the flood by also opening the Furnes and Ypres locks. But in his book he rather cynically commented: ‘They do not want to act too quickly.’
As said earlier, the military engineers preferred to use locks doors to lift gates to attempt a flood in the battle zone. The choice of the Furnes Lock was a logical and feasible proposal, especially in combination with the East Vaart Lock or through the ruptured dyke along the canal. His suggestion to also use the Ypres Lock – the one on the Yser – looks less obvious to us. Unless the captain had another plan in mind.
Since the opening of the levee between the Furnes Canal and the North Vaart had now become useless with the cancellation of the push of water from Dunkirk, the ruptured dyke would be repaired in the following days.
Around 12:00 sloughs started to appear in the fields across the railway between Ramscappelle and Pervyse. The Germans occupying Ramscappelle, when looking back, realized that they were being cut off from their own lines by slowly rising water. Captain otto Schwink, an officer of the Imperial German Staff wrote:
At 11:30 however, a General Staff officer … reported that the attack could not be continued owing to the constant rising of the water. What had happened? on the morning of the 30th the advancing troops had been up to their ankles in water; then it had gradually risen until they were now wading up to their knees, and they could scarcely drag their feet out of the clay soil … The rise of the waters was attributed to the torrential rain of the previous few days, and it was hoped that on approach of dry weather the excellent system of canals would soon drain it off. But the rising flood soon prevented the movement of wagons … the green meadows were covered with dirty, yellowish water and the general line of the roads was only indicated by houses and the rows of partly covered trees. It soon became evident that the enemy must have blown up the canal sluices and called in the sea to his aid.
In the late afternoon the water emerged in the trenches still held by the Belgians across the railway south of old-Stuyvekenskerke, 11km from the Spanish Lock. While the North Vaart Gates had only been opened once, by now five tides had automatically passed through the Spanish Lock.
In the evening, encouraged by the success of the past night, Captain Umé, Geeraert and their three assistants repeated their endeavour on the North Vaart Gates structure. This time the covering Carabineers detachment was under command of Lieutenant Penneman. Amazingly enough, again they carried out their work without being detected by the enemy.
Finally the Germans had to concede defeat. During the night General von Beseler, commanding the Third German Reserve Army Corps, ordered the bulk of his troops to withdraw from the west bank back across the Yser River. A few small detachments were left behind in Ramscappelle and near Pervyse.
At 06:00 on 31 october, the Franco-Belgian assault on Ramscappelle, supported by French artillery, was renewed: to the north and north-west two Belgian battalions, one of the 14th and one of the 6th de Ligne Regiment, to the south and south-west the French 16th Chasseurs Regiment, reinforced by the two other battalions of the 14th and 6th and eight Senegalese companies.
Marcel Senesael, an Yser veteran himself, described what the men of the 6th de Ligne endured south of Ramscappelle:
As always, having started off before breakfast, the men had to fight on an empty stomach. In the heavy, soaked clay soil they lost their clogs that had replaced their worn-out shoes. Each dash forward was more demanding than the previous one: the fire got more concentrated and the tiredness increased. At about ten o’clock the officers allowed the men to take a break in the shelter of a water filled ditch. Suddenly, from behind Jockveld Farm, loud voices reverberated across the wet killing fields. Agile like cats, a row of unfamiliar soldiers crossed the Koolhof Vaart, fanned out and took up positions nearby. Wide trousers, slim stature and red headgear on a brown face: these were Zouaves.
The Nieuport Road – now Ramskapelle Street – at the railway crossing in 1914. Today the E40 freeway from Brussels to Dunkirk passes here high above on a massive, modern-day embankment.
Nieuport 1914–1918, R. Thys, 1922.
As it happened these southerners were on their way to take up positions south-west of Violon Farm.
Around 14:00 the exits of the village were again in Franco-Belgian hands and soon afterwards the last remaining Germans were killed or chased back into the muddy waters across the railway. Meanwhile, further south the troops had also regained control over the entire length of the railway embankment. Near the Pervyse station sixty Germans surrendered to the French. Around old-Stuyvekenskerke though, where the water had not yet attained critical levels, the enemy still tried to mount an attack southwards to cut off the Franco-Belgian stronghold of Dixmude but again they failed.
The threat of German submarines off the Belgian coast was becoming more menacing with each passing day. The seaplane-carrier Hermes, which had arrived in Dunkirk the previous day, sailed again for Dover but around 10:00 she was torpedoed and sunk eight miles west-north-west of Calais. This incident raised the question whether the risk the Dover Patrol was now running was worth the results it could still achieve. The enemy batteries were now so well concealed in and behind the dunes that shore bombardment was becoming practically useless. The battleship Venerable was therefore ordered to return to England and instead the old battleship Revenge was being prepared at Portsmouth as a bombardment vessel.
The old Revenge, would later on still serve well on the extreme left flank of the Western Front. Completed in 1894 the ship floated a formidable array of firepower: four 343-mm guns, ten 152-mm, sixteen 6-pounders and twelve 3-pounders. In Portsmouth in Otober 1914 bulges were fitted as defence against mines and torpedoes, together with an early form of minesweeping gear. While operating off the Belgian coast in 1914-15 she was often heeled by flooding one of the bulges to increase the elevation of her guns. When the stocks of 343-mm shells ran out her guns were relined to 305-mm that increased their effective range to 14.6km. In August 1915 she was renamed Redoubtable but soon afterwards the vessel was decommissioned.
The situation around Ypres meanwhile, 25km to the south, was becoming acute for the BEF. General Foch visited Sir John French at 02:00 on 31 october to discuss the situation. The Field Marshal was again pondering this ‘Dunkirk option’. He wrote in his
memoirs 1914:
To me, indeed, it seemed as though our line at last was broken. If this were the case, the immense numerical superiority of the enemy would render retreat a very difficult operation, particularly in view of the fact that Ypres and the river Yser lay in our immediate rear.
That night Captain Umé and Henry Geeraert lifted the gates of the North Vaart for the third time, amazingly again without enemy interference.
The next day, All Saints’ Day, was a Sunday. The royal couple went to mass at 08:30. Contrary to what they had experienced during the previous months, the air was filled with calmness, no war sounds could be heard. Occasionally the sun managed to break through the clouds, bringing some welcome relief from the sharp cold brought on by a stiff south-easterly breeze.
In spite of the fact that the German bombardment started around eleven o’clock, the enemy was now in full retreat: north-east of Pervyse they blew up the bridge across the Great Beaverdyke Vaart, as such cutting the road Pervyse-Schoorbakke. By nightfall they only held on to a few sites west of the river: the village of St Georges and the Union Bridge in the north and the Great Hemme Farm and the Schoorbakke Bridge in the centre. In the south they stuck to the higher ground around Den Toren en Vandewoude farms.
The Noble Rose restaurant in Furnes. A shell hit the upper floor while Robert Thys was having dinner downstairs. The historic house, built in 1572, was restored a first time in 1890. In 1906 the German poet Reiner Maria Rilke stayed here, while during the Great War the French nuclear physicist, Marie Curie, visited briefly.
Nieuport 1914–1918, R. Thys, 1922.
The Noble Rose today. The famous inn was restored after the war while a third restoration took place in 2000. Since the war the American Allen family have been godparents of the building.
With the Venerable gone and the Revenge not yet having arrived there was not much firepower left to Admiral Hood. So as the front was rather calm he decided to give his sailors a break and kept his flotilla in port.
While Captain Thys was having lunch at the Noble Rose Restaurant in Furnes at 13:00, a 150-mm shell suddenly came in through the façade above the main entrance and exploded on the first floor, blowing out windows and roof tiles. After that every five minutes or so a shell landed somewhere in town until 16:30. All in all twenty-five shells of 105 and 150-mm calibre were counted. The attack caused a lot of nervous excitement and created a new wave of refugees fleeing in the direction of Adinkerke and La Panne. As the closest German lines were still 11km away everyone wondered how a German gun could fire that far. The panicky atmosphere did quieten down somewhat with the arrival of King Albert. The monarch stayed the whole afternoon at General Headquarters.
Because of the still rising water the last German troops around old-Stuyvekenskerke too were forced to retreat across the river.
Again – and this would be the last time in order to achieve the set flood level – Umé and Geeraert opened the North Vaart Gates in the evening.
On All Souls’ Day, 2 November, Belgian reconnaissance patrols on the inundated polder confirmed that the Germans were still occupying some farms west of the river. These were apparently being fortified with several machine guns each. Other patrols, the next day, were able to reach Lombartzyde and St Georges; some men even crossed the Yser and reached as far as Mannekensvere.
As a result of this encouraging news Belgian troops quickly re-occupied the locks and the immediate vicinity. Until the end of the war this bridgehead was to stay in allied hands.
A few days later the Germans would deal a last major blow to the Belgian Yser front. on 10 November 1914, in a murderous battle the exposed and indeed fragile bridgehead of the town of Dixmude was lost to the enemy.
With the coastal route to Dunkirk firmly locked by the floodwater the enemy shifted his attention more to the south. The next major access road to the Channel ports passed through the Belgian town of Ypres, an unassuming, quiet, Flemish locality until then mainly known for its imposing and beautiful thirteenth century, gothic Clothmakers’ Hall. The Germans would now focus all their strength on this communications centre in order to force a breakthrough.
Detail of the lift mechanism of one of the doors of the now abandoned gates of the Nieuwendamme Creek on the Yser. only the lockkeepers could lift the doors as they carried the handles with them.
But the BEF was waiting for them. While the Belgians had secured one small part of their country, Sir John French was not going to disappoint their king. He would hold on to that other parcel of Belgium that was still free: Ypres.
And the rest is history.
NOTE
1.
one battalion of the 14th de Ligne, one battalion of the 8th Algerian Tirailleurs, one of the 4th Zouaves (French light infantry) and the 16th Battalion chasseurs.
Chapter XVI
After the Battle
Detracting from its strategic importance the Battle of the Yser River is better known to the outside world as The First Phase of The First Battle of Ypres’. When on 3 November 1914 large tracts of land had disappeared under water the front stabilized between the North Sea and Dixmude. But it had all come at a tremendous high price for King Albert’s small conscript army: almost one third of the infantrymen that had gone into battle two weeks earlier were now killed, wounded or missing. As always total figures vary somewhat but historian A. Peteau gives a figure for 31 October:
But the losses for the Belgian Army had been considerable: they could be estimated at 14,000 men killed or wounded. The infantry had been reduced from 48,000 to 32,000 rifles….
For the remainder of the war the Germans stayed east of the Yser, seemingly comfortable with the status quo in this sector. The Belgians were physically in control of the drainage of the region but the enemy would quickly vent his anger over measures taken at the Goose Foot that did not suit him by bombarding the locks angrily and ferociously.
The next four years Captain – later Captain Commandant – Robert Thys led a specialized company of sappers-pontoneers that maintained the floods. Thys surrounded himself with a handful of officers, in civilian life experts in hydraulics and mathematics. Together they succeeded in extending the flooding considerably, mainly east and south of Dixmude, always into German occupied territory.
Along the 33km stretch of flooded no man’s land bordering the Yser River and Ypres Canal a unique pattern of brown water warfare developed: an intricate system of well-camouflaged listening posts was established by both sides and daring nightly raids in flat-bottomed boats were conducted regularly to capture prisoners, collect information or silence annoying enemy positions.
In spite of frequent artillery bombardments the pontoneers kept the drainage control structures in Nieuport operational throughout the war. In 1918 though, before the final Allied offensive, the Germans practically obliterated all the sluices and locks.
After the war Robert Thys returned to civilian life building a career first in the Belgian Congo, later on in Belgium. He was promoted lieutenant colonel (Reserve) in 1934. Four years later failing health forced him to resign from military duty. With mischievous enthusiasm and full of geniality he could talk about the more picturesque side of his role in October 1914, as if it had been one adventurous hunting game. But when it came to ‘my men’ he would invariably stress their heroic devotion to their work. Besides, his men would have gone through hell for their commander. For all of them he was like an older brother who not only looked after their physical well-being but also their social and cultural wants. Until his death in 1964 he would chair an annual reunion of ‘his’ sappers-pontoneers in Nieuport.
In November 1914 Captain Umé managed to create another large flood east of Dixmude. He opened the Ypres Lock at spring tide in Nieuport and pushed water through the Yser all the way past Dixmude by way of the Handzaeme Vaart. Here we see the Handzaeme Vaart in more peaceful times in the centre of Dixmude.
Historical prints collection Renée Beever.
Captain Fernand Umé left the Inundati
on Service shortly after the events to head various telegraph units. In 1920 he was appointed Professor of Electricity at the Royal Military Academy, a post he held for the next thirty-two years. In 1945 he was promoted lieutenant general (Reserve).
After October Charles Cogge, the elderly supervisor of the Furnes North Water withdrew to his home in Furnes. He had informed Nuyten about the workings of the drainage in the region, he had guided Jamotte along the railway embankment and had brought Thys to the Spanish Lock in the middle of the night. He had accomplished his duties.
At the age of fifty-one Henry Geeraert, the daring bargee, stayed with the pontoneers and manoeuvred the locks for the rest of the war. He became known to the soldiers as ‘father Henry’ and worked with them as an equal, under the most dangerous of circumstances. Already during the war he became the legendary symbol of stubborn, civilian resistance to the Boche. Like tens of thousands of others he paid dearly for his life in the trenches. He passed away in an asylum in Bruges in the afternoon of 17 January 1925. Early the next morning King Albert himself alighted at the home to salute his deceased compatriot.
The bust of Charles Cogge on a high pedestal in North Street in Furnes.
Author’s photo archive.
Henry Geeraert, too, got his bust. Perhaps not quite inappropriately placed above a tavern in front of the Furnes Lock in Nieuport. Oral tradition has it that here Geeraert, Umé and their platoon waited anxiously to return to the North Vaart that fateful night of 29 October.