The trenches stop here

By the middle of October the German army which had invaded Belgium some ten weeks before hand was staging its final manoeuvres to occupy the entire country. Antwerpen had been taken, King Albert I of the Belgians had been forced back with his little army and an attempt by Britain to relieve Antwerpen had failed before seeing the town.

The reason war had arrived to this seaside town was simple. Following the opening battles of the war and the check to the German forces at the Marne and Aisne in September, the only way now for the two lumbering giants of Germany and France to win was to outflank the other and roll down the lines.

Battles had been fought like this before but in those days it had been across fields not countries that the troops would be manoeuvring.

A race was on for the coast, but the Allies had one card left to play. King Albert, had refused to hand his battered soldiers over to either the French or British, who both felt that they would know how to manage them better (they would say the same to America's General Patton, who would also stubbornly refuse the kind offer). He did, however, offer to hold the coast for as long as it would take the French and the British Expeditionary Force to plug the current gap.

What happened over the following few weeks became known as the Battle of the Yser.

An overview of the Battle of the Yser

The memorial to King Albert I

King Albert I Memorial from the Sluice Gates

Opposite the sluice gates of the IJzer irrigation system you can see this fine monument erected in memory of Albert I.

Designed by Julien de Ridder and inaugurated on 24 July 1938 it represents a crown raised upon ten columns. In the centre King Albert is depicted on his horse.

For a small fee it is possible to climb up the spiral staircase (Or take the lift) to the balcony where a commentary can be had in English on the events that happened here.

The balcony gives out onto excellent views over the sluice gates (which because of their formation are known locally as the goose's foot) the Yser Monument, and on the other side the British Memorial.

It is also quite easy to see the IJzer estuary and the sea giving a clear impression of just how strategically important the town was.

The trenches did indeed stop here.

Controlling the flow of the water

It is all too easy in the mind to imagine that the execution of the decision to flood the polders and thus save not only this corner of Belgium but also the British and French Armies, was a simple one.

This was far from the case and even getting some of the old sluice gates open took two days. In addition Belgian engineers had to be certain that they could control where and when the flood waters would go. To this end culverts were damned and a special unit called the Sapeurs-Pontonniers was created in September 1915.

It was their task to regulate the flow of water into the flooded area.

There are a number of plaques commemorating these men in the town but this small monument recalls Lieutenant Leopold Calberg who was killed at this spot on 16 October 1917. Flooding kept the enemy soldiers at bay but not their shells.

The Yser Memorial

Inaugurated on 26 October 1930 the figure of La Belqique (I have no idea of what that should be in Flemish) clutches the Belgian crown as she turns to shelter it from German view.

Designed by the sculptor Pieter Bracke, she is surrounded by four soldiers. One is blind and one is wounded, the third ill whilst the fourth is fit and ready to resist the enemy.

The Belgian army would have more soldiers killed defending their part of the line than actually lived in Westhoek before the war.

In May 1938 the Belgian Minister for Defence summed up the Belgian Army's losses as follows:

23,858 soldiers killed in action
6,802 died as a result of wounds
10,450 died as a result of illness.

A total of: 41,110 soldiers.

The British Memorial

Standing guard around the British Memorial to the missing are three lions sculptured by C S Jagger who was also responsible for the relief work at the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing at Louverval.

The memorial commemorates the 566 soldiers who died but have no known grave from the Antwerp Expedition in October 1914 and the subsequent battles in this area in July 1917.

The bronze band around the base carries the names of the men grouped as always in regimental and rank order.

The inscription above the names are the famous words by Laurence Binyon.

Something that many people do not realise is that whilst the phrases have become known as The Exhortation, they are in fact in the middle of the poemm rather than a stirring finish.

Cambrai Memorial at Louverval