Admiral Ronarc'h.
Dixmude was none the less in imminent danger. German troops crossed the Yser at Tervaete, and slipped along the left bank of the river with the intention of turning the position. In the thick of the battle and in spite of the incessant frontal attacks, Admiral Ronarc'h dispatched two battalions to the threatened point. Although the men were "half-dead with the cold and lack of sleep", a front was improvised between the Yser Canal and the embankment of the Nieuport-Dixmude railway. The manœuvre was a difficult one, but by prodigies of heroism the new line stood firm and became fixed.
On the 24th, a bombardment of unprecedented intensity was opened on the town and its defences, including the station of Caeskerke, where the Admiral's headquarters were situated, but the defenders held their ground unflinchingly under the terrible deluge of flying splinters. Towards evening, the enemy made a tremendous effort against the bridgehead of Dixmude. Eleven assaults in the north and north-east sector, and fifteen assaults in the south-east sector were successively repulsed. The German dead accumulated in heaps, right up to the Allies' trenches. The struggle continued hand-to-hand until midnight, in pitch darkness, the men floundering blindly in the mud.
The Yser at Dixmude, after the war. (See opposite.)
Exhausted by their tremendous efforts the enemy gave way. Dixmude was still inviolate, but on the morrow, as soon as the morning mists had risen, the bombardment began again along the whole line. Little by little the town fell into ruins.
On the night of the 25th, a company of German infantry managed to slip into the town. About a hundred of them crossed the bridge-road and in close formation made a dash for Caeskerke, with fife and drum at their head. That the men were drugged, explains their foolhardy exploit. A few prisoners, including several Belgian doctors, Commandant Jeanniot and some marines were captured. Held up soon afterwards, the Germans attempted to get back to their lines, shooting most of their prisoners at dawn. The doctors and a quarter-master alone were spared, being eventually delivered by a section of French Marines.
The troops under Colonel Jacques, exhausted by the struggle, were relieved by two battalions of Senegalese and a battalion of the Belgian 1st Line Regiment.
Keeping up their daily bombardment, the enemy now directed their main effort between Nieuport and Dixmude. However, they were held by the inundations which soon spread southwards. Moreover, the ceaseless rain had transformed the ground into a veritable sea of mud, which gradually invaded the trenches. Shivering with cold and fever, and up to their knees in slime, the Marines still stood firm.