In the middle: Building road on piles.—Making a log road.
At bottom of page: Isolated Post surrounded by water, and raft used for revictualling same.—Front-line Post before the inundated plain.
THE VICTORY OFFENSIVE.
The general situation, when the offensive in Flanders was launched.
In 1918, after the fiasco of the enemy's Spring offensives, the initiative passed into the hands of the Allies. The latter, victorious on the Marne, Vesle, Aisne and before Compiègne, continued to press the enemy without respite. The battle spread northwards. On September 28, the "Liberty" Offensive in Flanders began. The group of armies operating in Flanders under the command of King Albert with General Degoutte as Major-General, comprised the valiant Belgian Army, the British 2nd Army, and the French 6th Army.
On the 28th the first two enemy positions, north and east of the Ypres Salient, were captured. On the 29th, the Belgian 4th Division following up this success and pivoting east of Dixmude, captured Eessen to the north and occupied the banks of the Handzaeme Canal (See p. [120]). Dixmude, outflanked on the north, fell.
All the heights of Flanders were now in the Allies' hands. In danger of being cut off, the Germans began to prepare their withdrawal from the Belgian Coast on September 28.
After an interruption of several days, owing to bad weather, the offensive was continued on October 14.