Meanwhile, in the Dunes sector, two British Battalions, in spite of their gallant resistance, were forced back upon the river. Of these, only four officers and seventy men escaped, by swimming across during the night.
The Germans on the right bank of the river occupied the Dunes.
The pressure on Nieuport increased, but the Yser remained impassable.
In 1918 (September 28), the great liberating offensive, under the command of King Albert, was launched in the plains, to the east of Dixmude, and Ypres. On October 16, the Belgian 5th Division, east of Nieuport, charged from the famous islets in front of the Yser. The enemy, badly shaken, retreated, closely followed by the Belgians, who harried their rear-guards and completely swept the coast to a point beyond Ostend.
Nieuport, terribly ravaged by four years of the fiercest fighting at its very gates, was at last delivered.
On January 25, 1920, in the presence of King Albert and the Burgomaster, President Poincaré conferred the Croix de Guerre with the following mention on the indomitable city:
"Martyred City, involved in all the vicissitudes of a desperate struggle lasting four years, Nieuport maintained intact her faith in the future, in spite of all her trials.
Her ruins bear witness to the heroism of her defenders and to the bravery of her inhabitants."
Nieuport. Furnes Canal Lock (Nov. 11, 1915)