15.—The Flour-Mill of Dixmude.
How can one recall the battle of Dixmude without having before one’s eyes the vision of the flour-mill rising far above the ruins of the little Flemish town? One saw it in spite of oneself; in fact nearly always one felt its presence. During the four years of trench warfare it was the vigilant eye watch of the enemy. An eye with a look of fire and iron. An eye which had the command over powerful artillery, over numerous minenwerfers, and even over simple snipers who coldly struck down the imprudent and foolhardy ones who ventured to brave it, very often without being aware of it.
At the beginning of the war, a legend ran that the massif construction of the corn-mill was built by the Germans. The authorised opinion of E. Hosten in his book entitledthe Agony of Dixmudegives the lie to this assertion in the following terms: “It is quite evident at the present day that the platform of the huge cube of cement which formed the corn-mill of Dixmude was not erected on the shore of the Yser, solely to receive heavy German artillery which from that matchless observatory could have overlooked and swept-away all the surroundings”.
During the tragic days of the battle of the Yser (from the 17thto the 31stof October 1914) the bridge-head, created round Dixmude was preserved in spite of the many furious assaults of the enemy. It was the witness each day, each hour even, of incredible and superhuman tenacity and endurance on the part of the Belgian and French troops. Those brave soldiers were commanded by energetic, resolute and iron willed chiefs, whose fame has long classed them among the most accomplished men of the war. Let us suffice to mention the celebrated and famous names of Ronarch, Meiser and Jacques.
Dixmude.—The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1916.
Dixmude.—The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1916.
Dixmude.—The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1916.
Dixmude.The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1917.
Dixmude.The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1917.
Dixmude.The flour-mill (La minoterie) in 1917.
The corn-mill, in this position acted the double part of observatory and shelter for the defensive reserves. An observer connected with Colonel De Vleeschouwer, who was in command of the Belgian artillery in front of Dixmude, could, while placed on the platform of the building, direct the firing on all telling points, such as batteries of the enemy in action, troops on the march, preparations for attacks, etc....
The enemy did not allow our artillery such an advantage for long; the corn-mill was partly taken by the German batteries, which took great pleasure in directing blazing fires on that colossal building. The observer was forced to abandon his post, but nevertheless not without the satisfaction of having registered to the best advantage and conditions the first fires of our artillery.
The corn-mill, from that time, was simply utilized as the nest for the reserves of the bridge-head. A company, to which a platoon was sometimes added, composed its garrison.
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The night of the 25thto the 26thof October 1914 was marked, in the resistance of Dixmude, by a unique and singular incident.
In the evening of the 25th, groups of Germans had managed to creep into the intervening spaces of the trenches, situated between the railway line of Zarren and the road leading to Eessen, trenches which were guarded by troops physically exhausted, whose lines were considerably weakened by ten days of cruel and outrageous fighting. These groups of enemies formed themselves up again inside our lines. The night was as black as ink, and unfortunately the guns on the road of Eessen were jammed.
As soon as Lieutenant Simon of the 12thline was informed of the incident by one of his men, he immediately directed an intensive fire on the Germans, putting a great number out of the field. The others reformed on the road. Theywere about three hundred. Headed by the Major and accompanied by an enervating music of fifes, they penetrated in the town, firing on all lited points, such as fighting posts, shelters for troops, relief posts, killing and capturing on their passage all small and isolated groups of French and Belgian soldiers who were taken prisoners and forced to march in front to serve as shields.
Thanks to this infamous trick the German column arrived without incident as far as the bridge road. The latter was crossed by the allied soldiers followed up by the Germans, the Major included. The machine-gunners of the bridge only perceived their mistake when a hundred pick helmets had already passed over. They then opened a muzzle to muzzle fire on the rest of the column which went whirling over and was scattered in the town, leaving numerous dead and wounded on the pavement.
In the meanwhile the troops of the bridge-head were living the most thrilling moments of the battle. Nevertheless though much unnerved, they were maintained at their post, thanks to the marvelous calm and heroical energy of the officers who examined and rectified the occupation of the trenches.
And then, what an unutterable relief to the troops and their chiefs when they heard the guns firing on the bridge road proclaiming loudly that the line of the Yser still held good and that it had not been taken unawares!
Till dawn, the front of the bridge-head had to face at the same time, the positions of the enemy, and the town. It was not necessary. The Germans who had crossed the bridge, marched on at random. At a little distance at the East of the halt at Caeskerke, they soon ran up against a company of the 12thof the line in reserve. (The C. P. of the admiral was composed of a group of cyclist carabiniers re-enforced by their runners). Without fighting the enemy detachment turned South across the fields, and fell, without knowing, on our batteries and would have surprisedthem without help when fortunately the detachment was taken between the fires of several groups of French and Belgian soldiers and was encircled without difficulty. Not quick enough though, to prevent the said detachment of committing the most abominable crime: the massacre without mercy and without distinction of their prisoners.
Taken prisoners in their turn, the Germans could have been judged according to the regulations and an avalanche of shot would have sufficed to have stretched them out. But we were struggling for the Right; brought before Admiral Ronarch, he decided to have executed militarily the Germans who had shown themselves the most cruel in the massacre; three amongst these, recognized by the Belgian doctor Van der Ghinst, who had been taken prisoner during the night, and had escaped by miracle, were shot on the spot, the others were sent to the back.
As for the part of the German column which had not been able to cross the bridge, this was taken under the fires of the guns, and was, as we have already said, dispersed in all directions, endeavouring to seek refuge in the houses at Dixmude. The reserve garrisoned in the flour mill, awaken by the noise of the fighting and being at once acquainted with the situation, remained in place, ready to intervene.
The Germans, who tempted to take refuge in the corn-mill were shot down without ceremony, and at daylight patrols were sent in the town to search the houses, and arrest all those who were hidden there. The nightmare was ended, and confidence revived more than ever.
This trick of the Germans, which might have figured in their war annals, as a glorious page, simply lengthened the list of their crimes. On the other hand, it set of more than ever the admirable qualities of the French and Belgian armies: the confidence of the troops in their chiefs, their character and above all their generosity perhaps somewhat exaggerated when addressed to individuals deformed by a barbarous “Kultur”.
The action of the bridge-head ended with the battle of the Yser, the 1stof November 1914; anyhow for reasons purely moral, it was still kept there. The occupying troops were reduced.
The defensive artillery was also reduced in too large proportions owing to the reason that a great quantity of pieces had been disabled, moreover the munitions were deficient. Many empty ammunition limbers could not be replenished, already for several days the wants surpassed the means of supply.
The days of the 9thand 10thof November 1914 marked out the agony of Dixmude which began by a general bombardment of great violence, to which our twenty guns of 7c5, with only the aid of a few heavy french guns, could but attempt a retaliation.
The 3dbattalion of the 1stline regiment and two battalions of Singalese kept the bridge-head.
The 10th, about 7 o’clock, a first German assault failed before our lines, to the great astonishment of the enemy who was convinced that he had annihilated all our defences.
His plan of attack had to be completely altered. The XXIItharmy corps of reserve was charged with this mission. Three convergent columns took the South and East sectors as though in pincers. The artillery carried on an infernal fire, casting and sowing death in the trenches, in the town and on all accessible roads to our reserves.
The South sector resisted, the East one also, but unfortunately a portion of the trench, situated between the railway line and the road, and only guarded by the dead and wounded could no longer keep back the enemy who rushed the position and took it back handed. Then began a most terrific fight, the memory of which makes the ancients shudder. It was a serie of hand to hand fights, individual fights with the bayonet in the streets, in the houses, in the trenches, leaving on the ground at every step, the blood of the vanquisher as well as the vanquished.
Unfortunately the admiral disposes of no reserves at hand. He cannot untrim the bank of the Yser which will have to face the attack if continued, and endeavour to bar the crossing of the river.
And that is why under the pressure of numbers and after several hours of bloody struggle, the defenders of the bridge-head were forced to concentrate themselves in the corn-mill and in the trench preceding it. During several hours it is a resistance, where the resolute and determined courage of a few men, held the head to a numerous enemy which was struck down in heaps.
In the meantime, the bridging company had placed a foot bridge across the Yser at the western side of the corn-mill thus permitting the last defenders of Dixmude to cross the river, sheltered from the front fires of the infantry.
All our men re-entered the corn-mill. The order for the general retreat arrived. It was four o’clock p. m.
With heavy hearts, those brave troops who had fought like lions and who were determined to the last sacrifice leave their fortress of one day cast a last look on the smoking ruins of the town, on the corn-mill, which in its turn begins to burn (the fire was set during the defence by a french soldier), send a last and pious thought to all the gallant heroes who have just bravely fallen for their country, and the river is crossed.
Twenty-two officers and a large number of soldiers were missing at the roll call on the left bank.
The German attack attempts again the passage of the Yser, but it is annihilated. The artillery thunders, all the time, but the infantry holds, and will hold till the end.
Thus were the last spasms of the battle of the Yser, and the trench warfare begins.
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The Germans occupied Dixmude and the corn-mill. Our first line was staked out on the West of the Yser. From oneend to the other, positions were organized, fortified and armed according to the constant progress of the science of the new war, which transformed the sectors into real fortresses, whose smallest corners hid instruments of death.
The corn-mill did not escape German organization. Strong, it was already, but it was rendered undestroyable. The walls were used as lock ups for tons of concrete in the midst of which were disposed a series of shelters and posts of observation, which had nothing to fear even from the most enormous projectiles.
The corn-mill was a source of great suffering to our troops, not only by the watchmen, but by the minenwerfers that it sheltered. Our artillery made many desperate attempts to attack it. It only managed to round its cubic forms and to pulverize certain points of its bulk, but that was all.
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During the Franco-British offensive from August to October 1917, our staff thought, at a certain moment to be able to extend on our front the progression of the Allies. It was at the time of the long artillery preparations. Our batteries, re-enforced by numerous guns of heavy calibre of the allied armies, executed a systematic hammering on the enemy’s front, which after a few days enabled us to believe that the works of the enemy had been absolutely and thoroughly annihilated.
It was decided to ascertain and see the state of the upheaval. Consequently raids were undertaken on all the beaten front. They were a great success, except at the flour-mill.
On the nights of the 28thto 29thof October, on the 3dand 4thof November 1917, detachments of the 5thand 6thof the line regiment crossed the Yser with magnificent spirit. The South and North trenches of the flour-mill were cleaned outwithout great difficulty, but when the detailed group attacked the flour-mill, there was a reaction, and a painful one which cost the life to many a brave man, a reaction which proved once more, the power of inactive and inert substance against which courage is nothing. Through their invisible loop holes and under the thick armour of their shelters immersed in concrete, the few occupants of the flour-mill soon overpowered the will and determination of our troops, who were forced to retreat taking away with them their dead and wounded.
The Franco-British offensive could not be continued for several reasons, and our army resumed the life of the trenches which still lasted another year.
At last there was the liberating offensive.
The rapid progress of our troops forced the enemy to abandon Dixmude. Our soldiers entered there the 29thof September 1918 and settled there till the 15thof October, date of the second rush forward.
The town was nothing but a heap of ruins and the flour-mill a grey shapeless mass, which will perpetuate the remembrance of this long war and the numerous heroes fallen there under its blows.