|
|
The Battle of the IJzer
Belgium was a neutral country, her neutrality guaranteed by France, the United Kingdom and the German Empire. The Germans tore up the guarantee on 4 August 1914. Thirty-eight divisions of the German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies (some 850,000 men) crossed the Belgian border. The plan was to overwhelm the tiny Belgian army of 200,000 before sweeping south to surround and destroy the French.
But the Belgians were not easily overwhelmed. While the British Expeditionary Force was busy crossing the Channel, the Belgians fought tenaciously, delaying the advance by a crucial day or two here and there, and harrying it at Antwerp. The Germans had expected to take Paris and overcome the French within 39 days; instead, they were forced to a standstill by the Allies in early September. So both the Germans and the Allies began to transfer forces northwards, towards the Channel ports, each one attempting to outflank the other as they pushed onwards.
Meanwhile the remnants of the Belgian army, retreating from Antwerp, turned and stood their ground on the left bank of the IJzer River north of Ieper. The German Fourth Army attacked them on 20 October. Two days later part of a German division managed to cross the river, forcing the Belgians back to the Nieuwpoort-Diksmuide railway line. At Diksmuide itself, 6,500 French Fusiliers-marins, sent as reinforcements, suffered 50 per cent losses. The line held, but for how much longer?
On 25 October, King Albert I, commander of the Belgian army, ordered the land behind the IJzer River to be flooded. On the coast at Nieuwpoort, the lock gates were opened before the next high tide and closed again before it began to ebb. With two high tides a day, it took several days to trap sufficient sea and block its various means of escape. But just as the Germans were about to make a final push on 29 and 30 October towards the Channel ports, the river and the flooded land became impassable. The Germans were compelled to retreat. Despite repeated attacks, the floodwaters secured the IJzer sector for the rest of the War.
