enius of man seemed
to be at a standstill. But all this activity and preparation at the
front meant a greater activity in the rear of the opposing lines.
Fighting men were a necessity; but, under existing conditions of
warfare, they were useless unless they were kept supplied by an army
of artisans and another army of men to transport munitions to the
soldiers on the firing line. In fact it was being forced on the minds
of the commanding officers that the war could be won in the workshop
and laboratory rather than on the battle field.

CHAPTER XXVI

BELGO-GERMAN OPERATIONS

For the most part the activity of the Belgian army in February, 1915,
consisted of a continuous succession of advanced-post encounters, in
which detachments of from thirty to forty soldiers fought with the
Germans on the narrow strips of land which remained inundated, while
the artillery of the contending forces bombarded the trenches and the
machine-gun forts. The intermittent artillery duel continued through
the forepart of February, 1915, and on February 14, 1915, the Germans
bombarded Nieuport, Bains and the Dune trenches, and continued the
bombardment on February 15, 1915, and again on February 20, 1915.

Near Dixmude on February 28, 1915, the Belgian artillery demolished
two of the German trenches, and their infantry occupied a farm on the
right bank of the Yser. One of their aviators dropped bombs on the
harbor station at Ostend.

By the beginning of March, 1915, strips of dry land began to be seen
in the flooded region; and, along these, the Belgians advanced at
Dixmude and the bend of the Yser. They won additional bridgeheads on
the northern bank of the river. By the middle of the month, March,
1915, the Belgians had obtained a strategical point by possessing
Oudstuyvenkerke on the Schoorbakke highway. From there they could
force the Germans back until they were in a position that would
prevent any German action against the Dixmude bridgehead.

On March 18, 1915, the Belgian army continued its progress on the
Yser, and on March 23, 1915, the artillery destroyed several German
observation points. A division of the Belgian army made some progress
on the right bank of the Yser on March 24, 1915; while another was
taking a German trench on the left bank. The almost continuous
artillery fighting was more active in the Nieuport region on March 26,
1915; and farther south a farm north of St. Georges in advance of the
allied lines wa