isposed for this operation between the
sea and the Lys comprised:

[Sidenote: German forces between the sea and the Lys.]

(1) The entire Fourth Army commanded by the Duke of Wuerttemberg,
consisting of one naval division, one division of Ersatz Reserve, (men
who had received no training before the war,) which was liberated by the
fall of Antwerp; the Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-sixth and
Twenty-seventh Reserve Corps, and the Forty-eighth Division belonging to
the Twenty-fourth Reserve Corps.

(2) A portion of another army under General von Fabeck, consisting of
the Fifteenth Corps, two Bavarian corps and three (unspecified)
divisions.

(3) Part of the Sixth Army under the command of the Crown Prince of
Bavaria. This army, more than a third of which took part in the battle
of Flanders, comprised the Nineteenth Army Corps, portions of the
Thirteenth Corps and the Eighteenth Reserve Corps, the Seventh and
Fourteenth Corps, the First Bavarian Reserve Corps, the Guards, and the
Fourth Army Corps.

(4) Four highly mobile cavalry corps prepared and supported the action
of the troops enumerated above. Everything possible had been done to
fortify the "morale" of the troops. At the beginning of October the
Crown Prince of Bavaria in a proclamation had exhorted his soldiers "to
make the decisive effort against the French left wing," and "to settle
thus the fate of the great battle which has lasted for weeks."

[Sidenote: Importance of thrusts in Flanders.]

[Sidenote: German plan in Flanders.]

On October 28, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria declared in an army order
that his troops "had just been fighting under very difficult
conditions," and he added: "It is our business now not to let the
struggle with our most detested enemy drag on longer * * * The decisive
blow is still to be struck." On October 30, General von Deimling,
commanding the Fifteenth Army Corps (belonging to General von Fabeck's
command), issued an order declaring that "the thrust against Ypres will
be of decisive importance." It should be noted also that the Emperor
proceeded in person to Thielt and Courtrai to exalt by his presence the
ardor of his troops. Finally, at the close of October, the entire German
press incessantly proclaimed the importance of the "Battle of Calais."
It is superfluous to add that events in Poland explain in a large
measure the passionate resolve of the German General Staff to obtain a
decision in the Western theatre of o