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Having abandoned Antwerp, the Belgian Field Army, with the French Marine Brigade, consolidated its positions between Dixmude and the coast near Nieuport. King Albert’s decision to stand there, rather than help his allies inland, proved sensible. On 14 October Falkenhayn ordered the German Sixth Army to remain temporarily on the defensive south of Ypres while the Fourth Army made the potentially decisive thrust between Menin and the sea, towards Calais. Its right, on the coast, would be covered by Beseler’s Third Reserve Corps, including units from the Antwerp operations.
Beseler’s attack on 18 October pushed back Belgian outposts east of the Yser, but further assaults on 19–20 October were repulsed at Dixmude and at Nieuport, where the Germans were shelled by Allied warships. Foch sent the French 42nd Division to stiffen the Nieuport sector, but on 22 October the Germans established a bridgehead across the Yser, at Tervaete. Once again employing their super-heavy guns, the Germans delivered repeated blows at Dixmude. As their losses grew it became progressively more difficult for the Belgians to continue their stubborn defence. Consequently, on 28 October they opened the gates of the Furnes lock at Nieuport and flooded the low ground east of the embankment carrying the Nieuport–Dixmude railway.
At first this desperate measure did not stop the Germans who, by noon on 30 October, had seized Ramscapelle and reached Pervyse. However, that night the rising water forced Beseler to pull Third Reserve Corps back across the Yser, followed, two days later, by 22 Reserve Corps. Frustrated near the coast, Falkenhayn and Duke Albrecht were obliged to turn their attention inland again and launch their next major attack in the Ypres area.
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