Battle of the Yser The Battle of the Yser ( , ) was a battle which took place in October 1914 between the towns on Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide along a long stretch of the Yser river and Yperlee canal in Belgium . The front line was held by a large Belgian force which succeeded in halting the German advance , though only after heavy losses . After two months of defeats and retreats , the battle of Yser finally halted the invasion that gave Germans control of over 95 % of Belgian territory . Victory in the battle allowed Belgium to retain control of a sliver of its territory while making King Albert a Belgian national hero and sustaining national pride and provided a venue for commemorations of heroic sacrifice for the next century . Strategic Context . As part of the execution of the Schlieffen Plan , Belgium had been invaded by Germany . Following the Siege of Antwerp , the remnants of the Belgian Army were pushed back to the far west corner of the country , and decided to make a stand behind a 22 - mile long front on the Yser Canal as the Germans tried to reach the English Channel ports of Calais and Dunkerque . Just to the south the First Battle of Ypres took place at the same time as the Battle of the Yser and both battles concluded a series of unsuccessful flanking manoeuvres by the belligerents and established the trench lines of the Western front . The battle . The entire Belgian Army was deployed to defend the front . The troops were exhausted and low on ammunition after two months of retreat . France reinforced the Belgians with 6 , 000 marines and an infantry division . The German forces comprised the newly organized German Fourth Army , commanded by the Duke of Württemberg , with portions of three other armies , along with cavalry and heavy artillery units . It moved southwards from Bruges and Ostend in the direction of the Yser river . Its mission was to take the line from Nieuwpoort to Ypres . The Allies also assembled a naval force under British Admiral Horace Hood of the Royal Navy . Three monitor s ( " Severn " , " Humber " and " Mersey " ) from this force bombarded German forces in Lombardsijde from the sea . The city of Diksmuide was first attacked on 16 October 1914 and defended by Belgian and French troops under Colonel Alphonse Jacques who would later be awarded the title " de Dixmude " for his role in the defence of the city . Despite heavy losses , the Belgians and French held the town . The press , politicians , literary figures and the military channeled public opinion , making out that the defence of the town was both strategic and heroic . On 18 October the German offensive started . It overran the frontal defense positions of the Belgian , British and French armies along a line stretching from Nieuwpoort down to Arras in France . The objective was to defeat the Belgian and French armies and to deprive the British of access to the harbours of Calais , Boulogne and Dunkirk . It took four days of heavy fighting before the German troops to drive the allies back and reach the banks of the Yser . On 21 October , the Germans were able to establish a small bridgehead on the other side of the river . The last bridge was blown up on 23 October . Diksmuide bore the brunt of repeated German offensives and bombardments , yet the town was still not taken . The French high command planned to flood large parts of their territory as a defensive measure . This would have put the Belgian army in the impossible choice of being trapped between the flood and the Germans , or else abandoning the last part of unoccupied Belgium . The plan was postponed since the Belgian army itself had started preparations to flood the area between the Yser and its tributary canals . On 25 October , the German pressure on the Belgians had grown so large that a decision was taken to inundate the entire Belgian front line . After an earlier failed experiment on 21 October , the Belgians successfully managed to open the sluices at Nieuwpoort during the nights of 26 to 29 October during high tides , steadily raising the water level until an impassable flooded area was created about a mile wide and stretching as far south as Diksmuide . Two sluiceworkers , and , became national heroes in Belgium for their role in the inundations . On 29 October , Diksmuide finally fell to German forces . The Germans launched another large attack on the Yser on 30 October . The attack punched through the Belgian second line , and they took Ramskapelle and Pervijze . The attack was stalled by Belgian and French counterattacks . The final attack , planned for the next day was called off , when the attacking Germans became aware of the flooding of the land in their rear . They withdrew in the night before 31 October and the front on the Yser stabilized . The fighting continued though until 22 November further south , in the First Battle of Ypres . Importance . The historical importance of the Battle of the Yser is twofold . First , Germany did not manage to defeat the Belgian army and knock Belgium out of the war . Second , the German failure to occupy the last corner of Belgium helped to conclude the Race to the Sea and led to the establishment static trench warfare along the Western Front . The struggle of the Belgian army to hold on to its territory during the remainder of the war , and especially the experiences of ordinary Flemish infantrymen , led to an increase in Flemish national sentiment and the foundation of the " Frontbeweging " , the first party of the Flemish Movement , in 1917 .