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VIA GHENT AND BRUGES TO OSTEND 271
miles away. The fire might easily have been directed on
Ostend itself. But this did not come to pass. At least I heard
nothing, for I slept like a log. When I awoke war had resumed
its thunders in the west.
22nd October. The British bombardment of the coastal zone
south of Ostend continued throughout the morning and was
still more severe than on the previous day. The window panes
in the hotel restaurant shook in their frames. We wondered
whether the deeper sounds emanated from newly arrived
German heavy artillery or from British naval guns.
Two German infantry detachments were occupying a line
running from north-west to south-east of the north-eastern
side of the Yser Canal. On the south-west side of the canal
the Belgians and British had entrenched themselves firmly ;
they also held Nieuport. The immediate German object was
to command the crossings of the canal, which in itself formed
a very valuable defensive work in the hands of the Allies. The
villages of Leffinghe and Slype and the road between them,
running south-east of Middelkerke, had been bombarded by
the enemy. Leffinghe was only six, Slype nine kilometres from
Ostend. The positions of the Germans were enormously
strong. They clearly did not intend to let go the advantage
they had gained, although encircled by fire from the north,
north-west, west, south-west and south, both from the sea
and from the land side. The Allies on the other hand realised
that every German advance west-south-westward, that is to
say towards Nieuport, Dunkerque and Calais, was, to say the
least, fatal to themselves. Hence the remnants of the Anglo-
Belgian Army, which had thought fit to leave Antwerp before
it was too late, had halted in its retreat after receiving con-
siderable reinforcements both from France and England, and
had offered a desperate resistance in fortified positions in the
western sector of Belgian Flanders, intersected by canals
and waterways. It will readily be understood what important
British interests were at stake. As soon as England herself
was in danger, the famous phlegm was transformed into un-
bridled hysteria.
Captain Tägert now suggested an excursion to Middel-
kerke, situated on the coast, eight kilometres from Ostend.
Captain-Lieutenant Bess and his adjutant were to accompany
me. We drove in the covered car of the former, following the
inner sea-road parallel with the shore, but separated from it
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