| The Battlefield Tour
The battlefield tour lasts around 5 hours and is one of 12 tours in our book Western Front - North. Dixmuide is visited as part of the Yser River battles.
The Fighting
The battles of the Yser river began at the very beginning of the First World War. In October 1914 the headlong German invasion was stopped by the small Belgian army using the river Yser and the railway line between the towns of Dixmuide and Nieuwpoort on the Channel coast.
Although Dixmuide itself fell to the Germans, the Belgians flooded the land by opening the sluice gates at Nieupoort and apart from a small incursion at Tervate, stopped by a gallant bayonet charge, the Germans never crossed the river.
On the edge of the town is the International Peace Centre of the tall Ijzer Tower with its memorials and now splendid museum which has excellent dioramas and tells without bias the story of the difficulties between the French and Flemish elements of the Belgian forces.
Alongside the Yser are the preserved Trenches of Death with a small reception building manned by the Belgian army. |
