La Vie En Rose for 2005 September 6

To relieve the pressure, the King gave the order to open the sluice-gates at Nieuport and let in the sea so that it flooded the area--about two miles wide wnad thrity long--between the Yser and teh Mixmude-Nieuport railway embankment to which the troops now fell back. The water came in so slowly that men cursed in in their impatience, and the enemy at some points waded through the rising waters to take some of the villages along the line, but the sea won. It reached a maximum hieght of four feet, and saved a tiny sliver of Belgium from German occupation. The surface of this immense artifical lagoon was broken by trees and telegraph poles, and on it drifted the corpses of soldiers, fish, and animals, together with helmets, empty cartridge-cases, and food-tins.