. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ew feet above the average one has an impression of vastness which is lacking in thetree-studded plain of the interior. On so low and so level a surface the problem of excess humidityis necessarily present in its most difficult form. With the wholebelt menaced by invasion from the sea on one side, by floodingfrom the rivers which flow into the lowland on the other side, bydeluges of rain from a leaden sky above, and by eruption of brack-ish water from the earth beneath; and with no chance fo
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . ew feet above the average one has an impression of vastness which is lacking in thetree-studded plain of the interior. On so low and so level a surface the problem of excess humidityis necessarily present in its most difficult form. With the wholebelt menaced by invasion from the sea on one side, by floodingfrom the rivers which flow into the lowland on the other side, bydeluges of rain from a leaden sky above, and by eruption of brack-ish water from the earth beneath; and with no chance for allthese waters to escape with the aid of mans labor, it must be evi- 10 Blanchard, La Flandre. p. 56. MARITIME BELT 43 dent that only a severe and never-ending struggle can keep theland fit for human habitation. The line of dunes must beguarded and strengthened, and breaches in them blocked by arti-ficial dikes. When during the great siege of Ostend in 1601 theDutch removed the dunes northeast of the town in order to pre-vent the Spaniards from attacking it on that side, the sea poured. Fig. is—Drainage ditches and canals in the maritime belt of theFlanders battlefield. through the gap and flooded many square miles of the maritimeplain. During the War of the Spanish Succession, when theFrench under Marshal Saxe were besieging the English base atOstend, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in vainurged his Dutch and Austrian allies to open the dikes and floodthe country as a measure of defense. In this case failure to profitby the natural topographic advantages of the region led to the fallof Ostend. In 1793 the French under Souham, besieged in Dun-kirk by the Allied armies, opened the sluices and deluged all the 44 BATTLEFIELD OF FLANDERS former marsh region east of the fortress, thereby contributinglargely to the ultimate success of the defense. These are butisolated instances of the many occasions on which inundationof the low plain has been resorted to as a mean
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
