ABSTRACT
Belgium's army was small, ill-equipped, and unprepared to defeat the invading Germans. The German army subsequently occupied the Belgian coast from Zeebrugge to Nieuwpoort from October 1914 to October 1918.6 For the Belgian army, this period is known as the Guard of the IJzer (Wacht aan de IJzer). The Allied troops within the salient suffered considerable vulnerability to German fire during the battle, until a small British Expeditionary Force secured the town, pushing the German army back to the Passchendaele Ridge and establishing what would be the Ieper Salient for the duration of the war. The British established a circle around the city of Ieper toward Passchendaele and south across the River Lys. After a preparatory bombardment, Sir Douglas Haig launched Third Ieper, later known as the Battle of Passchendaele, on July 31, 1917. The Comines-Warneton region is the only Walloon municipality located in the Belgian Front.
