Last modified: 2007-11-03 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Diksmuide]](../images/b/be-vwvdd.gif)
Municipal flag of Diksmuide - Image by Ivan Sache, 16 June 2007
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The municipality of Diksmuide (locally known as Smude; in French,
Dixmude; 15,764 inhabitants on 1 July 2007; 14,940 ha, therefore the
biggest municipality by its area in West Flanders) is located on the river Yser
(IJzer) in the Westhoek. The municipality of Diksmuide is made since 1976 of the former
municipalities of Diksmuide (5,180 inh.; 212 ha; including a big part
of the former municipality of Esen [1,854 inh.; 1,753 ha] since 1924,
the rest of Esen and Kaaskerke (458 inh.; 873 ha), Beerst
(1,127 inh.; 1,166 ha; including Keiem [1,298 inh.; 1,292 ha] since
1971), Oudekapelle (135 inh.; 651 ha), Sint-Jacobskapelle (96 inh.; 325
ha), Nieuwkapelle (406 inh.; 785 ha - the three Kapelle formed from
1971 to 1976 the municipality of Driekapellen), Leke (1,124 inh.; 1,073
ha), Pervijze (886 inh.; 1,223 ha, including Lampernisse [198 ha; 1,362
ha], Oostkerke [285 inh.; 377 ha] and Stuivekenskerke [160 inh.; 734
ha]), Vladslo (1,239 inh.; 1,733 ha) and Woumen (1,307 inh.; 1,383 ha -
in 1971, Woutem lost the parish of Jonkershove, allocated to
Houthulst).
Diksmuide, Esen and Kaaskerke form the urban nucleus of the
municipality, whereas the other villages have remained rural.
Diksmuide was built in the IXth century on the confluency of the Krekebeek and the Yser. The town was then called Dicasmutha, "the dyke on the mouth". The settlement started as a port, near which a chapel, depending on Esel, and a market were founded in 960. Diksmuide was granted municipal rights in the XIIth century and was surrounded in 1270 by earthen walls. Dairy products and cloth making were the two pillars of Diksmuide's wealth. The town declined in the XVth century and was threatened in the second half of the XVIIth century by the French attacks. Peace and activity were restored in the XIXth century, but not for long.
The battle of the Yzer started on 16 October 1914. As a part of the von
Schlieffen plan, known as "the rush to the sea", the Germans expected
to break the allied front near Diksmuide to reach Dunkirk and near
Ieper to reach Calais. The Kaiser also wanted to enter Ieper on 1 November and proclaim there the annexion of Belgium to Germany. On 19
October, the Germans occupied the villages of Leke, Keiem and Beerst.
The allied decided to withdraw along the Yser, so that Diksmuide became
a bridgehead on the right bank of the river.
Diksmuide was defended by a Belgian brigade commanded by Colonel
Meiser and 6,000 French marines, most of them being Bretons, commanded by
Admiral Pierre-Alexis Ronarc'h (1865-1940). Généralissime Foch
ordered Ronarc'h: "You must resist at all costs, but you shall be
relieved within four days". They indeed resisted, but for 25 days! The
artillery commanded by Duke of Wurtemberg started the destruction of
the town, but the marines entranched themselves 300 m from the German
first line and did not move back. In the beginning of the attack, they
were visited by a Belgian officier wearing a black tunic but no
stripes: he was Albert I, King of the Belgians. On 21 October,
Diksmuide was bombed, the church and the belfry were burnt down;
several German waves of attacks were repelled by the Belgian and French
defenders of the town. On 24 October, the Germans, having conquerred
most of the valley of the Yser, took Pervijze and Ramskapelle. General
Grossetti (1861-1918), commanding the French 42nd division, attacked
Pervijze. The Germans counter-attacked with shrapnells and Grossetti
said "Open your umbrellas", ordrering the soldiers to protect their
heads with their backpacks. He asked a chair and sat in the middle of
the road, giving orders under the fire; Pervijze was reconquerred while
Ronarc'h still hold Diksmuide.
On 26 October, the marines were joined by the Senegalese infantrymen of
the 4th Moroccan Battalion and of the 1st Algerian Battalion. The last
defense line was the railway Nieuwpoort-Diksmuide. Foch said later:
"This 1.20-m high embankment saved all of us". The Belgians then
decided to open the Nieuwpoort locks to flood the area, as had done the
Dutch against Louis XIV. The Germans abandoned their flooded positions
and broke for a while the frontline; supported by the 32nd British Army
Corps commanded by General Humbert, the allied repelled the Germans and
counter-attacked in the south of Diksmuide. On 1 November, the 42th
Division and the marines attacked the fortified castle of Woutem.
On 10 November, the marines abandoned the ruins of Diksmuide and
dynamited the bridges on the Yser. The Germans had lost 100,000 men and
had not cross the Yser. Two-thirds of the French marines died during
the fighting. The flooded area protected Dunkirk until the end of the
war. The Ronarc'h Brigade was disbanded in November 1915; volunteers
formed a 850-men marines' battalion and fought along with the land
army, especially in Laffaux on the famous Chemin des Dames.
The Dixmude was the biggest dirigeable (length, 226 m) ever used in
France. Built as the LZ 114 in the Zeppelin factory in Löwenthal
(Germany), it was transferred to France in 1920 as part of the war
damages. In 1923, he crossed the Mediterranean Sea and was lost during
a thunderstorm on 22 December 1923; the body of its commander Jean du
Plessis de Grenedan, was found five years later by Sicilian fishers.
None of the 50 men of the crew escaped the crash.
The French Navy operated the light career Dixmude from 1945 to 1966. The Dixmude left the Tacoma shipyards (USA) as the cargo ship
Mormactern on 8 December 1940 and was immediatly transformed by the US
Navy into an auxiliary career. The ship was transferred to the Royal
Navy and renamed Biter, and eventually sold to the French Navy in
early 1945. The Dixmude served in Inodchina in 1947 and contributed
to the evacuation of Tonkin in 1954. Decommissioned in 1964, the
Dixmude was retroceded in 1966 to the US Navy, that used it as a
target for the training of the VIIth Fleet.
The Yser Tower (IJzertoren), located near the Yser in Kaaskerke, is a
main symbol of the Flemish identity. During the First World War, the
command language in the Belgian army was French, something which was
not pleased by the Flemish soldiers. Their agenda was made of three
parts: Peace - Freedom - Tolerance. The first Yser Pilgrimage
(IJzerbedevaart) was organized in 1920; it is the oldest and largest
peace gathering organized in Europe, every last Sunday of August, and a
strong political demonstration of the Flemish claims to
self-determination. The building of the Yser Tower started in 1928; the
50-m high monument was inaugurated on 24 August 1930 during the
commemoration of the centenary of Belgium. The Tower was attacked in
1945 and completely destroyed with dynamite on the night of 15-16 Match
1946. Debris of the monument were used to build the Peace Gateway
(Paxpoort), inaugurated in 1950. The first pile of the new Tower was
driven into the ground in 1950, the first brick was laid in 1952; the
crypt was inaugurated in 1958 and the 84-m high Tower in 1965. The
Tower ends in a cross bearing the letters AVV / VVK (Alles Voor
Vlaanderen / Vlaanderen Voor Kristus - All for Flanders / Flanders for
Christ).
The Death Sap (Dodengang / Boyau de la Mort), also located in
Kaaskerke, is the last frontline site of the First World War that has
been preserved in Belgium.
In the military cemetary of Keiem, 628 Belgian soldiers from the 8th
and 13th regiments of the line are buried. The German military cemetary
of Vladslo includes the tombs of 25,638 soldiers, the most famous of
them being Peter Kollwitz, the son of the German expressionist artist
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945). She started the two statues Het Treureund
Oudepaar (The Afflicted Old Parents) soon after Peter's death and
completed it in 1932; she offerred the statues to the municipal cemetary
of Esen, where Peter had fallen and was buried. The work, still the
property of the Kollwitz family, was transferred to the Vladslo
cemetary in 1956.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 16 June 2007
The flag of Diksmuide is horizontally divided
yellow-blue-yellow-blue-yellow-blue-yellow-blue (eight stripes).
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 30 January 1986, confirmed by the Executive of Flanders on 4
November 1986 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 3
December 1987.
The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, officially described as Acht even hoge banen van geel en blauw (Eight equally high yellow and blue horizontal stripes).
The municipal website has a detailed account on the origin of the
municipal arms, by Herman Demoen (March 2000).
According to L'Espinoy, Arnould the Old, Count of Flanders, appointed
in 965 Thiry de Beverne [Beveren] as the Burgrave of Diksmuide. The lineage kept the domain of Diksmuide for the next three centuries. They bore:
Gedwarsbalkt van goud en lazuur van acht stukken en schuinkruis van
keel over het geheel (Fessy or and azure of eight pieces a saltire gules overall).
Therefore, the arms of Diksmuide would be the arms of the ancient lords
without the saltire.
The Gelre Armorial shows "Fessy or and azure of eight pieces a saltire
gules overall" for Henri II of Beveren, lord of Diksmuide (Borchggrave
v. Dixmueden, #936, folio 80v). The today's municipality of Beveren
uses these arms as the municipal arms and a banner of these arms as the
municipal flag.
The old municipal seals did not bear those arms but showed an enthroned
bishop, or abbot, with miter and staff; Servais reports this design on
seals dated 1245, 1309, 1499 and 1563. The arms of the lords of
Diksmuide appeared on later seals. They were suppressed after the
French Revolution; on 17 September 1806, the Mayor of Diskmuide,
following the Decree signed by the préfet of the Department of Leie on
12 September 1806, submitted the old municipal seal to the sous-préfet,
probably to reestablish the municipal arms. They were eventually
granted by (Dutch) Royal Decree on 28 July 1819 or 1829 (the source
gives the two dates in two different paragraphs!) and confirmed by (Belgian)
Royal Decree on 7 April 1838, with the following description:
Gedwarsbalkt van goud en lazuur uit acht stukken het schild gedekt
door een gouden kroon (Fessy or and azure of eight pieces the shield surmonted with a crown
or).
After the municipal merging of 1976, Diksmuide kept its old municipal arms, with an amended description:
Gedwarsbalkt van acht stukken van goud en van lazuur. Het schild
getopt met een stedekroon met vijf torens van goud (Fessy or and azure of eight pieces. The shield surmonted by a mural crown or with five towers).
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 16 June 2007
