Bacon's monitor-and-pontoon assault on the Belgian coast

Admiral Reginald Bacon's account describes a proposed landing between Ostend and Westende at the northern end of the German line. Haig made it conditional on the army reaching Roulers during its advance through Passchendaele. Bacon expected the landing force to make contact with the main army across the Yser Canal within an hour, avoiding an isolated force dependent entirely on sea supply. Shallow water excluded troop transports, and a sea wall made disembarkation difficult. The solution was to fasten each floating pier to a pair of shallow-draft monitors and push it ahead of them. Troops could descend between the monitors onto the pontoon, then join its tanks and guns in crossing the wall. The shoreward end needed only eighteen inches of draught, while the length had to keep the monitors in fourteen feet of water when the ramp grounded.