THE CRISIS OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 October 1915, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE CRISIS OF THE WAR.

THE BATTLE OF YPRES.

"The longest, blootifesf, aud most desperate combat in the history of British arms."

The following graphic account of the Battle of Ypres is taken from Buchan's History of the War (published by Nelson's), a work which ought to be in the hands of everybody. It gives in interesting form a connective and reliable story of the var on all its fronts.

The little city of Ypres, mw only the shell of its former grandeur, stands midway between the smoky industrial beehive of the Lys and the well-tilled flits of the Yser. Once it was the centre of the wool trade of Flanders, and its noble Cloth Hall, dating from the twelfth century | testified to its vanished mercantile pre-eminence. No Flemish jtown could boast a prouder history. It was the red-coated burghers of Ypres who, with the men of Bruges and Courtrai, marched in July, 1302, against Count Robert of Artois, and inveigled the chivalry of France into a tangle of dykes and inarches, from which fevr of the proud horsemen escaped. Seven hundred pairs of gilded spurs were hung in the Addey church of Courtrai as spoil of battle, and the prowess of the burgher infantry on that fatal field established the hitherto despised foot-soldier as the backbone of all future armies. Ypres possessed, too, a link with our own records. Till tie other day, in one of its convents hung the British flag which .Clare's regiment, fighting for France, captured at Ramillies. i The town stands on a tiny stream, the ilYperlee, a tributary of the Yser, which has long ago been canalised. A single'line railway passes through it from Kouler to the main Lille-St. Omer line at Hazebrouck. An important canal runs from the Yser in the north to the river ILys at Commes, and two miles south of the town, at the village of St. B3oi, turns eastward, bending south again ia a broad angle between Hollebeke and Zandvoorde. To the east there are considerable patches of forest between Bixschoote and the Lys valley. A series of Blight ridge 3 rise towards the south, lying in a curve just inside the Belgian frontier from west of Messines to the neighborhood of Zandvoorde. iFor the

informed that the 7th Division and Alienor's 2nd Cavalry Division beyond it were heavily attacked, and it became necessary to halt on the line Bixschoote-Langemarck-St. Julien-Zonnebeke. That line marks the limits of the last British offensive. Thourout and Bruges were now as inaccessible as the moon.

The main fighting was along the front of the 7th Division, against which the bulk of the four new German corps was .thrown. In the first place, Lawford's 22nd Brigade on the left was enfiladed by a German movement against Zonne•beke, and for a little looked like having its flank turned. Not till the afternoon could flaig's 2nd Division link up with it at the level crossing of the Ypres-Roulers railway and safeguard that danger-point. On the centre at Becelaere, held by the 21st Brigade, the Germans succeeded in temporarily piercing our line between the Eoyal Scots Fusiliers and the Yorkshires. On the extreme light a fierce assault was made from the direction of Hoothem against Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division in Klein Zillebeke. The only reserves available were Byng's 3rd Cavalry Division, and from it Kavanagir's 7th Brigade was directed to support the left of the 22nd Brigade, which it did successfully till.| help came from the 2nd Division. Makin's 6th Brigade was hurried south to Zondvoorde in the afternoon and filled the gap, occupying the two canal crossings at Hollebeke. By the evening the whole of Byng's Cavalry had been moved to the right of the 7th Division, linking' up with Gough between Hollebeke and Wytschaete. That evening Sir John French in Ypres had an anxious consultation with Sir Douglas Haig and Sir Henry Rawlinson, General de Mitiy and General Bidon. It was now abundantly clear that the most we could do was to hold the Ypres salient from the Lys to Dixmude till General Joffxe could send help —a length of fully thirty miles. For that purpose we had the First Corps, the Third Corps (though Pulteney had also his own separate battle to fight), the 7th Division of the Fourth Corps, three divisions of British cavalry, de Mitry's 2nd French Cavalry Corps of four divisions, and Bidon's two divisions of French Territorials—all told, perhaps, nearly 100,000 men, and some of the £roops not of the first line. Against us we had the four new German corps, the 2nd Corps, the 19th Corps, at least two Reserve Corps, a number of cavalry, making in all not les3 than half a million men. Besides, we were aware of other corps moving up from the south. General French's first work was to arrange matters in Ypres, which had become congested with French Territorials, and it was decided that they should immediately move out and cover the flank of Haig's First Corps. He had that day seen General Joffre, who had told him that he was sending the 9th Corps to Ypres, that d'Urbal's further forces were being rapidly concentrated, and that he hoped presently to take the offensive. This help, however, could not arrive before the 24th, and for three days the present line must maintain its precarious and extended front. Thursday, the 22nd, was a heavy day all along the line. Haig, bteing' compelled to send help to the 7th Division, could do little but maintain his defence. This he did with much loss to the enemy, but late in the evening a violent assault was made upon Fitzelarence's Ist Brigade on his left, on the trenches held j by the Camerons north of tPilkem on the Langemarck-Bixschoote road. The 'Germans broke the line, and succeeded ( l in imprisoning part of the Camerons—i the famous red tartans of Quatre Bras 1 and Tel-el-Kebir—in a wayside inn. FarUher south, the 7th Division were in a I difficult place. In consequence of the ; attack upon Lawfords 2nd Brigade it had retired its left, and so made a sharp new salient with the left of the 21st Brigade, where were the Wiltshires. There was a gap, too, in toe ime or the same brigade between the Royal Scots Fusiliers and the Yorkshires, and the latter for the better, part of three days were condemned to fight an action on two fronts. Farther south there was a long line from the Zandvoorde ridge to south of Messines held by the 3rd and 2nd Cavalry Divisions in trenches. Round' Hollebeke the Germans pressed hard, both with artillery and infantry attack,', and their snipers greatly troubled ocr men. But they did not press hard enough, for this long cavalry line was our weak spot, and an attack in great force would have broken it and uncovered Ypres. Farther south Pulteney had beev having some difficult davs. On the 20th the Germans had attacked the advanced posts of Wilson's 12th Brigade on his left, driven them In, «nd occupied Le Gheir. just north of the 1-ys. Thereupon General llunter-Weston counv ter-attaitked, drove back the enemy with gloat Ictss, and occupied the abandoned trenches,—an operation in which lieu-Jtenanfc-Chlonel Anlcy, of the TCssex Regiment, ami Lieutenant-Colonel Butler, of tlip Lanraishir-e Fusiliers, greatly distinguished themselves. At this time theThiol Corps was divided into two halves by ti'ie r.ys, and on the 22nd the centre held by the 10th Brigade was heavily attnwkcd from FrcJinghicn. Tt was rapidly becoming niwssary to shorten the line by drawing in. the right, and bringing Conneau's Ist Cavalry Corps nearer Armentieres. On the morning of Friday, the 23rd, the, position was as follows. There was a bad dent in our front on the left of thni Ist Division, where the Camerons had. been cut off. There was an ugly salient on the left of the 7th Division, where the left of the 21st Brigade was brought to a sharp angle by the "refusal" of the 2n2d Brigade, and a dent in the line of tup, 21st between the Yorkshires and the Royal Scots Fusiliers. An effort wrta made during the day to get rid of these dangers. MajorGeneral' Bnlfin, who ha<f; done brilliantly on the Aisne. led the Royal West Surrey, tbfl Northampton, and the King's Eoyal ißiflas in an attivck upon the trenches which the Gernjans had won

rest, the country is dead flat, so that the spires of Ypres made a landmark for many miles. On all sides from the town radiate the cobbled Flemish roads, fee two main highways on the east being those to Bowlers and to Menin, with an important connecting road cutting t2ie latter five miles from Ypres at the village of, Gheluvelt. In the great battle which is the subject of this article we are chiefly concerned with the British First and Third Corps, the 7th Division, Allenby's Cavalry Corps, and Byng's 3rd Cavalry revision. On the evening of the 19th the Allied offensive had virtually ceased. First one and then another of the thi\ee strategic possibilities had been frustrated. We were aware that at last we had reached the main German front in position everywhere from LiUe to the sea, and daily growing in numbers which threatened to fall in a tidal wave upon the thin and far-stretched Allied line. But Sir John French, though cognisant of the enemy's strength, was not yet fully informed about its details, and lie made one more effort to hreaik through with a counter-offensive. Sir Douglas Haig with tfie First CoTps had, as we have seen, arrived behind the front on the 19th, and had been directed to move to the north of Ypres in the direction of Thourout. "The object he was to have in view," Sir John wrote, '•waa to be the capture of Bruges, and subsequently, if possible, to drive the enemy towards Ghent." Had it been possible, the move would have had great strategic advantages. It would have hemmed in von Beseler on the sea coast, and prevented reinforcements reaching him from the south, while it would have provided a basis for a turning movement against the flank of the enemy's main front But Sir John French had his * doubts tiout its possibility, and Haig hm* ntitrocted after passing Ypres to <u» fe-i »*n judgment. As the First Cotft «dv*iced to the north of Ypres it hfti Bison's divisions of French Territer/alg and cavalry on its left, extending from Bixsehoote north through the Forest of Houthulst. On its right it had Byng's 3rd Cavalry Division, and * south of Byng was the British 7th Division—the total forming Rawlinson's Fourth Corps, which was directed to conform generally to Haigs movements. The First' Corps had borne the brunt of the fighting on the Aisne, and had had no rest save such as was afforded by the journey to the north. On Tuesday, the 20th, it advanced to a line extending from Bixsehoote to the crossroads a mile and a-half north-west of Zonneheke, with the 2nd Division on the right of its front, and the Ist Division on the left. That day it had no fighting, but the cavalry on its flanks were heavily engaged.- Byng's Division not only protected its right, along \vstli detachments of French Territorials, but was feeling its way some miles in advance. The French in Poelcapelle were driven out by shell-fire in the afternoon, and Byng was compelled to fall back towards Langemarck. The position, therefore, on the morning of the 21st, was—on the extreme left, north-east of Ypres, divisions of Bidon's Territorials and some of de Mitry's cavalry; then the Rritish First Division, between lilxschoole and Langcmarck: then tlae 2nd Division, extending to near Zonrcebeke, ' with Byng's 3rd Cavalry Division in snp- " port on its right rear; then Lawford's 22nd Brigade of the 7th Division, followed by Watts' 21st Brigade, just west of Becelaere, and Ruggles-Brise's 20th Brigade east of the Gheluvelt crossroad*, towards Zandvoorde Then in front of Messines came Allenby's Cavalry Corps, whicli had been attempting in vain the crossings of the Lys; after which came the line of the Third Corps, ten miles long, through Armentieres. Clearly the immediate post of danger in the Allied front was the extreme left, between Bixsehoote and Dixmude, and the right centre around Zandvoorde, between Zonnebekc and Becelaere. Sir Douglas Haig with the First Corps advanced successfully till about two o'clock in the afternoon where news came of trouhle. on its flanks The French Territorials on the left were driven out of the Forest of Houthulst, and they and their supports of the 2nd French Cavalry Corp3 retired across the Yser Canal. At the same time he was

from the Camerons. He liberated the captured Highlanders in the inn, and, aiter much severe fighting, which culminated in a bayonet attack, achieved his purpose, and took COO German prisoners. The enemy concentrated against the 3rd Brigade on Ho-ig's left, in the neighborhood of Langemarek, The new German levies, many of whom'Wid had scarcely two months' training, hurled themselves on our trenches with incredible courage and resolution. They were mown down by our fire, but they came on again and yet again, till human endurance reached breaking-point. The corps that attacked that day lost 15 per cent of its effective?, and round l.angemarck lay lolK) Herman dead. Jn the evening there came a welcome relief. General Lefebvie's ISth Division and the 17th Division of the l.'tli French Corps arrived, and took over (he front held by (he 2nd British Division, which was thus enabled to extend |o the south and relieve the hard-pressed 7th Division of the northern end of its line near '/.onnebeke. The other incident of that day was the determined frontal attack upon I he 7th Division. Tiic Uedfyrds managed to close the gap between the Yorkshires ! ami the I'oyal Scots Fusiliers. The 'Tt'iltshires, forming tiie point of the sali,\nt, once again had the hardest part of the light, and the Wanvieks, to then left', were constantly assailed. Tlu whole' position was desperately preen ri.ous, few the ma.sses of men against us ■were hourly increasing. Next day. the 24th. there was an advajice upon our extreme left. The French' !>th Corps, the veterans of Sezanne and. Rheims, pushed forward between Zoitaebekc and Poeh-apelle, ami won a fair amount of ground. Jn the evening the line of the Ist Division wataken over by French Territorials, and the former moved io behind our front at Zillebeke. The 2nd Division hail now closed up, and relieved the left whir: of the 7th, and this relief came just ii time. For on that day the point oi the salient gave way at last. The gal lant Wiltshires were driven in and suf fered severely, and the Germans culcrec the Polygon Wood at Reytel, west oi Becelaere, destined to be the scene ol

much desperate lighting in the days' to come. A counter-attack by the Warwicks from the 22nd Brigade failed to clear the wood and Lieutenant-Colonel Loriug of that regiment and many of his ollicers fall. Though badly wounded three days before, he had led his men dauntle.ssly to the charge. The next day, Sunday, the 25tli, saw the advance of the left continued. It was in the nature of a counter-offensive to relieve tho presure on the centre, and it temporarily succeeded, some ::nus and a number of prisoners being (.. .en. In the centre itself the Germans teemed unable to follow up their achievement in the Polygon Wood, a feature common to tiie whole Ypres lighting, Repeatedly j they pierced our line; but, once through, | their initiative was exhausted. We ; might attribute this to the rawness oi | tin! troops, had not the sa'me thing happened with (he 'Pni.-sian Guards, it seen:.': to point to a delect in regimental leadership, for which the Allies had cause to be thankful. At night a sreat enveloping attack was made on the salient held liy the •iUlli Brigade, at Kruscik, north-east of Zaiulvoorde, The Germans broke through, lint the invaders were cornered, and lost 201) prisoners. The 2nd Scots Guards who held the trenches at. ibis ! point, counter-attacked, and the assault was repulsed. It was renewed ii) force j iust before the wet misty dawn, ami the ' Scot, Guard-; wive pushed bs ; -k with terrible iossc. All the morning the battle continued to rage around Kniseik. a cnti.nl place, for if the salient wore broken, the emoiiv would t;a : n possesion of the Zaiulvoorde rid.ee The .situation was saved after midday by a | brilliant counter-attack by the Till Cavi aire Brigade, who were in trenches at j Zaiulvoorde. They drov the enemy back (owa.rds file hamlet of America, on | the IVrolaere-Wervieq road. The lilues, I under Colonel Gordon Wilson, especially j distinguished themselves, and in parlicui lar Lord Alastair Innes-Ker's squadron, which formed the advance-guard. ifeamvhile our extreme right under Pulteney had been hard pressed. On the night of the 25th the Leiceslers in the 10th Brigade were forced from their trenches b v shell-fire, and it waa re-

solved temporarily to shorten that part of tlic lino which was south of the Lys. The falling back of the Second Corps in the south, and the continuation of its front northward by Indian troops, enabled Pulteney to take up this new position with the less risk. On the evening of the 20th it was becoming clear that the line of the 7th Division was dangerously advanced. All that night General Capper was busy readjusting his brigades. The work' was completed on the 27th, when the British front ran as follows: On the extreme left north of Bixsehoote to Zonnebeke, the 17th and ISUi Divisions of the French Uth Corps; from east of Zonnebeke to lteytcl, the 2nd Division; from Beytel to the (iiieluveit cross-roads, the Ist, Division; f, o m Gheluvolt cross-roads to eat of Zaiulvoorde, the 7th Division; from Zandvoorde to Klein Zilleboke. Byng's :Ji-tl Cavalry; from Klein Zillcbeke to cast of Messines, Allenbv's Cavalry Corps; and south of that, rultency's Third Corps. That evening Sir John French visited .Sir Douglas ilaig at lloogc ami discussed the position of affairs. The 7th Division for a month had been engaged in continuous marching and fighting, and had suffered terriblii losses. It was resolved accordingly that Sir Henry Ka'wlinson should return to Kuglaud to supervise his Stii Division, wlii. it was being mobilised under Ma.jor-Ccne.ral R J. Davies, and that (he 71 li Division and the 3rd Cavalry Divisions should be leimiorarily attached to the Kim Corps. Next day, the 28th, there was little .but shelling on (be front, a dangerous lull whicli heralded the storm. The enemy was gathering his forces for a cumulative attack upon our whole line. Very early on the morning of Thusdav. the 2flth—about 5.30 a.m.—we knew li'is intentions, for we managed to intercept a wireless message. It was the beginning of the sternest struggle of the campaign in the West. The great battles of the world have not uncommonly been fought in places worthy of so fierce a drama. The mountains looked upon Marathon, and Thermopylae, Marengo, Solferino and Plevna; mighty plains gave dignity to Chalons and Borodino; the magic of the desert

encompassed Arbela and Omdurman; or some fantasy of weather lent strangeness to deatlf, like the snow at Austerlitz or the harvest moon at Chattanooga, against which was silhouetted Sheridan's charge. Ypres was stark carnage and grim endurance, without glamor of earth or sky. The sullen heavens bung low over the dank fields, the dripping woods the mean houses, and all the sour ami unsightly land. It was such a stuggle as Lee's Wilderness stand, where, amid tattered scrub and dismal swamps, the ragged soldiers of the Confederacy fought its last battles. The worst danger lay in the re-en-trants of the salient, to the north between Bixsehoote and Zonnebeke, and to the south between Zaiulvoorde and Messines. The Germans, 'confident in their numbers, attacked both, and they also drove hard against the point of the bastion in front of Ghelucelt. As-time went on, their main ellorts tended to concentrate on the southern re-entrant, where were the cavalrv and the right of tho 7th Division. Very early on Thursday, the 2!)tli, in a sudden spell of clear weather; Me wave broke against the centre oi' the First Corps at the point of the salient on tlie Gbeluvelt cross-roads. The Ist Division was driven bark from its trenches, and all mornim; the line swayed backwards and forwards-. We had against, us no longer the new formations only, but the German lolh and GStii Corps, and the 2nd Bavarians. Almost the whole of our First Corps was employed in the countei'-atUi-k, and the Ist Grenadiers and the 2nd Gordons from the 20lh Brigade were conspkaious for the "allantrv of their charges. There Lieutenant J. A. 0. Brooke, of the hitler regiment, won the Victoria Cross for an attack upon the German (renches which cost, him his life, liy two o'clock in the afternoon the enemy began to yield. and before the dark we captured the ridge at Kruscik, and the 7th Brigade had re-established much of our line norlli of tho cross-road j South of Krus.cin the fighting fell chiefly lo P.yng's cavalry, especially (he oth Brigade, which had against it the German 2311 i Corps another new formation, moved up from Lille, That same day tliero waa an

Corps, which would have been wholly) isolated and destroyed.

The peril at Klein Zillebeke was not mil. Father south the 2nd cavalry Division had been driven out of Hollebeke, and had fallen back on St. Eloi, on the Ypres-Armentieres road. The Ist Cavalry Division sent up support, and were presently themselves in heavy conflict round Mossincs, which was bombarded by Gorman howitzers, I'iiltency, too, in the south, had the line of the ilth Brigade broken at St. Yves, but the situation was retrieved by a spirited counterattack carried out by Major Prowse and the Somerset Light Infantry. It was becoming clear that he would have to extend his already attenuated line, for the Ist Cavalry Division on his left must be. supported. Reinforcements had already come up f rom the Second Corps. Four battalions, who ha 4 been relieved by the Indian troops, were posted at Xeuve Eglisc, on the road between Messines and Bailleul, as reserves for the cavalry, and with these reinforcements came a Territorial battalion, the London Scottish.

• attack on Puiteney's line at La Gheir • aud in the iPloegstcert Wood— a dreary • .space of tattered larches and mossy , tracks—and about midnight a fierce asi sault was made on the trenches of hia I 19th Brigade The enemy gained some i of the trenches of the Middlesex, but a ■ few hours later the Argyll and Suthori land Highlanders, from the Brigade re- . serve, recaptured them, and annihilated ■ the invaders Forty prisoners were I taken, and 200 lay dead It was a flno ! performance, for no less than twelve ' battalions were opposed to one reduced brigade. Daylight had scarce come on the 30th when the attack on our front was re- [ newed. This time the place chosen was [ the ridge of Zandvoorde held by Byng'9 i cavalry. Presently the position grew • very serious, for the immense weight of ! artillery lire made the British trenches ! ittif.omi.blc. One troop was buried alive, and soon the whole division was com- . pelled to fall back a mile to the ridge ,' of Klein Zdlebeke on the north. The right of the '2nd Division was thus uni covered, and had to retire to conform, • and the Cheluvelt salient was made so ; much the sharper. Allenby sent up the Scots Greys and the 3rd and 4th Hus- ; ttirs as a reserve, and with their assisii ante liyng held the Klein Zillbeke position till the evening, when Cavan' 4th [ (Guards) Brigade from the ; ind Division ; arrivd and took over the line. Sir Douglas Haig resolved that the line from Ghleuvelt to the angle of the canal south of Klein ZihVbekc must be held at , all costs. He accordingly brought the and Brigade to the rear of the line held by the Ist Division and Cavan's 4th Brigade, placed a battalion in reserve at lloogc, and borrowed from the French Dili Corps three battalions and one cavalry brigade. The situation was desperately critical. If the Germans got to the Vprcs-Comines canal at any point north of llollebckc they would speedily cut the communications of the First Corps holding the salient, and nothing woiilH lie between them and Ypros itself. The Emperor was with his men, and bad told the Bavarians that the winning of the town would determino the issue of the war. It would certainly have determined the fate of thg Fixai'

Lastly, to conclude the events of this day, the 7th Division north of Zandvoorde were given no peace. Lawford'a 22nd Brigade on the left centre was hotly assailed, and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers suffered terribly. In the 21st Brigade the Royal Seoti Fusiliers onca again lost heavily owing to flank fire, but they and the Yorkshires under Colonel King, mixed up—what was iert o£ them—in the semblance of one battalion, held the trenches till dark. The Allied line at this point was now retired to just east of Gheluvelt, whore was the 7th Division, to the corner of the canat near Klein Zillebek, where were the 2nd and 4th Brigades of the 3rd Division, assisted by General Moussy's troops from the 9th French Corps, and with the 3rd Cavalry Division in reserve.

Next day came the crisis. The fight* ing began early along the Menin-Yprea road, and presently the attack developed in great force against Gholuvelt village. North of it the Ist and 3rd BrU gados of the Ist Division were back, and the Ist Coldstreams wiped out as a fighting unit. The whole division was driven back from Gheluvelt to tha woods between Hboge of the Ist apd 2nd Divisions were shelled. General Lomax waa badly wounded, , General Munro stunned, six of tiieir Staff officers were killed, and the command of the Ist Division passed to General Landon, of the Third Brigade. Meantime the falling back of this part of the line men-, aced the flarik of the "th Division. The Royal ScotH Fusiliers, who had suffered desperately already, stuck to tiieir vienches, and were cut off and destroyed.. ["The Germans came pouring through, and it soon became obvious that your position was untenable, and we were ordered to take up a position farther back. I tried to telephone to Colonel Baird Smith, but the wire had been cut oy shrapnel. I then sent two orderlies with a message to withdraw, but the message was never received. Both orderlies must have bee'to killed or wounded. Colonel Baird Smith, great soicae* that he was, decided, and rightly, to hold his ground, and the Royal Scots Fusiliers fought and fought until the Germans absolutely surrounded and swarmed into the trendies. I think it was perfectly splendid. Mind you, it was not a ease of 'hands up,' or any nonsense of that sort; it was a fight to a finish. What more do you wantf Why, even a German general camo to Colonel Baird Smith afterwards and congratulated Urn, and said he could not understand how his men had held out so long. You may well be proud to belong to such a regiment, and I am proud to have you in my brigade."—Extract from an address by Brigadier-Gen-eral Watts of tiho 21st Brigade.] This battalion, which had landed in Flanders over a thousand strong, oonsistedsted now of seventy men, commanded by a junior subaltern! When, later, tbn remnant waa paraded, the men were mostly without caps, coats or puttees. They seem to have owed much of their misfortuntes to their Belgian interpreter, who waa a spy, and was ultimately detected and Bhot. On the right of the 7th Division Bulfln's detachment, consisting of the and 4th Brigades, which had been brought there from the First Corps, was exposed by the attack on its left-hand neighbors. The 2nd Brigade fell back just aa — the right of the 7th Division, having been reinforced, advanced again. This right—the 20bh Brigade—was once more exposed, but it managed to cling to its trenches till the evening. On Bulfln's right General Mousey, w'fth his troops of the 9th French Corps, was struggling hard to keep the line intact towards Klein Zillebcke. He had come to the British, assistance in the nick of time, as sixty years before the French army at the same season of the year had come to our aid at Inkerman. He 'held the line, but he could make no advance to relieve the sore-pressed 2nd and 4th. Brigades. Indeed, at one moment it looked as if he might have to yield, but he saved himself by novel reinforcements. Ho bade the corporal commanding his escort collect every available man. "The corporal scoured the immediate country-side, and by appealing to every man he mot, cooks in the bivouac, Army Service Corps men, hewers of wood and drawers of water, managed to assemble some two hundred and fifty soldiers of all arms, but mostly without arms, and paraded them before the,general. The irronnd was broken by hedges, by the long lines of pollarded willows and ditches which are the characteristic features of the Flanders landscape, and which render the ground extremely unsuitable for cavalry operations. The sixty-five men composing the general's oscort wore dismounted, nnd the cuirassiers, with their silver helmets with flowing manes, their steel breastplates, their cavalry boots and sabrw, prepared to take part in a. bayonet charge in which there were practically no bayonets." ' . '

It was Brnce's ramp followers at Bannockbiirn over again, or tin; charge of Sir John Moore's ambulance men in til a retreat to Conmna. The bold adventure prospered, and Moussy was able to hold his ground. ► Meantime Allenby's cavalry farther south were also in straits. He had tha whole line to hold from Klein Zillebeka by Hollebeke to south of Messines, and his sole reinforcemeflts at the time were the two much exhausted battalions ot fclie 7th Indian Brigade sent up from the Second Corps. On that day Sepoy Khudadad, of the 12!)tJi Belnehis, won, the Victoria Cross, having stayed working his gun till all the detachment had been kilted, Byng, who had his 3rd Cavalry Division at Hooge, sent forward JCavanagh's 7Hi Brigade, which took upj the line south of the canal near Hollebeke, while the 6th Brigade was ordered to clear the woods between Hooge and. Gheluvelt. Kven with this assistsnca Allenby had no light task. He had to hold up the advanee of two nearly fresh Gorman corps till such time as Oonneau could be brought from the south, and tha French 16th Corps could arrive. Hw position hew was not the least deepeiute of that desperate day. ,

Sir Jolui French ha.s selected between two and tliree o'clock 011 Saturday, the 31st, as tlie most critical point in the whole battle of Ypres. It waa the crisis of the Flanders campaign, perhaps of the whole Western war. The Ist Division had fallen back from Gheluvelt to a line resting on the junction of the Frezenberg road with the Ypres-Menin highway. It had suffered terribly, and its general had been sorely wounded. On its right the 7th Division had been bent back to the Klein Zillebeke ridge, while Bulfin's two brigades were just holding on, as was Moussy on their right. Allenby's cavalry were lighting an apparently hopeless battle on a long line, and it seemed as if the slightest forward pressure would crumble the Ypres defence. Help came from the 2nd Division, which had been posted on the left north of • Gheluvelt, and had been little engaged. By an enfilading fire it checked the German advance on the left flank of the Ist Divison. This enabled the left of that' division and the right of the 2nd to combine in a counter-attack upon the German right. The honours of this famous movement fell to one of those homely English regiments of the line which have ever beep the backbone of our army. The 2nd Worcosters in the st'h Brigade, supported by our field ar- , fcillery and by the 2nd Oxford Light Infantry, swept down the highway, and drove the eneiny before them. Like Cole's l'usiliers at Albuera, they came suddenly and unexpectedly upon the foe. ''Then was seen with what a strength and majesty the British soldier fights, . . Nothing could stop that astonishing infantry. No sudden burst of undisciplined valour, no nervous enthusiasm weakened the stability of their order." With the bayonet they retook Gheluvelt about 2.30 p.m., and our line was reformed. This released the oth Cavalry Brigade, who cleared out the woods east of the village, and then filled the gap between the 7th Division and the 2nd Brigade. By the evening the 7th Division and Bulfin's detachment had regained their old positions. On Sunday, Ist November, the wearied British line received reinforcements. The French 10th Corps arrived to take ovei part of the tone held by Allenby's cavalry. Divisions, of this corps had hitlherto been employed under Genera' Grossetti on the Yser. With them came Conneau's Ist Cavalry Corps, transfer red from its place between the Soconc and Third British Corps. That day wi; remarkable for the hard shelling of oui front, and two isolated attacks, ont against Bulfin's 2nd and 4th Brigade: at Klein Zillebeke, and the other ajgainsl Allenby around Messines. The first wa; beaten back with the assistance oi Byng's cavalry, who continued for thi next few days to act as a general re serve and support to the Gheluvelt sal ient. But the assault on Allenby was i serious matter. It was delivered befori the French reinforcements had come up and it resulted in the Germans seizin; Hollebeke and Messines, which gavi them positions on the low ridges fron which Ypres could be bombarded. Mes sines was levelled with terrific shell firf and, though we counter-attacked furi ously, we did not retakfe it. Allenb; called on the four battalions from th Second Corps, which had been kept ii reserve between Messines and Bailleul They came up and entrenched them selves, and till nightfall held their posi tion against a continuous attack, thi London Scottish, now for the first timi in the firing line, conducted themselvei with the sangfroid of veterans. Durinj the night the Germans, breaking througl on the left flank of the Ist Cavalry K vision, took Wytschaete, on the Ypres Armontiieres road, and enfiladed the Lon don Scottish; but on the forenoon o Monday, the 2nd, our cavalry support: and the French 16th Corps retool Wytsohaote and straightened our front Messines remained in German hands making an ugly dent in our line, whid now ran from Le Gheir to the west o: Messines, by Wytschaete, St. Eloi, ant Klein Zillebeke to Gheluvelt. There wai heavy fighting on that day on Pul teney's left at Le Gheir, where Drummei Dent of the East Lancashires won tlx Victoria Cross. When all the officers o his platoon had fallen, he took oommane and managed to hold the position. For five days the battle slackened int< an artillery duel, and our weary mer had a breathing epaoe. On sth November the line was readjusted, and som< reief was given to the 7th Division which was now reduced from 12,000 mea: and 400 officers to a little over 3,000 Fourteen battalions from the Second Corps, two Territorial battalions, and two regiments of Yeomanry now tool; Iheir share of the line. On Friday, the litli, a sudden attack began on the Klein Zillebeke position held by Bulfin's 2nd and 4th Brigadet and 'Moussy's French division. In the afternoon the French on the right towards the canal were driven in, and Cavan's 4th Brigade was left in the air, The only reserve available was Byng's cavalry north of the Zillebeke-Klein Zillebeke road. Kavanagh deployed tin Ist and 2nd Life Guards, with the Blues in reserve behind the centre, and his advance encouraged the French to resume their trenches. But the German attack was being pressed in forced, and the French came back again upon the Household Cavalry a couple of whose squadrons were doub led across the road to stem the rush. Kur a moment there was \vi!,i f unt'u- < —French, British and the ow-urnm;: C.-s manrf being mingled U"- v lage street. Colonel Gordon Wilson, of the Blues, a most gallant M>l:iier »•» killed by the lire from the houses. Majoi the Hon. Hugh Dawnav, who had com from the lteadnnartw* Sli>ir r>. r«r mand the 2nd Life Guards, led his men to the charge, and indicted heavy losses upon the foe. Two hundred years before, the French Maixon du Koi had charged desperately in Flemish lields. the splendid Cants glaces, with their lace and steel, their plumed hats and mettled horses. Very different was the attack of the British Household cavalry —mud-splashed men in drab charging on foot with the bayonet. It was wai shorn of all pomp and glamor, a struggle of naked endurajice and stark courage.

Hugh Dawnay fell at the head of his men, but not before he had taken order with tiio enemy. His death was fruitful, for the charge in which lie fell saved the British position. In him we lost one of the most brilliant of our younger soldiers, most masterful both in character and in brain. He would wish no better epitaph than Napier's immortal words: ''No man died that night with more glory—yet many died, and there was much glory." Kavunagh had succeeded, and his brigade held the trenches on Cavan's right far into the darkness, till the 4th Brigade could establish its line. Next morning, the 7th, there were two coun-ter-attacks. Oavan, at 5.30 a.m., assisted by Kavanagh, advanced and took three machine guns; but the enemy wsrafoo strong to permit him to hold > the trenches lie had won. Farther east

Lawfotfd's 22nd Brigade, which had been [ relieved for several days, made a brilliant assault, taking and holding a German trench. The close of the day saw tliat brigade reduced to its brigadier, live officers and 700 men. One of the dead officers, Captain J. F. Vallcntin, of tlic South Staffords, won the Victoria Cross for his cool gallantry in lead in (ihe attack. Once more came a period of ominous quietness. It lasted through the 80), 9th and 10th, when nothing happened but a little shelling. Then on Wednesday, the 11th, came the supreme effort. As Napoleon baa usea his Guards for the iinal attack at Waterloo, so tlie Kaiser used his for the culminating stroke at Ypres. Tlie Ist and 4th Brigades of the Prussian Guards were brought up from the Arras district and launched against tlie point of our salient. They had suffered at Charteroi and fiuise. terribly in the marshes of St. Gond, scarcely less heavily at Rheims, but now they fouglit under the Emperor's eye, and they came on as if it were their first day of war. At first they used their parade march, and our men, rubbing their eyes in the darkness of the small hours, could scarcely, credit thd portent They came down the Menin road against Ghcluve.lt, and long before they reached the shock of our fire had taken toil or them. But so mighty is discipline that their impact told. The let Division bore the brunt of the charge, and at three points they pierced our front, and won the woods to the west. Tliey took our first line of trendies, but seemed unable to decide on the next step. Our frontal fire checked them, our flanks enfiladed them, and thoy fell back to the trenches they had woin. The British ccunterassault drove them from most of them; but they held one or two, and a. small section of the Polygon Wood, lieutenant Walter Brodie, of the 2nd Highland Light Infantry, received the Victoria Cross for a brilliant attack which cleared a portion of our trenches. On that day fell Brigadier-General Charles FitzcWencc, V.C., commanding the Ist Brigade, a soldier whose military skill was not. less conspicuous than his courage. The normal strength of the Ist Brigade was 153 officers and 5000 men. It now numbered 8 officers aad under 500 men, including non-combatants, such as cooks,, transport men, etc. With the failure of the (Prussian Guard the enemy seemed to have exhausted its vitality. Ilia tide of men had failed to swamp the thin Allied lines, and. wearied out, and with terrible losses, he slackened his efforts and fell back upon the routine of trench warfare. To complete the tele we must glance at what had been happening on the extreme left of the Yores salient, where the bulk of Dubois' 9th Corps held the line from Zonncbeke to Bixsehoote, and linked up with the battle on the Yser. He had with him to complete his front Bidon's Territorial divisions and most of de Mitry's 2nd Cavalry Corps, ai:d against him came the bulk of the new German formations—the 22nd, 23rd, 20ljh and 27th—which had now been launched against the British First Corps and 7th Division, as well as the left wing of Wurtemberg's force which was assailing the line of the Yser. We liave told at some length the tale of British doings at Ypres, because we are better informed on the tactical details: but no despatches have yet expounded the magnificent fight of Dubois' corps, and the exploits of his incomparable Zouaves. The fight raged round Bixschootc, which speedily became a cltarnel house full of unburied dead. The capture of the place would have given tlie Germans a position astride the Ypres-Dixmude canal and railway, and enabled them to turn the defence of Ypres from the north—an objective much the same as the corner of the Ypres-Comines canal at Klein Zillebeke. To achieve this end, battalion after battalion was hurled against the village. Cm one day the French Staff reported that three German regiments were annihilated, and a fourth the next day. The enemy worked round the town on north and south, but wherever he turned he was successfully' countered. By November 15 the vigor of the assault was ebbing, as it had ebbed four days before at the point of the Ypres bastion. On November 12 and tlie following days a spasmodic assault wa.s made on tlie Klein Zillebeke positions, and along the whole line towards Messines. On this day Lieutenant Dimmer, of the King's Royal Rifles, won the Victoria Cross for his heroic fighting or his machine gun till it was destroyed, though he had been three times hit by shrapnel and twice by bullets. On the 16th an attempt was made on the southern reentrant, which failed, and the shelling of Ypres continued, till its Cloth Half and its great Church of St. Martin were in ruins. On the 17th the German loth Corps made a desperate effort at the wime point, but was repulsed. Presently further French reinforcements came up. notably General MaLstrc's 21st Corps, am! the sorely-tried British troops were relieved from the trenches which they had held for four stubborn weeks. The weather had changed to high winds and snow blizzardu, and in a' tempest the Battle of Ypres died away. Ypres must rank as one of the most remarkable contests of the war; it is certainly one of the most remarkable in I the record of the British army. Let us put the achievement in the simplest terms. Between Lille and the sea the Gel mans had hot less than a million men. Six of their fourteen army corps were of the iir.st line, and even the. now formations were terrible in assaultmore terrible than the veterans, perhaps, for they were.still unwearied, and the edge of their koennos« was uiidulled. The immature boys and elderly men. who often fell to pieces before our coun-ter-attacks, came on with incredible valor in their early charges. They were like tlie soldiers of the Revolution—the more dangerous at times because they di>l not Ight by rule. Agamst (hat part of this force which faced us we opposed numbers whieh began bv bein" less than 100,000, and were never more than 150,000. In the actual salient of Ypres we had three divisions and some cavalry, during the worst part of the lighting, lo meet live arm, uirris, three of the" first line. for tlie better part of two days one division held a front ol eight mile* against three army corps In this mad melhiy strange things happened. I 'nits became l'opelcsslv\iiixod. and officers had to fling into the breach svliatevcr men tliey could collect. A subaltern often found himself in command of a battalion: a brigadier commanded one or two companies, or n <|i v j. sion. as the fates ordered. At one moment a certain brigadier hud no les'tlian thirteen battalions under him We can best realise (lie desperate nature of the struggle by ,| U oting an order of Sir Henry Hawlinson issued to the 7th Division. "After (lie deprivations and tension." he said, "of being pursued day and night by an infinitely stronger forte, tlie division had to pass through the worst orJeal of all. ft was left to a little force of 30,000 to keep the German army at bay while the other British corps were being brought up from the Aisne. Here they clung on like grim death, with almost every man in "the trenches, holding a lino which of neces-

sity was a great deal too long—a thin, exhausted line—against which the prime of fclio German first line troops were huriing themselves with fury. The odds against them. were about eight to one; aiid, when once the enemy found ' the range of the trench, the shells dropped into it from one end to the other - with terrible effect. Yet the men stood fnm, and defended Ypres in such a manner that a German officer afterwards described their action as a brilliant feat of arms, and said that they were under the impression that there had been four British army corps against them at this point. When the division was aftor- ; wards withdrawn from the firing line to refit, it was foimdl that out of 400 officers who set out. from England there were onlv 44 left, and out of 12,000 men only 2330." Tlio leadership of the corps commanders was beyond praise, and on Sir Douglas llaig fell the heaviest task. But Ypres was, like Albuera, a soldiers' battle, won by the dogged lighting quality of the rank and lile rather than by any great tactical brilliance. There was no room and no time for ingenious tactics. Rarely, indeed, in the history of war do we. find a great army checked and bewilderod by one a fifth of its size. Strategically it can be done. Instances will be found in Napoleon's campaigns, and not the least, remarkable was Stonewall Jackson's performance in the spring and summer of 1802. While McClelian with 150,000 men was moving against Richmond, and Banks with 40,000 men was protecting bis right rear, Jackson with 3000 attacked Shields at Kernstown. He was beaten off, but he returned to tho assault, and for three months led the Federal generals a wild dance in the Shenajidoah valley. As a result, Lincoln grew nervous- Shields was not allowed to co-operate with McOlellan; McDowell's corps was detached from McClellan to support him; the attack upon Richmond ended in a fiasco: and presently Antietam was fought and the invasion of Virginia was at an end. In that campaign, in Colonel Henderson's words, "175,000 men were absolutely ' paralysed by 10,000." Ypres is not such a tale. The Allied strategy failed, and Ml that remained was a seemingly hopeless stand against a torrential invasion. It is to the eternal honor of our men that they did not break, and of their leaders that they did not despair. A price must be paid for great glory, and the cost of Ypres was high. The German casualties cannot have been less than 250,000 in the three weeks' battle. The Allied forces from Albert to Nieuport lost well over 100,000 men, and ini the Ypres fight alone the British lost at least 40,000. The total loss to the com- : batants was not far from the losses of the North during the whole of the American Civil War. WuoSo battalions virtually disappeared—the Ist Coldstreams, ' the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, the 2nd Wiitshires, the Ist Cameron. One divisional general, two brigadiers, and nearly a dozen staff officers fell, and eighteen regiments and battalions lost their colonels. Scarcely a house famous in our stormy history but mourned a son. ■ Wyndham, Dawnay, Fitzelarence, Wel- ; lesley, Cadogan, Ciivendi-sli, Bruce, Got- ; don-Lennox, Fraser, Kinnaird, Hay, Hamilton; it is like scanning the death roll after Agincourt or Flodden, Ypres was a victory, a decisive victory, for it achieved its purpose. The Allied line stood secure from the Oise to the sea; turning movement and piercing movement had alike been foiled, ! and the enemy's short-lived initiative was over. He was now compelled to conform to the battle we had set, with [ the edge taken from his ardor and every- [ where gaps in his ranks. Had we failed, | he Would have won the Channel ports and destroyed the Allies left, and the war would have takon on a new character. Ypres, like Le Cateau, was in a special sense a British achievement. Without the splendid support of d'Urbal's corps, without the Belgians on the Yser and Maud'huy at Arms, the case would have, indeed, been hopeless, and no allies ever fought in niore gallant accord. But the most critical task fell to the British troops, and not the least of the gain was tho complete assurance it gave of their quality. They opposed the blood and iron of the German 'onslaught with a stronger blood and a finer steel. Where all did gallantly it is invidious to praise. The steady old regiments of the line revealed their ancient endurance; the cavalry did no less wonderful work on foot i;n the trendies than in their dashing charges at Mons and the Marne; the Household Brigade, fighting in an unfamiliar warfare, added to the glory they had won before on more congenial fields; the Foot Guards proved that their incomparable discipline was compatible witji a brilliant and adroit offensive; our gunners, terribly outmatched in numbers and weight of fire, did not yield one inch; the few Yeomanry regiments and Territorial battalions'showed all the steadiness and precision of first-line troops. 'I have made many calls upon you," wrote Sir John French in a special order, '■and the answers you have made to them have covered you, your regiments, and the army to which you belong with honor and glory." And again in his despatch: 'i venture to predict that the deeds during these days of stress and trial will furnish some'of the most brilliant chapters which will be found in the military history of our times." It is no more than the'truth.