THE HEROIC DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1918, Page 8

THE HEROIC DAY.

HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED. 1 "It was the obstinate tenacity, the superb spirit, the refusal to acknowledge defeat which has ever animated the British soldier, that saw the country tli rough those desperate 'hours on October 31 and November ] > I!U4 ' —. "It was the man in the trench who saved the Umpire."—Lord French in the Observer. i London, Oct. 31.

Tliis week we commemorate the anniversary of the momentous first battle of Ypres, to which Lord French refers. "The First Battle of Ypres, little as we knew it for long afterwards, marked the passage of the Empire and of the world itself through one of the supreme crises of history," says the Observer. "We can now mark not merely the day but the very hour which decided whether the Germans should break the Allied line and reacli the French coast or recoil in failure from the thin but indomitable ranks of Western, chivalry. We can identify the man whose genius, thrown into the trembling scale of Fate, turned it to the side of civilisation, never again ;o let the final, thongl; far, issue;ibe encompassed with doubt. "When fleneral FitzClarence sent the 2nd Worcester* into the line at the right point liMwecn two and three o'clock on the afternoon of October 31, lf)l4, he turned the current, of war so that it never flowed backward.

"But if one directing act could thus bear upon destiny, it was because the valor of thousands held the iousc balance Mpon which it descended. To give the name of Ypres its meaning the British Army poured forth its blood as never upon any of the fields which enshrined its glory. Here it was that the British soldier of tradition fought his greatest light and sealed his testimony."

Emphasising the vital importance of the hattle, The Times points out that on October HI, 1014. "the British Empire was in greater peril than it has ever been before or .since.

(; Thc country at large still understands far too little about the tremendous importance of the first battle of Ypres. and about its unalterable effect upon the whole course of the war. . .

''The critical period was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, when, with the First Division forced back, the enemy was coming on in strength. At this perilous moment a dramatic stroke, of which the hero was Brigadier-General Fitz-Clarence, saved the day.

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his history of the war, gives to this fine soliliei. who was killed a. few days later, the credit of the initiative in the vital movement which led to the capture of Giieluvelt by the 2nd Worcester?. The latter were not under his orders, but he paw the urgent need of filling the gap of 500 yards between the northern edge of the village and the South Wales Borderers. who had not retired. The Worcosters were in reserve in the south-west cornr of Polygon Wood.

" 'On being called upon,' sa vs Sir A. Cfenan Doyle, 'they made a brilliant advance under Major Hankov. One company (A) was detached to guard the right flank of the advance. The other three companies came on for a thousand yards. At one point tlioy had to cross ?20 yards of open under heavy shrapnel fire. One hundred men fell, but the momentum of the charge was never diminished. Their rapid and accurate fire drove back the German infantry, while their open order formation diminished their own losses. Finally, they dashed Into the trenches and connected up the village with the line of the Welsh Borderers. ... It was a line advance at » critical moment.'

" The struggle went on, but the defence made bv the vastly out numbered British Army on the day of October 31 turned the fide.'"