8
The Ypres Times.
destroyed. The men of the 1st York and Lancaster lay all day in their firing line on the
slope below Turco farmimmovable, for every one of them was dead or wounded. The
Cornwalls on the same slope lost all their officers but one, and all their men but ninety-five.
But they had perfectly carried out their incredible orders perhaps no danger so
great was ever countered by so small or so forlorn a force. Only those who know the salient
and saw it in war time can fully imagine the fighting of that afternoon the rest of us
must picture it from fragmentary sketches. In one officer's account we can see the two
companies of his regiment topping the ridge, and hear the whole valley which they are
to cross burst out into a roar of rifle and machine gun fire.
Down the slope they go with the subalterns running each in front of his platoon
across the stream at the bottom, and up again towards the enemy, leaving both hillsides
dotted with their dead, the ploughland spitting earth all round them, and the rattle of
machine guns drowning the word of command they seize the German outpost farm
and hold it under shrapnel fire till dusk. Backwards and forwards across these deadly
slopes move the regimental commanding officers, till at last they withdraw the wreckage
of their firing line to where the new trenches are being dug a thousand yards below.
But it is not for even those who did the fighting to estimate their own achievement.
For that we have the account of a gunner officer who witnessed the attack. I want
to tell you that the pushing upof those British brigades .was one of the most glorious
episodes of the war. They went up in broad daylight, in skirmishing order, in face of
the most awful shell fire. It seemed impossible that any of them would reach the trenches.
Their exploit will bear comparison with Balaclava. .Tam thankful for the privilege
of having been a witness of their heroism, and offer them my undying admiration."
The battle lasted on for four weeks afterwards but it was lost and won on St. George's
Day, when the German advance died down before this unique and impossible counter
attack. That is the reward of Colonel Geddes and his men. They have seemed to some
to be unfortunate, because they were sent to certain defeat, and their sacrifice gained
them neither glory nor honour. But to those who feel most deeply the reality of life,
the supreme acts of war are no longer confused with the thought of fame. For them the
most heroic moment is that in which the Cause is all, and the individual nothing even
to himselfand so we may think of these men. No doubt they suffered they looked
in vain for support, they endured without joy, they fell in the belief that they had failed
and their names are not even remembered. But they were and are fortunate because
they did their work, and doubly fortunate- because, through them, their country was
victorious.
They gave themselves and what they gave they have.
THE FIRST MAN IN "WIPERS."
By "TROOPER."
Not one of us had ever heard of the name of the place before. Half of B troop
were billeted at the Hotel de la Gare, at Thourout, and after attending to our horses,
were sitting around eating our rations. It was about seven-thirty on the morning of
Tuesday, the 13th October, 1914, when our sergeant came into the yard, and said to
Trooper Black and myself You two are to push on ahead to this place on the map.
When you get there, you are to wait for the Divisional Commander, who will arrive at
12 sharp."
What place asked my companion.
Here it isS&e for yourself," Announced the sergeant, straight south twenty
milesyou can't miss it. Y-P-R-E-S."
How do you pronounce it, sergeant
Search me," answered the sergeant. Y-pers, I suppose. There's a moat there
and a bridge. You two take up your post there like mounted sentries until the General
comes up. Then one precedes the car, and t'other follows. Understand