IOO
THE YPRES TIMES
through the mist what was actually happening. How can one describe the events
that followed?
The worn-out survivors of six British battalions against a German reserve
corps. Surrounded by the enemy, bewildered in the fog, they fought until first
one battalion was wiped out, another had lost three-fourths of its number, another
was entirely without officers; but still they fought on. The confusion was such
that one British company was in the midst of the Germans, who were unaware of
the fact, and in five minutes this gloriously gallant little band had accounted for
more than eight hundred of the enemy. A lance-corporal sat in a shell hole for
an hour and a half firing his machine gun before being discovered by the Germans,
and at another point the last remaining gun of a battery fought a German field
gun at five hundred yards range and succeeded in knocking it out with a direct hit.
The hours were crowded with similar heroic episodes, many of which will never
be told, for those who acted or witnessed them have long since leaped the
golden stile.
The crisis was now at hand. The gallant 7th Division was so depleted as to
be no longer a command, but the survivors could not be relieved, and so were
attached to the I Corps. The third day of the great attack dawned, and once
again the enemy guns belched forth their deadly spite, once more the blue-grey
waves of German infantry came surging towards our trenches. Everywhere the
tide was stemmed, but eventually the pressure became so great that the 1st Division
was driven back. Then it was that, amid the fury and din of the battle, a terrific
thunderstorm broke out, as though Nature, resenting the thunder of the opposing
forces, endeavoured to drown the conflict. The effect of this fresh nerve-racking
experience upon our sorely tried men was appalling, and little wonder that some
went mad with the shock of it all. Our meagre forces were again driven back,
leaving behind those whom stern discipline held when the brain had ceased to
function.
All round the Salient, at one point after another, the British were driven back,
only to rally again and repulse the enemy. For hours the position was desperate,
and shortly after noon the headquarters of the 1st and 2nd Divisions was shelled,
both Generals being wounded and three Staff officers killed. Sir John French and
Sir Douglas Haig were soon on the spot, but the battle had reached a stage when
human effort, so far as the British were concerned, had reached the limit. For
two hours the issue was in doubt, and the period from two to three in the afternoon
was the crisis of the whole battle, for had the Germans launched another attack
and penetrated our line the gap could never have been closed. Only Divine
intervention could now save the situation; our little force had done all that could
be expected; the miracle is that they had accomplished so much. At last the
suspense ended, the Kaiser's dream became a nightmare—the tide turned in our
favour.
After the terrible strain our men had endured it would have been little wonder
had they collapsed from sheer exhaustion and reaction; the most one could expect
them to do would be to hold the line they had so valiantly defended and leave
the enemy to make the next move. That was not the spirit of the Old
ContemptiblesWhat actually happened was that the 1st and 2nd Divisions
attacked the Germans and drove them back, and, later, even the 7th Division
charged the enemy—and so the day was won. The critical period was past, the
British were victorious, and had not only added lustre to the glorious history of
the British Army, but had smashed the chosen troops of the Kaiser. Alas, the
British Expeditionary Force was no more. It had fought its last great fight and
passed out in a blaze of glory. It had fought the German legions to a standstill,
against apparently hopeless odds, in what will some day be acknowledged to be
the greatest battle ever fought. It had suffered everything but defeat. The
