On the Fringe of the Great Fight

D BATTLE

nt several days before, and had now settled down to business in the trenches. Our laboratory had been given permission to keep a check on

string of transport waggons with hay and other fodder, crept along leisurely; a motor ambulance convoy sped past with back curtains up, showing the boots of the recumbent wounded, or the peering faces of the sitting cases with heads and arms bound in white linen; some old women arrayed in their best dresses, and with baskets on arms, were coming from market gossiping volubly; boys and girls garbed in

body seemed to be going about as if they had been at this sort of t

tall trees, and paved with cobble stone. Wire entanglements and trenches traversed the roads at intervals, a

e adjacent fields; there were no extensive suburbs such as are found around the modern British or American city causing them

n of less than 20,000, a mere reminiscence of that ancient city of Ypres of the 12th century which had had a population of 200,000 inhabitants and which had been the most powerful city in Flanders and one of the richest in the world,-a city larger and more powerful than London. Ypres was famous for i

work splintered and the walls pitted with shrapnel; while another had been completely gutted. We turned to the right and came upon the famous church of St. Martin's. Great piles

ly 500 feet long and half as wide. The walls were yet fairly intact, also the main square tower in the centre and the graceful pointed turrets at each corner. Most of the roof was gone, but enough remained to show that it had been very high-pitched, and that the proportions of the building must have been perfect. The interior was a mass of rubble; here and t

, making heavy shadows under the windows and ruined arches; soldiers crossed the square and stood about as if they were a thousand miles from the German lines. Several officers could be seen wandering about studying

at. I had not seen him since the memorable days of Salisbury Plain, and he was full of his experiences as a regimental chaplain. He

eat demand for food; the three pretty Flemish sisters who owned the shop had therefore accommodated themselves to the situation and now served most excellent food daintily on clean tables, though not with gre

icers were quartered. I took water samples for examination of their drinking water supply, which was not above suspicion. The garden at the rear of their temporary home was vibrant with sunshine; the pears, trained against the walls in the recta

er's edge and through the hamlet of St. Jean to Wieltze, where the advanced dressing station of the ambulance was located. Here I saw my friend Captain Brown and collect

ed when the German suddenly turned tail and fled. A white puff of smoke beside him indicated that the Archibalds had been watching the combat closely. A second, third and fourth followed in rapid succession until suddenly at the fifteenth burst the Taube began to drop and flutter down, like a leaf

ender, he pawed the air wildly for a moment and, losing his balance, he fell over backward rolling on the officer. Soldiers quickly caught the horse and pulled him to one side, and greatly to our relief the officer was able to get up and walk. It was characteristic of the Br

le I bought a large bunch of daffodils for the equivalent of two pennies. Crossing the railway tracks by the she

l holes, and the rails of a light railway at one place po

ad, took a chance and tried to dash across in front of the car

rain." As we passed through the rolling land of Belgium under the brow of "The Scherpenberg," with Mount Kemmel over to the right honeycombed with dugouts, it was difficult to believe that, loc

nch home town, glad to have seen our friends in their

were quite thick in the forest of Nieppe near Merville. It was the time in Canada when the spring feeling sudd

We struggled along until noon with our routine work, and having completed it Captain Rankin and I left for Ypres. A soldier had been transferred to us, and as we did not need him we d

. The Cloth Hall, which the Captain had not seen before, showed further evidences of shell fire. After viewing the ruins we drove to the little restaurant kept by the pretty milliners, only to find that the place had completely disappeared-literally blown to atoms. Later on we found that a

and, curiously enough, we found this also to be a little restaurant kept by two other milliners. They informed us that the first three milliners had escaped when the bombardment

e the French joined up with the second and third brigades of Canadians, and where the British troops joined up with the Canadians. When about to leave, a friend, Major Maclaren of the 10th Infa

old that it was safe because twice a week a couple of pounds of chloride of lime were chucked into the middle of the pool. We took samples of the water and passed on to Wieltze, intending to walk into the salient to see what "N

ain, explaining that on account of his illness in England he had been temporarily replaced as regimental medical officer by Captain Boyd. We talked with him in the little estaminet in which the dressing station was located, while the old

house. The earth had all been dug and raked smooth by a boy and a couple of children. To our "Bon jour"

yond was exceedingly rough, and it would only have been inviting d

rt of the line occupied by the French. We wondered what the smoke was coming from. Half a mile up the road we seate

nnonade began. Looking towards the French line we saw this yellowish green cloud rising on a

ds as if it had been poured from nozzles, expanding as it ascended; here and there brown clouds seemed to be mixed with the

ead. "For Ypres," we ejaculated, and looking back we saw a cloud as big as a church rise up from that ill-fated city, followed by the sound of the explosi

so many geysers. General Alderson and General Burstall of the Canadian Division came hurrying up the road and paused for a moment to shake hands, and

own batteries replying to them. The air seemed to be full of shells flying in all directions. The gas cloud gradu

uch gun had taken a position not three hundred yards away from us when a German shell lit ap

t the din was too great to distinguish much detail. The common expression used o

himself and the Germans. He had been gassed, and had evidently been the first to get out of the trenches. Loping along at a gait that he could, if necessary, maintain for hours, he fled by with tail between his legs, tongue hanging out and ears wel

itated our throats and lungs, and made us cough. We decided that this gas was chiefly chlorine, with perhaps an a

tinguish the heavy rattle of rifle and machine gu

o our right the crash of our field guns, and their rhythmical red flashes

epped out to speak to them, and found that they belonged to the French Red Cross. They had been driven out

g on a little cart drawn by a donkey which was led by a peasant. His face a

been gassed, and that the Germans had got in behind them about a mile away, in such a manner that they had been forced to fight them on front and r

hey came closer we could see that they were French Moroccan troops, and evidently badly scared. Near us some of them lay down in a trench and lit cigarettes for a moment or two, only to start up in terror and run on again. Some of them even threw away their equipment after they had passed, a

e road from Ypres came a platoon of soldiers marching rapidly; they were Canadians, and we knew tha

a word for a while as we saw spurt after spur

t. As he spoke, a bullet split a brick in the road about three fe

ad and another spat up the road dust in front of us. "Those are aimed bullets," I said. "The Germans cannot be far away; it's ti

to the fields on leaving Wieltze, and began advancing in short rushes in skirmishing order towards the German front, while their officer walked on ahead swinging his bamboo cane in the most a

to Langemarck. Turning into the fields they would wheel sharply, deposit their loads, and gallop wildly off again fo

in the afternoon, came down to the gate and asked rather apologetically if we thought that the Germans would

iny bundle in a handkerchief; the next, a boy about eight, had a larger one. All were dressed in their best Sunday clothes, and carried umbrellas-a wise precaution in the climate

hook her head in indignant protest. Accordingly he crouched down, she put her arms around his neck, he took her feet under his arms, and set off down the road towards Ypres with the rest of the family trailing behind him. About ten o'clock tha

no gun. Small detachments of Canadian troops moved rapidly through the streets. Around the Canadian Advanced Dressing Station was a crowd of wounded Turcos and Canadians waiting their

riend, Major Maclaren, whom I had talked to at Brielen earlier in the afternoon, at its head. I waved my hand to him and called "good luck." He waved his hand in answer with a cheery smile. A couple of

we had and we shook hands as we wished each other "good luck," not knowing whether we should ever meet again. We picked up a load of wounded Turcos and took them into the ambulance at Ypres. Fresh

g, which had been intact earlier in the afternoon, had been already scarred with pieces of flying shells. The shutters which had been closed were torn and splintered, and the brick work was pi

rapnel. It was rather weird to see this surgeon coolly operating as if he was in a hospital in Canada, and to hear the shells screaming overhead and exploding not far away, any one of which might a

rieks of a woman rang out down the street, shrieks as from a woman who might have had her child killed. We went to the door and looked out; the Lozier was still intact, though later on we found the

eturn, and we were glad to do so. After being given the usual dose of anti-tetanic serum, he was wrapped in

nd tried to get down a side road to Vlamertinge. It was choked with refugees and transport, and the military traffic policeman strongly advised us to take the main road from Ypres

llop as they made haste to get through the town to the bridge-head on the far side. Motor transport lorries also drove at full speed to get by this danger point as quickly as

lashlight was permitted. Yet one's eyes became accustomed to the dark, and when the pale moonlight came through we could dimly see over on our right a line of French Turcos moving like ghosts along towards Vlamertinge. Next them we

y. A motor lorry would approach within a few feet of us before the driver would see, and stop before we crashed into each other. On the left were troops standing by all alo

riages; motor lorries, horse transport, lumber wagons, motor cycles, touring cars, and mounted horsemen, was dissolved, and slowly began again to flow in both directions. Looking backward we could see the red glow of fires burning in different parts of Ypres and the bright flashes of shells

news. Our patient, whom they recognized as belonging at one time to themselves, was carried into shelter, and we also entered the building. Lying on the floors were scores of

, that the nation who had planned in cold blood, the use of such a foul method of warfare, should

f the leg and was now getting the wound dressed, particularly when he heard that Captain Scrim

the car was not very suitable for evacuating wounded. As we could not be of use, we reluctantly passed

AGE FIRE AT

ver to our car as we were showing our passes to a mil

," I an

port drivers to stop going up and down this road

ny other things are needed; our men have been sent for them and k

ich we had been asked to have sent forward, had already gone, and our last errand was done. Puttin

dominant question. Nothing lay between them and Calais but the Canadian Division, and whether the Canadians could hang on long enough in face of this new terror of poison gas until new troops arrived, no one could even venture to guess. We felt that they would do all that men could do under the circumstances, but without means of combating the poison it was doubtful what an

ont of me and asked me to sketch out the part of the line where the gas had been discharged, and how I thought the line should be at the present moment. I did my best, tyro as I was. It was one of the satisfactory moments of my life when the General drew the map to one side and showed me a map of the line as it really was, given him by G