ebourg and
Festubert north of Givenchy, and at Vermelles, south of Cuinchy,
evidently prompted the Germans to attempt a counterattack. Besides
it was desirable for the Germans to test the strength of the Allies
at this point, and to do this with some measure of success the
Germans massed a considerable force for this purpose.

Beginning about January 14, 1915, the British met with varying
and minor successes and defeats in this region, but no noteworthy
action had taken place for upward of ten days, until January 25,
under the eye of the German Kaiser, the principal attack, which
had been carefully planned, took place.

On the morning of January 25, 1915, a demonstration along the front
from Festubert to Vermelles and as far north as Ypres and Pervyse
was inaugurated.

The Germans began to shell Bethune, which was within the allied
lines about eight or nine miles west of La Bassee. An hour later,
in the neighborhood of nine o'clock, following up heavy artillery
fire, the Fifty-sixth Prussian Infantry and the Seventh Pioneers
advanced south of the canal, which runs eastward from Bethune,
where the British line formed a salient from the canal forward
to the railway near Cuinchy, and thence back to the Bethune and
La Bassee road where the British joined the French forces.

This salient was occupied by the Scots and the Coldstream Guards.
The Germans were obliged to advance by the road, as the fields
were too soft for the passage of the troops; even the roads were
in a terrible condition, deep ruts and thick, sticky mud greatly
retarding the onward march of the German forces. But the Allies
fared little better in this respect. In fact the entire engagement
was fought out in a veritable sea of mud and slush.

Well-directed artillery fire by the Germans blew up the British
trenches in this salient, and the Germans at once penetrated the
unsupported British line. The Germans also had the advantage of
an armored train, which they ran along the tracks from La Bassee
almost into Bethune, sufficiently close to throw considerable shell
fire into this town.

The Germans advanced in close formation, throwing hand grenades.
They came on so rapidly and with such momentum that the Guards,
trying in vain to stem the tide with the bayonet, were overwhelmed,
and the British, in spite of desperate resistance, were forced
back step by step.

At some points the distance between the trenches was so small that
it was utterly impossib