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 impossible to stop the onrush from one trench to the other.
The Germans swept and broke through the British lines, treading their
fallen opponents under foot as they advanced. At this point the British
turned and fled, as there was no hope of