ve the impression of a great force being
engaged in the attack.

One who was there thus describes what followed:--

"The Germans were taken completely by surprise. Their horses
started to rear and plunge, and many men and animals went over
into the stream, being carried away. The motor wagons could not
be stopped in time, and they crashed into each other in
hopeless confusion. Into this confused mass of frightened men
and horses and wagons that had run amok the Lancers now charged
from two separate points, setting up the most awful cries in
English where they didn't know any other language, but as some
knew a little French and others more Irish they joined in, and
all that added to the confusion of the Germans, who must have
fancied that the whole Allied Army had come down on them. The
Lancers made short work of the escort at the head of the column,
and the officer in command agreed to surrender all that was
under his direct control, though he said he couldn't account for
the rearguard."

CHAPTER III

CONTEST FOR THE CHANNEL COAST

IMPETUOUS DASH OF LEINSTERS AND ROYAL IRISH, AND GRIM TENACITY OF
IRISH GUARDS AND RIFLES

It had become evident that the design of the Germans, then hacking
their way through Belgium, was to reach Calais and Boulogne so as to
cut the direct communication of the British with the Channel coast of
Belgium and France. With the view of frustrating these plans, Sir John
French, early in October, withdrew his forces from the orchards and
woodlands by the banks of the Aisne to French Flanders, on the
north-west, a mingled industrial and agricultural country. The British
Commander had also hoped to be in time to outflank the right wing of
the enemy, but in this he was disappointed by the fall of Antwerp,
which enabled the Germans to sweep quickly round to Ostend, higher up
the Belgian coast.

The British lines now ran, first from the historic French city of St.
Omer in a south-easterly direction to the smaller towns of Bethune,
Givenchy, and La Bassee, towards the great French manufacturing city
of Lille, prominent on the landscape with its forest of tall chimneys;
and, secondly, from St. Omer again north to Ypres, the ancient and
beautiful capital of Flanders. Here, for months to come, many most
desperate and critical battles were to be fought, in an extraordinary
tangle of railways, canals, roads, industrial villages, mil