front showed that "something went wrong" at Neuve Chapelle, which in a
large measure upset the British plans.

At Hill No. 60, though the British captured that important position,
they were held back from further advance. Then came the long-expected
German attack in the direction of Ypres, which was considered as one of
the keys to the French seaport of Calais. By this attack the Allies
were forced back from the Ypres canal, and the positions gained by the
Germans brought them within twenty-five miles of the coast at Dunkirk.

The fighting at Neuve Chapelle, Hill 60 and Ypres was probably the most
sanguinary of the entire war up to that time. The losses on both sides
were enormous. Germans, British, Belgians and French were killed
literally by the thousand, the British losses at Neuve Chapelle alone
being estimated at 20,000, while the German casualties in forcing the
passage of the Ypres canal a few days later exceeded 9,000 men.

PRAISE FOR THE CANADIANS

It was in the most furious conflict of the western campaign--a battle
between Langemarcke and Steenstrate, in Flanders--that the Canadian
troops saved the British army from what seemed almost inevitable defeat.
The Canadian division was in the front line of the British forces on
April 23, when the Germans made their sudden assaults and broke
through the line for a distance of five miles. Only the brilliant
counter-charges of the Canadians saved the situation. They had many
casualties, but their gallantry and determination brought success and,
in the language of the official report of the prolonged battle, "their
conduct was magnificent throughout."

The correspondent, describing the harrowing scene of the battle on April
23, said: "Long ago Kitchener's army was given its baptism of fire, but
yesterday it got its initiation into hell."

In their great effort to smash the Allies on the Yser the Germans also
sustained terrible losses. By April 27 it was asserted that the German
force that managed to pass the Yser and took possession of the town of
Lizerne had been practically annihilated. The fighting was said to have
been far more terrible than that of the autumn of 1914, when the Yser
canal ran red with blood.

It was charged by the Allies that in the fighting in Flanders late in
April the Germans used asphyxiating gases, which placed thousands of the
allied troops _hors de combat_, including many of the Canadian division.
Strong protests against the German u