France, brought Russian soldiers in large numbers to the
support of the French line. The transports were understood to have made
the voyage of 10,250 miles from Vladivostok under convoy by the British
navy.

EARL KITCHENER KILLED AT SEA.

The British armored cruiser Hampshire, 10,850 tons, with Earl Kitchener,
the British secretary of state for war, and his staff on board, was sunk
shortly after nightfall on June 5, to the west of the Orkney Islands,
either by a mine or a torpedo. Heavy seas were running and Admiral
Jellicoe reported that there were no survivors. The crew numbered
officers and men. Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia for a secret
conference with the military authorities when the disaster occurred. His
latest achievement was the creation, from England's untrained manhood,
of an army approximating 5,000,000 men, of whom he was the military
idol.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

BATTLES EAST AND WEST

After gallantly holding their own for many months against repeated
German attacks, the Canadian troops holding that section of the western
front southeast of Ypres, between Hooge and the Ypres-Menin railway,
were engaged during the week ending June 3, 1916, in a battle scarcely
less determined in its nature than that of St. Julien and other great
encounters in which they distinguished themselves and added to Canadian
military laurels earlier in the war.

On Friday, June 2, the Germans, after a concentrated bombardment with
heavy artillery, pressed forward to the assault and succeeded in
penetrating the British lines. During the night they pushed their attack
and succeeded in cutting their way through the defenses to the depth of
nearly a mile in the direction of Zillebeke. The hard-fighting Canadians
then rallied and began counter-assaults at 7 o'clock on the following
morning. By Sunday morning, June 4, they had succeeded in gradually
driving the Germans from much of the ground they had gained, but the
losses to the Canadians were severe.

In the British official report of the engagement, it was stated that
"the Canadians behaved with the utmost gallantry, counter-attacking
successfully after a heavy and continued bombardment." The German
losses were very heavy and a large number of dead were abandoned on the
recaptured ground. Frederick Palmer, the noted war correspondent, said
that for a thousand yards in the center of the line where the Germans
secured lodgment the Canadians fired from positions in t