th Brigade, composed of the
First Grenadiers, the Second Scots Guards, the Second Border Regiment,
and the Second Gordons, with the Sixth Gordons, a Territorial
battalion. This brigade fought valiantly around Pietre Mill. Position
after position was taken by them, but their efforts could not remain
effective without the aid of artillery, which was lacking. The Second
Rifle Brigade carried a section of the German trenches farther south
that afternoon, but an enfilading fire drove the British back to their
former position.

It was evident by the night of March 12 that the British could not
gain command of the ridge and that the Germans could not retake Neuve
Chapelle. Hence Sir John French ordered Sir Douglas Haig to hold and
consolidate the ground which had been taken by the Fourth and Indian
Corps, and suspend further offensive operations for the present. In
his report General French set forth that the three days' fighting had
cost the British 190 officers and 2,337 other ranks killed; 359
officers and 8,174 other ranks wounded, and 23 officers and 1,728
other ranks missing. He claimed German losses of over 12,000.

The British soldiers who had been engaged in the fighting about Neuve
Chapelle spent all of March 13, 1915, in digging trenches in the wet
meadows that border the Des Layes. On the following day the two corps
that had fought so valiantly were sent back to the reserve.

The German commanders, in the meantime, had been preparing for a
vigorous counterattack. They planned to make their greatest effort
fifteen miles north of Neuve Chapelle, at the village of St. Eloi, and
trained a large section of their artillery against a part of the
British front, which was held by the Twenty-seventh Division. The
preparation of the Germans was well concealed on March 14 by the heavy
mist that covered the low country. The bombardment started at 5 p. m.,
the beginning of which was immediately followed by the explosion of
two mines which were under a hillock that was a part of the British
front at the southeast of St. Eloi. The artillery attack was followed
by such an avalanche of German infantry that the British were driven
from their trenches. This German success was followed up by the
enfilading of the British lines to the right and left, with the result
that that entire section of the British front was forced back.

That night a counterattack was prepared. It was made at 2 a. m., on
March 15, by the Eighty-second Brigad