completed in
safety on the night of May 3, 1915. The work included the taking with
them 780 wounded. Sharpshooters were left in the trenches, however,
and they maintained such an appearance of activity and alertness that
the Germans kept on shelling the trenches all of the following day.

The attempt of General Putz to force the Germans back across the
Yperlee Canal on May 4, 1915, was stopped by a combination of machine
guns, asphyxiating gas and fog. Then the French spent the next ten
days in tunneling to Steenstraate. Their tunnels toward their
objective point were through that territory between Boesinghe and
Lizerne. On May 5, 1915 the Germans made a careful advance on the
British front under the cover of fog and a heavy bombardment, to find
only that the British position had been changed. But they intrenched
opposite the new alignment, and brought up their big guns. Then they
used poisonous gas again with the result that the British retreated
and the Teutons followed, in spite of the many men who fell because of
the accurate work of the British artillery. The greater part of this
action took place around Hill 60, and some of the British trenches to
the north of the hill were captured by the Germans. They then
penetrated toward Zillebeke to the supporting line. Up to midnight the
Germans seemed to be victorious; then, however, the British drove them
from the hill only to be driven away in turn by the use of
asphyxiating gas. On the following day the Teutons held Hill 60 and
some of the trenches north of it.

Asphyxiating gas also had been used in an attempt to break the British
front on the left, on both the north and south sides of the
Ypres-Roulers railroad. Though this attack failed, the Teutons were
ready to make as near superhuman efforts as possible because they knew
that the French were getting ready for a decisive action in the Arras
territory, which would have the aid of a British attack south of the
Lys. Hence it was to the advantage of the Germans to force Sir John
French and General Foch to retain most of the British and French
soldiers north of the Lys. On May 8, 1915, they turned their artillery
on that part of the British front that was near Frezenberg. It
destroyed the trenches and killed or wounded hundreds of the
defenders. After three hours of this, the Germans commenced an attack
on that part of the British front between the Ypres-Menin and the
Ypres-Poelcappelle highways, the greatest pressur