, and served to keep the troops, during the
long cold winter months, stimulated and keen when otherwise life would
have proved most dull and uninteresting.

The Third Canadian Division was formed in January and February, 1916.
One infantry brigade was composed of regiments which had been acting as
Canadian corps troops, including the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry, and the Royal Canadian Regiment. The second infantry brigade
was made up of six Canadian mounted rifle regiments, which had comprised
part of the cavalry brigade. These two brigades, of the Third Division,
under the command of General Mercer of Toronto, almost immediately began
front-line work.

During this period, the Germans, making desperate efforts extending over
weeks of time, did their utmost to break through the French line at
Verdun and exhaust the French reserves. To offset these objects, a
fourth British army was assembled, which took over still more of the
French line, while a series of British attacks, intended to pin down the
German reserves all along the line, was inaugurated. One of these
developed into a fight for the craters--a terrible struggle at St. Eloi,
where, blasted from their muddy ditches, with rifles and machine guns
choked with mud and water; with communications lost and lack of
artillery support, the men of the Second Canadian Division fought gamely
from April 6th to April 20th, but were forced to yield the craters and
part of their front line system to the enemy.

Notwithstanding this the men of the Second Canadian Division at St. Eloi
fought quite as nobly as had their brothers of the First Division just a
year before, at the glorious battle of Ypres, a few miles farther north.
But it was a bitter experience. The lesson of failure is as necessary in
the education of a nation as that of success.

On June 2d and 3d, the Third Canadian Division, which then occupied part
of the line in the Ypres salient, including Hooge and Sanctuary Wood,
was smothered by an artillery bombardment unprecedented in length and
intensity. Trenches melted into irregular heaps of splintered wood,
broken sand bags and mangled bodies. Fighting gallantly the men of this
division fell in large numbers, where they stood. The best infantry in
the world is powerless against avalanches of shells projected from
greatly superior numbers of guns. The Canadian trenches were
obliterated, not captured.

By this time Britain had thoroughly learned her