e attack for Tuesday,
April 20th, but with satanic ingenuity the offensive was postponed until
between 4 and 5 o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, the 22d. During
the morning the wind blew steadily from the north and the scientists
attached to the German Field Headquarters predicted that the strong wind
would continue at least twelve hours longer.

The Canadian division held a line extending about five miles from the
Ypres-Roulers Railway to the Ypres-Poelcapelle road. The division
consisted of three infantry brigades, in addition to the artillery
brigades. Upon this unsuspecting body of men the poison fumes were
projected by means of pipes and force pumps. The immediate consequences
were that the asphyxiating gas of great intensity rendered immediately
helpless thousands of men. The same gas attack that was projected upon
the Canadians also fell with murderous effect upon the French. The
consequences were that the French division on the left of the Canadians
gave way and the Third brigade of the Canadian division, so far as the
left was concerned, was "up in the air," to use the phrase of its
commanding officer.

It became necessary for Brigadier-General Turner, commanding the Third
brigade, to throw back his left flank southward to protect his rear.
This caused great confusion, and the enemy, advancing rapidly, took a
number of guns and many prisoners, penetrating to the village of St.
Julien, two miles in the rear of the original French trenches. The
Canadians fought heroically, although greatly outnumbered and pounded by
artillery that inflicted tremendous losses. The Germans, as they came
through the gas clouds, were protected by masks moistened with a
solution containing bi-carbonate of soda.

The tactics of General Turner off-set the numerical superiority of the
enemy, and prevented a disastrous rout. General Curry, commanding the
Second brigade of Canadians, repeated this successful maneuver when he
flung his left flank southward and, presenting two fronts to the enemy,
held his line of trenches from Thursday at 5 o'clock until Sunday
afternoon. The reason the trenches were held no longer than Sunday
afternoon was that they had been obliterated by heavy artillery fire.
The Germans finally succeeded in capturing a line, the forward point of
which was the village of St. Julien. Reinforcements under General
Alderson had come up by this time and the enemy's advance was suddenly
checked. Enemy attacks upon the l