he British. There was no moon and the sky
was dark, though there was not that inky blackness that occasionally
occurs under similar weather conditions. The Indian Corps stole from
their trenches and began to go forward from Richebourg l'Avoue.
But the Germans were alert, and they illumined the movement with
innumerable flares which made the Indians easy targets for the
machine guns and rifles of the Teutons in that part of the line.
So quick was the work to repel the attack that many of the Indians
were slain as they were climbing out of their own trenches. As
a surprise attack at night, the British were not making much of
a success of their plan, but as a method of gaining ground and
keeping their enemy busy on that particular part of the line the
men of their Second Division were effective. They dashed into the
first line of German trenches and cleared them out with the bayonet
and hand grenade. The furor of the attack took them on into the
second line. By dawn the soldiers of the Second Division had driven
a wedge into the German line.

This wedge was widened and driven in harder by Sir Douglas Haig's
old command--the First Corps. This corps had suffered heavy losses
at the first battle of Ypres; but the men who filled the gaps in
the line were hardy young men who made excellent soldiers from
the start. Added to their enthusiasm was a desire to show their
ability as fighters, with the result that the British right wing was
so effective that it, in a great measure, made up for the failure of
the Indian troops. The center and the right, with bomb and bayonet,
drove the Germans from the trenches; and then together they forced
their way into the Teutons' position 600 yards along a front 800
yards in length. Early the next morning, before daylight on May
16, 1915, the British Seventh Division forced its way into the
German salient at Festubert. In the meantime the Germans were making
hasty preparations for a counterattack. Sir John French's plan,
however, had proved effective. It would have required a large supply
of high-explosive shells to have made much of an impression on the
excellent defenses which the German soldiers had constructed on
this part of the front. The British had no such supply of ammunition,
and, even if they had had it, it is doubtful if they would have been
able to demolish the formidable wire entanglements. Yet in this
night attack with the bayonet the British troops had accomplished
all they coul