the Third Middlesex, and the First
York and Lancaster Regiments into the break in the line with the
result that Frezenberg was retaken. This victory was short-lived,
however; for the German machine-gun fire was too fierce for the
men to withstand. The British retired to a new front which ran
north and south through Verlorenhoek. The Twelfth London Regiment,
on the left, though it lost many men, managed to get to the original
line of trenches. Next the British were menaced from the north
and east. Great bodies of Teutons rushed from the woods south of
the Menin highway, when others rushed down the Poelcappelle Road
and took Wieltje, which is only about two miles from Ypres.

The fighting continued all night, but shortly after midnight the
British charged with the bayonet and retook Wieltje as well as
most of that section to the north of it which they had lost. Early
on May 9, 1915, the fighting was continued, and, in the afternoon,
the Germans charged from the woods in a vain attempt to take Ypres
after a severe bombardment of the British trenches. An attacking
party of five hundred was slain north of the town. On the eastern
side of the salient there were five distinct attacks. An attempt
to capture the Chateau Hooge was made early in the evening, only
to result in heaping the ground with German dead. The day closed
with 150 yards of British trenches in the hands of the Germans;
but they had been taken at a fearful cost to the kaiser's men.

The Germans began the next day, May 10, 1915, by shelling the British
north and south of the Ypres-Menin road. They followed the cannonade
with a cloud of asphyxiating gas. They then started for the opposing
trenches. Many of them, the British allege, wore British uniforms.
The British had by now been equipped with proper respirators and
could withstand a gas attack with comparative ease. When the Germans
were in close range they received a rifle and machine-gun fire
that mowed them down almost instantly. Those who had not been shot
fell to the ground to escape the leaden hail. But escape was not
for them. Shrapnel was poured upon them, and nearly all of the
attacking troops perished.

Another gas attack was made between the Ypres-Menin road and the
Ypres-Comines canal. There two batteries of gas cylinders sent
forth their deadly fumes for more than a half hour. The cloud that
resulted became so dense that it was impossible for the British
in the opposite trenches to see anythi