o clear out. I stayed until they got tired of shelling and then had a
good look at their lines through my field glasses. The ground sloped
gently down from where I stood in the sap-head for about three hundred
yards to our forward line of redoubts. Away to the northwest the
double line of parapets disappeared in the trees and hedges around
Langemarck. Just short of the village the Third Brigade (ours) took up
the defence. The trenches here for about five hundred yards were held
by the Royal Highlanders of Montreal. Major Osborne held several half
moons on the far side of the Poelcapelle Road. Then our battalion
lines continued southerly, running for about eight hundred yards till
there came a gap which occurred between us and the Winnipeg Rifles.
Immediately behind our line ran Strombeek River, (we would call it a
creek). It marked the bottom of the slope and crossed the line of
trenches held by the "Little Black Devils," as the men of the Winnipeg
Battalion were called.

[Illustration: Map of the BATTLE OF ST JULIAN April 22nd May
4th 1915. Position April 23rd
THE BREAK IN THE SALIENT]

The line of the Second Canadian Brigade trenches then ascended the
Gravenstafel ridge. On the east side of the ridge the land sloped up
towards Poelcapelle and Roulers. This slope was not very steep, but
sufficiently so to dominate the little valley in which were our
forward line of trenches. All along the enemy's lines were various
clumps of trees, each one of which no doubt concealed several
batteries of artillery, referred to in the conversation of my friend
of the flying corps. High above the trees and the distant red tiled
roofs of Roulers I could see the spire of the Gothic Church of St.
Michael. Beneath these walls on June 13th, 1794, a fierce struggle
took place between the Austrians under Clerfait and the French troops
under Marshal Macdonald, in which the French Republican troops of the
latter were victorious. Beyond Roulers lay Ghent, Antwerp and
Brussels. The high ground in front was strongly held by the enemy, for
this was the key to the advance on Brussels and Waterloo.

My examination of our position ended. I began to retrace my steps to
St. Julien, but the Germans spotted me in some way and followed me
across the fields with salvos of high explosive shells. I could hear
the shells coming as the field was dotted here and there with "crump"
holes or craters where shells had fallen. I promptly ducked into a