eir intention while engaging us closely on the whole of this
sector to break our front in the vicinity of the Ypres-Roulers Railway,
to the north and to the south of which their strongest and most
determined assaults were delivered.

Under this pressure our front was penetrated at some points around
Frezenberg, and at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon we made a
counter-attack between the Zonnebeke road and the railway in order to
recover the lost ground. Our offensive was conducted most gallantly, but
was checked before long by the fire of machine guns.

[Sidenote: Enemy attacks near Menin road.]

Meanwhile, the enemy launched another attack through the woods south of
the Menin road, and at the same time threatened our left to the north of
Ypres with fresh masses. Most desperate fighting ensued, the German
infantry coming on again and again and gradually forcing our troops
back, though only for a short distance, in spite of repeated
counter-attacks.

[Sidenote: On the Poelcappelle road.]

During the night the fighting continued to rage with ever-increasing
fury. It is impossible to say at exactly what hour our line was broken
at different points, but it is certain that at one time the enemy's
infantry poured through along the Poelcappelle road, and even got as far
as Wieltje at 9 P. M.

There was also a considerable gap in our front about Frezenberg, where
hostile detachments had penetrated. At both points counter-attacks were
organized without delay. To the east of the salient the Germans first
were driven back to Frezenberg, but there they made a firm stand, and
under pressure of fresh reinforcements we fell back again toward
Verlorenhoek.

[Sidenote: Canadian counter-attack.]

Northeast of the salient a counter-attack carried out by us about 1 A.
M. was more successful. Our troops swept the enemy out of Wieltje at the
bayonet's point, leaving the village strewn with German dead and,
pushing on, regained most of the ground to the north of that point. And
so the fight surged to and fro throughout the night. All around the
scene of the conflict the sky was lit up by the flashes of the guns and
the light of blazing villages and farms, while against this background
of smoke and flame, looking out in the murky light over the crumbling
ruins of the old town, rose the battered wreck of the cathedral town and
the spires of Cloth Hall.

[Sidenote: German assaults on the east.]

When Sunday dawned there came a short re