arters. It was most desperate and
confused. Scattered bodies of the enemy who had penetrated into the
woods in the rear of our position could neither go backward nor forward,
and were nearly all killed or captured.

The portion of the line to the southeast of Ypres held by us was heavily
shelled, but did not undergo any very serious infantry attack. That
occupied by the French, however, was both bombarded and fiercely
assaulted. On the rest of our front, save for the usual bombardment, all
was comparatively quiet.

On the right one of our trenches was mined and then abandoned. As soon
as it was occupied by the enemy the charges were fired and several
Germans were blown to pieces.

Thursday, Nov. 12, was marked by a partial lull in the fighting all
along our line. To the north a German force which had crossed the Yser
and intrenched on the left bank was annihilated by a night attack with
the bayonet, executed by the French. Slightly to the south the enemy was
forced back for three-quarters of a mile. Immediately on our left the
French were strongly attacked and driven back a short distance, our
extreme left having to conform to this movement. Our allies soon
recovered the ground they had lost, however, and this enabled us to
advance also.

To the southeast of Ypres the enemy's snipers were very active. On our
centre and right the enemy's bombardment was maintained, but nothing
worthy of special note occurred.

The fact that on this day the advance against our line in front of Ypres
was not pushed home after such an effort as that of Wednesday tends to
show that for the moment the attacking troops had had enough.

Although the failure of this great attack by the Guard Corps to
accomplish their object cannot be described as a decisive event, it
possibly marks the culmination if not the close of the second stage in
the attempt to capture Ypres, arid it is not without significance. It
has also a dramatic interest of its own. Having once definitely failed
to achieve this object by means of the sheer weight of numbers, and
having done their best to wear us down, the Germans brought in fresh
picked troops to carry the Ypres salient by an assault from the north,
the south and the east. That the Guard Corps should have been selected
to act against the eastern edge of the salient may be taken as proof of
the necessity felt by the Germans to gain this point in the line.

Their dogged perseverance in pursuance of their objec