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Show BATTLE OrYPRES HARDJOUGHI London. April 23, 1:15 p. m. The Rritish official "eyewitness," in a narrative nar-rative of the battle of Yprep, says the Germans had prepared to attack the allied line on the 20th, but the wind not being favorable 'for their use of asphyxiating gases. ' they post poned it until the 22nd. The gas, the narrative says, was distributed dis-tributed along the German front line ! in front of the French position and the wind being from the north it was blown directly on the French. The German plan, according to the "eyewitness' "eye-witness' was to make a sudden onslaught on-slaught soutbwestward. which, if successful, suc-cessful, would enable the Germans to gain crossings of the canal south of Bixschoote and place them well behind be-hind the British Hue and in a posl tion to threaten Ypres. "Allowing time for the vapors to I take full effect on the troops facing .them" the 'eyewitness' says, the ; Germans charged forward over the I practically unresisting enemy In their immediate front- and. jenetrating j through the gap thus created, passed on silently aud swiftly to the south and went. By their sudden irruption j they were able to overrun and surprise sur-prise a large porportion of the French troops billeted behind the front line in this area and to bring some of the French guns, as well as our own, under a hot rifle fire at close range. Situation Saved. "Our flank being thus exposed, the troops were ordered to retire on St. Jullen. with their left flank parallel I to. but to the west of the high road. The splendid resistance of these troops who saved the situation already has been mentioned by the commander in chief "Meanwhile apparently waiting until un-til their infantry penetrated well he-hind he-hind the allies' lines, the Germans I opened a hot artillery fire upon various va-rious points to the north of Ypres, the bombardment being carried out j with the ordinary high explosive shells jand shrapnel of various calibers and I also with projectiles containing as phyxlating gas " The "eyewitness" then tells how a battery of field artillery surrounded, fired upon the Germans at a point-blank point-blank range, checked their rush and did not lose a gUn. The infantrvl meantime had withdrawn to St Ju-; Ju-; lien to meet the Germans, who by this time were barely two miles from j Ypres. Attacked With Bayonet. "These battalions. ' the narrative continues "attacked the Germans with the bayonet and then ensued a melee I in which our men more than held their own, both sides losing heavily. Oro German battalion seems to have been particularly severeh handled, its colonel being captured among several other prisoners "Other reinforcements were thrown in. As they came up when night fell, the fighting was continued by moonlight, moon-light, our troop dm Ing back the ene- j my by repeated bayonet charges, tn the course of which our heavy gun-? I were recaptured By then the Bit nation was somewhat restored in the area immediately north of Ypres. Farther Far-ther to the west, however, the enemy had forced their way over the canal, occupying Steenstraate. and crossing at Het Sas had established themselves at various points on the west bank "In the early morning of Fridaj we dellever a strong counter attack northward, north-ward, in co-operation with the French. Our advance progressed for some little lit-tle distance, peaching the edge of the wood, about a half mile west of St. Julien. and penetrating it, British Losses Severe ' Here our men got into the Germans Ger-mans with the bayonet and the lat ter suffered heavily The losses also were severe on our side, for the advance ad-vance had to be carried out across the open But in spite of this nothinc could exceed the dash with which it was conducted. "One man, and his ease was typical of the spirit shown by the troops, who had his rifle smashed bj a bullet, continued to light with an intrenching intrench-ing tool. 'About 11 a. m. not being able to progress farther, our troops dug themselves them-selves in. 'Broadly speaking, on the section of the front then occupied by us, the result of the operations had been to remcne, to some extent, the wedge which the Germans had driven into the allied line, and immediate dancer was over. During the afternoon our counter attack made further progress south of Pilkem, thus straightening Uie line utill more." The writer then tells how the Germans, Ger-mans, bringing up strong reinforcements, reinforce-ments, "and again using gas." captured cap-tured St Jullen and managed to throw several brigades across the canal. The British made a strong counter attack on Sunday, and while they gained some ground. It stopped in front of the village of St Jullen. |