Chapter V: MAY

The shortening of the Ypres Salient--More Hun gas--Strange
equipment for fighting the gas--The eve of Rawlinson's attack
along the Fromelles road--Great hopes of winning through to
Lille--The 1st Cavalry Division sent to Ypres--The French
attack at Arras--The British horseshoe around Ypres--Through
the ruined town of Potijze--Scenes of devastation--Under the
shells--Awful smells--Streams of wounded--Shell-splinters--The
G.H.Q. line--The St. Jean dug-outs--The hell of constant enemy
howitzer fire--Preponderance of numbers of German heavy guns
over British--The Auber ridge attack fails--Splendid examples
of heroism among the wounded--The French attack fails to
break through--Holding on at Ypres--Discovery of a dug-out at
Potijze--The solitary old woman in wrecked Ypres--Wonderful
pyrotechnic displays at night in the trenches--Blocked by
shell and conflagration in Ypres--Unable to get through--An
abandoned attempt at photography under bursting shells--A
scared collie--The last inhabitants to escape from the ruins
of Ypres--The "Princess Pat's"--A "Mother" gun and aeroplane
artillery observations--General De Lisle given command of
the eastern portion of the Salient--The remnants of the
Northumberland Brigade--To bed by the light of the fires in
Ypres--The composition of the Salient line on the night of
May 12th 178-222