26 on the attacks were renewed daily with
extraordinary violence, obliging us to employ our reinforcements at the
most threatened points as soon as they came up. Thus, on Oct. 31, we
were obliged to send supports to the British cavalry, then to the two
British corps between which the cavalry formed the connecting link, and
finally to intercalate between these two corps a force equivalent to two
army corps. Between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 Ypres was several times in
danger. The British lost Zandvorde, Gheluvelt, Messines, and Wytschaete.
The front of the Allies, thus contracted, was all the more difficult to
defend; but defended it was without a recoil.
REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE.
The arrival of three French divisions in our line enabled us to resume
from the 4th to the 8th a vigorous offensive. On the 10th and 11th this
offensive, brought up against fresh and sharper German attacks, was
checked. Before it could be renewed the arrival of fresh reinforcements
had to be awaited, which were dispatched to the north on Nov. 12. By the
14th our troops had again begun to progress, barring the road to Ypres
against the German attacks, and inflicting on the enemy, who advanced in
massed formation, losses which were especially terrible in consequence
of the fact that the French and British artillery had crowded nearly 300
guns on to these few kilometers of front.
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