Rough diagrams
may make the position clear.
It became imperatively necessary greatly to extend the Canadian lines to
the left rear. It was not, of course, practicable to move the First
Brigade from reserve at a moment's notice, and the line, extending from
5,000 to 9,000 yards, was naturally not the line that had been held by
the Allies at 5 o'clock, and a gap still existed on its left. The new
line, of which our recent point of contact with the French formed the
apex, ran quite roughly as follows:
[Illustration: POSITION ON FRIDAY MORNING]
As shown above, it became necessary for Brig. Gen. Turner, commanding
the Third Brigade, to throw back his left flank southward to protect his
rear. In the course of the confusion which followed upon the
readjustments of position, the enemy, who had advanced rapidly after his
initial successes, took four British 4.7 guns in a small wood to the
west of the village of St. Julien, two miles in the rear of the original
French trenches.
The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story of how the Canadian
Division, enormously outnumbered--for they had in front of them at least
four divisions supported by immensely heavy artillery--with a gap still
existing, though reduced, in their lines, and with dispositions made
hurriedly under the stimulus of critical danger, fought through the day
and through the night, and then through another day and night; fought
under their officers until, as happened to so many, those perished
gloriously, and then fought from the impulsion of sheer valor because
they came from fighting stock.
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