With Joffre at Verdun

10–13 March 1915

Battle of Neuve Chapelle

With the Allies to the Rhine: A Story of the Finish of the War. With Allenby in Palestine: A Story of the latest Crusade. Under Foch's Command: A Tale of the Americans in France. The Armoured-Car Scouts: The Campaign in the Caucasus. On the Road to Bagdad: A Story of the British Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia. From the Nile to the Tigris: Campaigning from Western Egypt to Mesopotamia. Under Haig in Flanders: A Story of Vimy, Messines, and Ypres. With Joffre at Verdun: A Story of the Western Front. On the Field of Waterloo. With Wellington in Spain: A Story of the Peninsula. Kidnapped by Moors: A Story of Morocco. The Hero of Panama: A Tale of the Great Canal. The Great Aeroplane: A Thrilling Tale of Adventure. A Hero of Sedan: A Tale of the Franco-Prussian War. Roger the Bold: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico. At Grips with the Turk: A Story of the Dardanelles Campaign. The Great Airship. A Sturdy Young Canadian. A Boy of the Dominion: A Tale of Canadian Immigration. Under the Chinese Dragon: A Tale of Mongolia. With Roberts to Candahar: Third Afghan War. A Hero of Lucknow: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny. Under French's Command: A Story of the Western Front from Neuve Chapelle to Loos. With French at the Front: A Story of the Great European War down to the Battle of the Aisne. John Bargreave's Gold: A Search for Sunken Treasure. Tom Stapleton, the Boy Scout. A Soldier of Japan: A Tale of the Russo-Japanese War. A Knight of St. John: A Tale of the Siege of Malta. Foes of the Red Cockade: The French Revolution. One of the Fighting Scouts: Guerrilla War in South Africa. The Dragon of Pekin: A Story of the Boxer Revolt. A Gallant Grenadier: A Story of the Crimean War.

CHAPTER VII

Round about the city of Reims there had raged at times most furious fighting. In the Vosges, French riflemen and Germans contended for the mastery without cessation; while in the Woevre, before St. Mihiel, at Arras, in a thousand places, were desperate conflicts, in which the line swayed, trenches were captured and recaptured, men died, and the Kaiser's troops frantically struggled to break their way through the cordon stretched before them. Along the British line the battle of Neuve Chapelle gave opportunity to many a young soldier, and proved to the Germans that British and Indians could fight heroically together. Then the Second Battle of Ypres took place, a conflict more furious than any that had gone before it, in which, making their preparations secretly, throwing to the winds all thoughts of humanity, acting in that ruthless, treacherous manner which one now associates as a natural course with the Germans, the Kaiser and his staff deluged the French and British lines--where they joined--with asphyxiating gas, which choked hundreds. And yet, in spite of this diabolical manoeuvre, in spite of the unpreparedness of the French and British, and though the Algerian troops of the French, scared by the gas as by the mutterings of a wizard, gave way and fell back, leaving a gap in the line, yet the enemy failed to gain their object. For the 1st Canadian Division flung itself across the gap and held on like heroes, fought with desperate bravery indeed, and wrought for the people of the British Empire, and for their brothers and sisters in Canada, a tale which, so long as the British nation exists, will never be forgotten--never beaten.

9 April – 16 May 1917

Battle of Arras (1917)

CHAPTER VII

There is no need to recall those other battles, the almost daily exchange of shots along the trench-line, though for the information of our readers it may be just as well to enumerate some of the more important. From the sea, in the neighbourhood of Nieuport, the line of trenches ran in a southerly direction across the flats of Belgium and Flanders in front of Ypres, and down towards Arras. Thence, curling towards the east, and skirting the River Aisne and the famous city of Reims--where the vandals who had destroyed Louvain and many another city had long since wrecked the Cathedral, famous throughout the world--their line swept on over hill and dale, and hollow and furrow, across chalky plains and wooded heights and forest country to Verdun--that famous city which for centuries has been a stronghold. An ancient city, girdled at the outbreak of this gigantic war by a ring of fortresses of modern construction, in which a complete battery of guns was mounted; forts, let it be added, strategically placed, which could sweep the country in all directions. Then, turning sharply round Verdun, the line cut its way through muddy plains, through heights once more, through miles of country, till it reached the Swiss frontier. All along that line, fighting continued, here bursting out into a violent conflict, simmering down elsewhere, and at times subsiding altogether. Yet never were the trenches without a sinister line of crouching men, whether British, Belgian, or French, and ever was there another sinister, remorseless gang holding the German trenches opposite.

CHAPTER VII

Round about the city of Reims there had raged at times most furious fighting. In the Vosges, French riflemen and Germans contended for the mastery without cessation; while in the Woevre, before St. Mihiel, at Arras, in a thousand places, were desperate conflicts, in which the line swayed, trenches were captured and recaptured, men died, and the Kaiser's troops frantically struggled to break their way through the cordon stretched before them. Along the British line the battle of Neuve Chapelle gave opportunity to many a young soldier, and proved to the Germans that British and Indians could fight heroically together. Then the Second Battle of Ypres took place, a conflict more furious than any that had gone before it, in which, making their preparations secretly, throwing to the winds all thoughts of humanity, acting in that ruthless, treacherous manner which one now associates as a natural course with the Germans, the Kaiser and his staff deluged the French and British lines--where they joined--with asphyxiating gas, which choked hundreds. And yet, in spite of this diabolical manoeuvre, in spite of the unpreparedness of the French and British, and though the Algerian troops of the French, scared by the gas as by the mutterings of a wizard, gave way and fell back, leaving a gap in the line, yet the enemy failed to gain their object. For the 1st Canadian Division flung itself across the gap and held on like heroes, fought with desperate bravery indeed, and wrought for the people of the British Empire, and for their brothers and sisters in Canada, a tale which, so long as the British nation exists, will never be forgotten--never beaten.

CHAPTER VIII

"What, then? Mon Dieu! There was the Battle of the Marne, mon Capitaine, when we drove the Boche before us; and there followed the fight about the Aisne, when the British were just to the left of us; and, later, yes later, for I have seen a great deal, mon Capitaine, there was fighting near Arras, fighting to the north of the line later, between Ypres and Nieuport, when the Germans assailed the British at Ypres, and lost the flower of their Prussian Guard Corps. This is the full tale, monsieur, for I have already mentioned the Second Battle of Ypres, in which those Huns first nearly stifled me with asphyxiating gas, and then took this chip out of my chin with a bullet."

CHAPTER VIII

"It's an example to us all, mes enfants," he told the squad. "There is great honour to our big friend here who has seen such fighting throughout the first days of the war, the Retreat, that Battle of the Marne where we smashed the crowing German, the conflict near Arras and round Ypres, which barred the progress of our enemy. To such a man there is undying honour. But here we have two who, though wretched, no doubt, while confined in a German prison, half-starved, by all accounts, bullied and browbeaten, could yet have remained in that camp safe from the danger of warfare. But they wished to help their country; and see them here, joining up with our forces at the very first moment. And so, Jules and Henri, you would wish to go to the front almost immediately?"