When Haig was given the order to move forward, if conditions on his front warranted he was four miles northeast of Ypres, astride the road to Bruges, with a front eight miles wide. He tried to execute the order on the 21st. The Germans were massed in front of him and attacked furiously. It was soon evi dent that he would have all he could do to hold his own. Joffre promised to send rein forcements, but he gave warning that they could not arrive before the 24th.
The interval was a period of bitter combat Attack after attadc was delivered, now at one point and now at another. Frequent breaches were made in the lines, but the Gertnans seemed to have had little idea what to do when they had gone through and the British ahvays re paired the damage before serious consequences occurred. The Germans were trained to mass tactics and lacked initiative enough to utilize a new situation. The expected assistance arrived late on the 23d and early on the 24th, and con ditions changed for the better, though they still retnained serious; for desnite the help from Joffre the Germans were greatly supenor in numbers. The exhausted defenders had no op portunity to obtain rest and continued for days in the trenches, where they had to repel many charges.
From the 24th to the 29th the battle was waged fiercely along the line from Zonnebeke to Hollebeke, here one thrust and there an other. On the 29th the enemy attacked in overwhelming force all along this part of the line. There was nothing to do for the de fenders but to stand in their tracks and die or beat bacic the tide that ever flowed on. Many a unit was wiped out or reduced to a handful of men, but there was no surrender. For three days the terrible struggle went on. On the 31st a French corps and a body of cavalry arrived and the Germans were forced back from the positions they had gradually won in the preceding clays.
But the battle was not over. The lcaiser was determined to have Ypres and kept bring ing up other troops. These movements pro duced a lull in the battle. On 6 November the bitter struggle was renewed and continued for three days. Then came an interruption. On the 1 1th two brigades of Prussian Guards were brought up, and the kaiser made an earn est appeal to them for a victory, giving the en couragement of his presence. They were his favorite troops and they went forward with the parade step. The British fired coolly and
with telling effect, but the Prussians penetrated the British trenches. Then they hesitated, as if they knew not what to do next. The British left them no time to determine. A shower of shrapnel threw them into confusion and then the British charged and drove them back into their trenches. This was the last German ef fort in the first battle of Ypres.
While this period of fighting was going on east and southeast of Ypres, equally heavy attacks were made on Bixschoote, five miles north of the town. If the place had been taken Ypres would have fallen and the British would have been forced to retire. Bixschoote was defended by General Dubois, with the ninth corps and some French Territorial troops and cavalry. With the greatest courage his men fought off the German attacks, inflicting great slaughter. By 15 November quiet reigned in this part of the line also. A few days later winter fell on the trenches, with rain, sleet and snow, and aggressive military operations ceased.
On the 17th another French corps arrived, sent by Joffre, of whom it was said in another connection that there was never a time when, in dire need, he could not find a fresh divi sion to relieve a hard-pressed sector. The new arrivals gave General French an oppor tunity to withdraw his troops for the recuper ation they so much needed. Through four weeks they had stood the heaviest encounters the Germans could deliver against them. They had died in great numbers, 40,000 lcilled and wounded out of something more than 150,000. One division, the seventh, lost 356 of its 400 officers and 9,664 of its 12,000 ranIc and file. The Gertnan losses are not lcnown, but they must have been far in excess of the losses of their opponents. The kaiser had made a stu pendous effort, based upon the theory. that if men were sent forward persistently. in great masses they would carry any position. The theory failed here, as in other battles in this war. When the fighting was over, the Channel ports were safe from the hand.s of the am bitious emperor. If he had struck for them when he first entered Belgium, instead of chasing rainbows in the valley of the Mame, the story would most probably have been different, and the outcome of the war would certainly have been placed in serious doubt