r and
closer to it.

At the beginning of December, 1914, the Germans drew their forces close
up to Ypres, so closely in fact that they could bring into play their
small-caliber howitzers, and before many hours Ypres was in flames in
many places. The allied forces fought fiercely to compel the Germans to
withdraw. Hand-to-hand fighting, bayonet charges, and general confusion
was the order of the day. Thousands of men would creep out of their
holes in the ground and crawl, availing themselves of whatever covering
presented itself, to some vantage point and there stand up as one man
and charge directly into the adversary's ranks.

All this was part of the general scheme worked out miles from the spot
where the conflict was going on. There in some quaint little town
occupying some out-of-the-way house was the General Staff. The rooms
were filled with officers; the walls were hung with large and small
field and detail maps, upon which were plainly marked the name of every
commanding officer and the forces under his command. Every detail of the
armies' strength--names of the commanders, and any other detail was
plainly in view.

It was here decided to turn the entire command of the allied forces
along the Yser over to the British to avoid confusion. It was well that
this was done just at this time, for on December 3, 1914, the Germans
made a fierce onslaught along the entire front of thirteen miles between
Ypres and Dixmude, bringing into use a great number of stanch rafts
propelled by expert watermen, thus carrying thousands of the German
forces over and along the Ypres River.

Again the belligerents came to a hand-to-hand conflict, and so well
directed was the allied counterattack that no advantage to the Germans
was obtained. For three days this severe fighting continued. The
struggle was most sharp between Dixmude and the coast at Westende, where
the Germans hoped to break through the allied lines, and thus crumple up
their entire front, making a free passage.

On December 7, 1914, the French captured Vermelles, a minor village a
few miles southwest of La Bassee. This little village had been the
center of a continuous struggle for mastership for nearly two months. At
last the French occupied this rather commanding point, important to the
Allies, as it afforded an excellent view over a wide stretch of country
occupied by the Germans.

The German Staff headquarters were removed from Roulers, which is about
twelve mi