r
enterprise in the same field of operations with more disastrous
results. "On October 19th," says Sir John French in his despatch on
the battle of Ypres-Armentieres, "the Royal Irish Regiment, under
Major Daniell, stormed the village of Le Pilly, which they held and
entrenched. On the 20th, however, they were cut off and surrounded,
suffering heavy losses." As the possession of Le Pilly threatened
their communications between La Bassee and Lille, the Germans made a
determined effort to capture it. It was evident to the Royal Irish
that their position was most precarious. They held on, however, and
beat off a succession of attacks, hoping that assistance would come
before they were completely isolated. German riflemen crept up and
ensconced themselves in farm buildings on the outskirts of the village
on one side; and machine-guns were brought to a little wood on the
other, so that the Royal Irish were enfiladed to the left and right.

The fight was still going on when darkness fell. "All night we could
hear the firing up there," writes Gunner P. Hall, Royal Field
Artillery, who was with his battery on a hill some miles from Le
Pilly; "and desperate efforts were made by our tired troops to regain
the ground the Royal Irish had left uncovered, but the job was too big
for men so exhausted as they were." What exactly had happened was but
a matter for surmise. For hours after the village had been surrounded
by the Germans the crackle of rifles and the rapid volleying of the
machine-guns told that the Royal Irish were yet unsubdued. Then there
came an ominous silence; and in the early hours of the morning a few
survivors of the battalion staggered more dead than alive into the
British camp. "They got a rousing cheer, for we had given them all up
as lost," says Gunner Hall. For the rest, some weeks later, a long
official list of names of the Royal Irish Regiment appeared under the
heading "missing." But the vast majority of them will never be found
until the Day of Judgment.

The Royal Irish Regiment had ceased to exist as a fighting force. The
battalion may be said to have been defeated. The enemy, no doubt,
boasted of it as such. But they set thus early in the war a shining
example of dash, resolution, and endurance in facing fearful odds
which must have had as much moral effect as a victory to our arms.

The most terrific phase of the great battle was from October 29th to
November 2nd, immediately to the south of Ypres,