roops engaged or local results accomplished. Historians will record
all that. My field of description is limited to my field of personal
observation, which was not very extensive. I suppose, however, that I
saw as much as it was possible for any one person to see, so I shall
try to describe that part of the battle of St. Eloi in which it was my
fortune to participate.

At the point at the southern end of the Ypres salient, where the line
turns sharply to the eastward, stood the village of St. Eloi. It
consisted of perhaps fifteen or twenty buildings of the substantial
brick and iron construction characteristic of all Flemish towns and
was situated at the intersection of the two main roads paved with
granite blocks, one running to Ypres and the other through
Voormezeele. The village itself, except for two or three outlying
buildings, was inside our lines. The portion held by the enemy,
however, included a prominent eminence, called the "Mound," which
dominated our whole line for a mile or more. This mound had been a
bone of contention for more than a year and several desperate attempts
had been made to take it; notably in February and in March, 1915, when
the Princess Pat's were so terribly cut up and lost their first
Commanding Officer, Colonel Farquhar. All these attempts having
failed, our engineers proceeded to drive tunnels and lay mines, six in
number, so as to cut off the point of the German salient for a
distance of about six hundred yards.

All was completed; mines loaded and ready, and the time for the attack
was fixed for daybreak of the twenty-seventh of March. The mines were
to be fired simultaneously, followed immediately by an attack, in
force, by the Royal Fusiliers, the Northumberland Fusiliers and a
battalion of the West Yorkshires. Our brigade (Fourth Canadian) was
immediately to the right of the point of attack, but, as the Imperial
troops had changed their machine guns for the lighter Lewis automatic
rifles to be used with the advancing troops, it was deemed advisable
to bring up all available machine guns of the heavier types to
support the advance and to resist the inevitable counter-attacks.
These guns, twelve in number, were placed at advantageous positions on
the flanks of the attacking troops. I was only a sergeant at that
time, but, having been an officer, and having had more actual
experience in machine-gun work than the others, the direct supervision
of these guns was entrusted to me.