to distinguish
when the attack was everywhere so fierce, it developed with particular
intensity at this moment upon the apex of the newly formed line, running
in the direction of St. Julien.

It has already been stated that four British guns were taken in a wood
comparatively early in the evening of the 22d. In the course of that
night, and under the heaviest machine-gun fire, this wood was assaulted
by the Canadian Scottish, Sixteenth Battalion of the Third Brigade, and
the Tenth Battalion of the Second Brigade, which was intercepted for
this purpose on its way to a reserve trench. The battalions were
respectively commanded by Lieut. Col. Leckie and Lieut. Col. Boyle, and
after a most fierce struggle in the light of a misty moon they took the
position at the point of the bayonet. At midnight the Second Battalion,
under Colonel Watson, and the Toronto Regiment, Queen's Own, Third
Battalion, under Lieut. Col. Rennie, both of the First Brigade, brought
up much-needed reinforcement, and though not actually engaged in the
assault were in reserve.

All through the following days and nights these battalions shared the
fortunes and misfortunes of the Third Brigade. An officer who took part
in the attack describes how the men about him fell under the fire of the
machine guns, which, in his phrase, played upon them "like a watering
pot." He added quite simply, "I wrote my own life off." But the line
never wavered. When one man fell another took his place, and with a
final shout the survivors of the two battalions flung themselves into
the wood. The German garrison was completely demoralized, and the
impetuous advance of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the
far side of the wood and intrenched themselves there in the position so
dearly gained. They had, however, the disappointment of finding that the
guns had been blown up by the enemy, and later on in the same night a
most formidable concentration of artillery fire, sweeping the wood as a
tropical storm sweeps the leaves from a forest, made it impossible for
them to hold the position for which they had sacrificed so much.

The fighting continued without intermission all through the night, and,
to those who observed the indications that the attack was being pushed
with ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed possible that the
Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to defend and so little
the subject of deliberate choice, could maintain their resistance for