and of anti-aircraft armament, and was
severely wounded in the thigh. Though he might have saved his life by at
once coming down in the enemy's lines, he decided to save his machine at
all costs, and made for the British lines. Descending to a height of
only 100 feet in order to increase his speed, he continued to fly and
was again wounded, this time mortally. He still flew on, however, and
without coming down at the nearest of our aerodromes went all the way
back to his own base, where he executed a perfect landing and made his
report. He died in hospital not long afterward.[A]

[Footnote A: The obituary columns of The Times of April 30 contained the
following notice under "Died of Wounds":

RHODES-MOORHOUSE.--On Tuesday, the 27th April, of wounds
received while dropping bombs on Courtrai the day before,
WILLIAM BARNARD RHODES RHODES-MOORHOUSE, Second Lieutenant,
Royal Flying Corps, aged 27, dear elder son of Mr. and Mrs.
Edward Moorhouse of Parnham House, Dorset, and most loved
husband of Linda Rhodes-Moorhouse.]

The outstanding feature of the action of the past week has been the
steadiness of our troops on the extreme left; but of the deeds of
individual gallantry and devotion which have been performed it would be
impossible to narrate one-hundredth part. At one place in this quarter a
machine gun was stationed in the angle of a trench when the German rush
took place. One man after another of the detachment was shot, but the
gun still continued in action, though five bodies lay around it. When
the sixth man took the place of his fallen comrades, of whom one was his
brother, the Germans were still pressing on. He waited until they were
only a few yards away, and then poured a stream of bullets on to the
advancing ranks, which broke and fell back, leaving rows of dead. He was
then wounded himself.

Under the hot fire to which our batteries were subjected in the early
part of the engagement telephone wires were repeatedly cut. The wire
connecting one battery with its observing officer was severed on nine
separate occasions, and on each occasion repaired by a Sergeant, who did
the work out in the open under a perfect hail of shells.

_On May 5 the following account of the British Official Eyewitness,
continuing the report of April 30, was published:_

About 5 P.M. a dense cloud of suffocating vapors was launched from their
trenches along the whole front held by the French right and by