gap in our front about Frezenberg, where
hostile detachments had penetrated. At both points counter-attacks were
organized without delay. To the east of the salient the Germans first
were driven back to Frezenberg, but there they made a firm stand, and
under pressure of fresh reinforcements we fell back again toward
Verlorenhoek.

Northeast of the salient a counter-attack carried out by us about 1 A.M.
was more successful. Our troops swept the enemy out of Wieltje at the
bayonet's point, leaving the village strewn with German dead and,
pushing on, regained most of the ground to the north of that point. And
so the fight surged to and fro throughout the night. All around the
scene of the conflict the sky was lit up by the flashes of the guns and
the light of blazing villages and farms, while against this background
of smoke and flame, looking out in the murky light over the crumbling
ruins of the old town, rose the battered wreck of the cathedral town
and the spires of Cloth Hall.

When Sunday dawned there came a short respite, and the firing for a time
died down. The comparative lull enabled us to reorganize and consolidate
our position on the new line we had taken up and to obtain some rest
after the fatigue and strain of the night. It did not last long,
however, and in the afternoon the climax of the battle was reached, for,
under the cover of intense artillery fire, the Germans launched no less
than five separate assaults against the east of the salient.

To the north and northeast their attacks were not at first pressed so
hard as on the south of the Menin road, where the fighting was
especially fierce. In the latter direction masses of infantry were
hurled on with absolute desperation and were beaten off with
corresponding slaughter.

At one point, north of the town, 500 of the enemy advanced from the
wood, and it is affirmed by those present that not a single man of them
escaped.

On the eastern face, at 6:30 P.M., an endeavor was made to storm the
grounds of the Chateau Hooge, a little north of the Menin road, but the
force attempting it broke and fell back under the hail of shrapnel
poured upon them by our guns. It was on this side, where they had to
face the concentrated fire of guns, Maxims and rifles again and again in
their efforts to break their way through, that the Germans incurred
their heaviest losses, and the ground was literally heaped with dead.

They evidently, for the time being at least, wer