As has already been told, the Second Royal
Berkshires and the Second Lincolns took the first line of trenches in
front of them, and opened the middle of their line to permit the
Second Rifle Brigade and the First Irish Rifles to dash on to the
village. The British artillery range was lengthened, thereby
preventing the German supports from interference with the well-defined
plan of the British. Into the wrecked streets of Neuve Chapelle swung
two battalions of the Twenty-fifth Brigade. The few of their enemy who
offered resistance were soon overpowered--being captured or slain.

These men of the Twenty-fifth Brigade found terrible scenes of
destruction. The village had been knocked literally into a rubbish
heap. Even the dead in the village churchyard had been plowed from
their graves by the terrific bombardment.

The Garhwal Brigade captured the first line of trenches on the right,
and the Third Gurkhas, on the southern outskirts of the village, met
the Rifle Brigade. Then it dashed on to the Bois du Biez, passing
another rubbish heap which once had been the hamlet known as Port
Arthur.

The attack on the left, however, resulted less successfully for the
British forces. As indicated above, the preparation for the
bombardment at this part of the line had been inadequate for the
purpose which the general in command had sought to achieve. Thus on
the northeast corner of Neuve Chapelle the German trenches and the
wire entanglements in front of them had been damaged but little. The
British forces on this part of the line included the Second Devons,
the Second West Yorks, the Second Scottish Rifles, and the Second
Middlesex, known as the Twenty-third Brigade. The Scottish Rifles
charged against intact wire entanglements which halted them in the
range of a murderous rifle and machine-gun fire. With daring bravery
the Scots sought to tear down the wire with their hands; but were
forced to fall back and lie in the fire-swept zone until one company
forced its way through an opening and destroyed the barrier. The
regiment, as a result of this mishap to the plans of the commanding
general, lost its commander, Colonel Bliss, and fourteen other
officers.

The Middlesex, on the right, met with the same obstruction and lost
many of its men and officers while waiting for the British artillery
to smash a way through for them. This the artillery did when word had
been carried back telling of the plight of the infantry.

The Twenty