reinforcement. Six
days later the Lahore Division of the Indian army was sent to support
the Second Corps.

On Oct. 16 Sir Henry Rawlinson, who had covered the retreat of the
Belgian army from Antwerp with two divisions of English cavalry and two
divisions of French infantry, was stationed on the line east of Ypres
under orders to operate over a wide front and to keep possession of all
the ground held by the Allies until the First Army Corps could reach
Ypres.

Gen. Rawlinson was opposed by superior forces and was unable to prevent
the Germans from getting large reinforcements. With four army corps
holding a much wider front than their size justified, Field Marshal
French says he faced a stubborn situation. The enemy was massed from the
Lys, and there was imperative need for a strengthened line.

However, the Field Marshal decided to send the First Corps north of
Ypres to stop the reinforcements which might enable the Germans to flank
the Allies. The shattered Belgian army and the wearied French troops'
endeavors to check the German reinforcements were powerless, so the
British commander sent fresh troops to prevent the Germans from
executing movements which would have given them access to Channel ports.

Sir Douglas Haig, with the First Army Corps, was sent Oct. 19 to capture
Bruges and drive the enemy back toward Ghent, if possible. Meantime the
Belgians intrenched themselves along the Ypres Canal. Sir John French
commends the valor of the Belgians, who, he says, exhausted by weeks of
constant fighting, maintained these positions gallantly.

Because of the overwhelming numbers of the Germans opposing them, he
says he enjoined a defensive role upon the three army corps located
south of Ypres. While Gen. Haig made a slight advance, Sir John says it
was wonderful that he was able to advance at all, owing to the bad roads
and the overwhelming number of Germans, which made it impossible to
carry out the original plan of moving to Bruges.

The fighting gradually developed into bayonet charges. Field Marshal
French says that Oct. 21 brought forth the hardest attack, made on the
First Corps at Ypres, in the checking of which the Worcestershire
Regiment displayed great gallantry. This day marked the most critical
period in the great battle, according to the Commander in Chief, who
says the recapture of the village of Gheluvelt through a rally of the
Worcestershires was fraught with much consequence to the Allies.

Afte