ng
Fame
Lead forth the heroes to that frenzied line.
The creeping death that, searching, never stays;
To brave the rattling, hissing streams of lead,
The bursting shrapnel and the million ways
That war entices death; when dying, dead
And living, mingle in the ghastly glare
That taints the beauty of a night once fair,
And seems to flout the Majesty divine."
F. SHUKER (_Zero_).

Safely ensconced beneath the sheets of a very comfortable hospital bed
at Worsley Hall, I wrote the following letter in which I described the
Third Battle of Ypres up to the time when I left the battlefield. For
the progress of the battle beyond that it will be necessary to quote
other documents. Here is my own account of the operations written on
August 3:

"I will now endeavour to tell you the story of the Third Battle of
Ypres. As you are aware, we were preparing for this battle the whole
time I was at the Front. It was part of Haig's general plan of campaign
for 1917. When I first arrived in the Prison at Ypres, the day before
Messines, Captain Andrews had me in his cell and explained to me the
plan of campaign. He opened some maps and explained to me that Plumer's
Second Army was, very shortly, going to attack on the south of the Ypres
Salient with the object of taking Hill 60 and the Messines Ridge. If
that attack should prove successful _we_ should, a few days afterwards,
do a little 'stunt' on a German trench named Ice Trench. We were issued
with photograph maps of this trench and many conferences were held with
regard to it. Further, he explained that this was only a preliminary
operation: the main campaign of the year was to be fought on the front
between Ypres and the Sea, and Sir Hubert Gough was coming to Ypres to
take command. Well, the Battle of Messines was fought the following
morning; all Plumer's objectives were gained; it was a perfect 'stunt';
but, still, our Ice Trench affair was cancelled! We left Ypres soon
afterwards and went into rest billets at Millain and then training
billets at Westbecourt. Hunter-Weston's VIII Corps became a reserve
corps behind the line and we, Jeudwine's 55th Division, were transferred
to Watts's XIX Corps which became part of Gough's Fifth Army--that
famous general having arrived in Flanders. While at Westbecourt
we--Stockwell's 164 Brigade--practised the Third Battle of Ypres in the
open cornfields and amongst the numerous vegetable crops bet