PRAISE FOR THE CANADIANS

It was in the most furious conflict of the western campaign—­a battle between Langemarcke and Steenstrate, in Flanders—­that the Canadian troops saved the British army from what seemed almost inevitable defeat.  The Canadian division was in the front line of the British forces on April 23, when the Germans made their sudden assaults and broke through the line for a distance of five miles.  Only the brilliant counter-charges of the Canadians saved the situation.  They had many casualties, but their gallantry and determination brought success and, in the language of the official report of the prolonged battle, “their conduct was magnificent throughout.”

The correspondent, describing the harrowing scene of the battle on April 23, said:  “Long ago Kitchener’s army was given its baptism of fire, but yesterday it got its initiation into hell.”

In their great effort to smash the Allies on the Yser the Germans also sustained terrible losses.  By April 27 it was asserted that the German force that managed to pass the Yser and took possession of the town of Lizerne had been practically annihilated.  The fighting was said to have been far more terrible than that of the autumn of 1914, when the Yser canal ran red with blood.

It was charged by the Allies that in the fighting in Flanders late in April the Germans used asphyxiating gases, which placed thousands of the allied troops hors de combat, including many of the Canadian division.  Strong protests against the German use of such methods were voiced by the allied generals, and a formal denunciation was made by Lord Kitchener in the British parliament.

ALLIED TROOPS AT THE DARDANELLES

On April 25-27, a strong force of British and French troops under General Sir Dan Hamilton effected a landing on both sides of the Dardanelles, to co-operate with the allied fleets seeking to force a passage through the straits to the Bosporus.  The landing was resisted by Turkish troops, but the Allies succeeded in establishing themselves on the Gallipoli peninsula by May 1, and made several thousand Turks prisoners of war.  The bombardment of the Turkish forts in the Dardanelles by the allied warships was continued.

The French cruiser Leon Gambetta, with a displacement of 12,351 tons and crew of 714 men, commanded by Rear Admiral Fenet, cruising at the entrance of the Otranto canal in the Ionian sea, was torpedoed the night of April 26th by the Austrian submarine U-5, and went to the bottom in ten minutes; 578 lives were lost; all officers on board, including Rear Admiral Fenet, perished.

CHAPTER XXIII

SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA

Destruction of the Great Cunard Liner by a German Submarine Caused a Serious Crisis in German-American Relations—­Over a Hundred Americans and Many Canadians Drowned, Including Citizens of Prominence and Wealth—­Prompt Diplomatic Action by President Wilson—­The German Campaign of Frightfulness and Its Results.