April 22—­A great new battle is being fought at Ypres, Germans taking a strong offensive from the northeast; they drive the Allies back to the Ypres Canal, taking 6,000 prisoners and 35 guns; at Steenstraete and Het Sase the Germans force their way across the canal and establish themselves on the west bank; Germans capture villages of Langemarck, Steenstraete, Het Sase, and Pilken; Ypres is being heavily bombarded; British and French official reports declare that at one point where the French fell back they did so because of asphyxiating gas used by the Germans; the Germans, on the contrary, have claimed several times recently that the French have been using asphyxiating bombs at various points; Germans continue tremendous attacks on Hill 60, with what is declared to be one of the fiercest artillery bombardments in history, but the British still hold it; German troops are pouring through Belgium to the Ypres front; Germans gain ground south of La Bassee; Germans repulse French attack in the western part of the Forest of Le Pretre; French repulse attack at Bagatelle, in the Argonne; French gain ground near St. Mihiel; French continue to advance on both banks of the Fecht River; official French report states that all the Ailly woods are now in the hands of the French after several days’ fighting in the early part of April; infantry attacks were preceded by a concentrated artillery fire, at one point the French firing 20,000 shells in 90 minutes.

April 23—­French make progress at Forstat and near St. Mihiel; artillery duels at Combres, St. Mihiel, Apremont, and northeast of Flirey; French take advanced German trenches between Ailly and Apremont.

April 24—­One of the most furious battles of the war is now raging north of Ypres, where the Allies have regained some of the ground recently lost; Germans are pouring more troops into Flanders to push the attack; the Canadians make a brilliant counter-attack, regaining part of the ground this division lost, and retake four Canadian 4.7-inch guns which they had lost; the Canadians are highly praised in the British War Office report; Germans make further gains at another point on the line and they seize Lizerne on the west bank of the Ypres Canal; the French report says the French and Belgians recaptured Lizerne later in the day; the British have consolidated their position on Hill 60; fierce fighting is in progress in the Ailly wood; French repulse another attack on Les Eparges and an attack south of the Forest of Parroy; Germans repel a number of French attacks between the Meuse and the Moselle; Germans make progress in the Forest of Le Pretre.

April 25—­Germans gain more ground at Ypres and begin a terrific drive near La Bassee; Germans capture villages of St. Julien and Kersselaere and advance toward Grafenstafel, taking British prisoners and machine guns; Allies repulse Germans at several other points; Germans repulse French attack in the Argonne and win in the Meuse hills, southwest of Combres, taking seventeen cannon and 1,000 prisoners; London reports that clouds of chlorine were released from bottles by the Germans during the recent fighting at Ypres, the gas being borne by the wind to the French trenches, killing many men.