Help was not long in arriving, for some of our reserves near Ypres had stood to arms as soon as they were aware of the fact that the French line had been forced, and the officers on their own initiative, without waiting for orders, led them forward to meet the advancing enemy, who, by this time, were barely two miles from the town.  These battalions attacked the Germans with the bayonet, and then ensued a melee, in which our men more than held their own, both sides losing very heavily.

One German battalion seems to have been especially severely handled, the Colonel being captured among several other prisoners.  Other reinforcements were thrown in as they came up, and, when night fell, the fighting continued by moonlight, our troops driving back the enemy by repeated bayonet charges, in the course of which our heavy guns were recaptured.

By then the situation was somewhat restored in the area immediately north of Ypres.  Further to the west, however, the enemy had forced their way over the canal, occupying Steenstraate and the crossing at Het Sast, about three-quarters of a mile south of the former place, and had established themselves at various points on the west bank.  All night long the shelling continued, and about 1:30 A.M. two heavy attacks were made on our line in the neighborhood of Broodseinde, east of Zonnebeke.  These were both repulsed.  The bombardment of Ypres itself and its neighborhood had by now redoubled in intensity and a part of the town was in flames.

In the early morning of Friday, the 23d, we delivered a strong counter-attack northward in co-operation with the French.  Our advance progressed for some little distance, reaching the edge of the wood about half a mile west of St. Julien and penetrating it.  Here our men got into the Germans with the bayonet, and the latter suffered heavily.  The losses were also severe on our side, for the advance had to be carried out across the open.  But in spite of this nothing could exceed the dash with which it was conducted.  One man—­and his case is typical of the spirit shown by the troops—­who had had his rifle smashed by a bullet, continued to fight with an intrenching tool.  Even many of the wounded made their way out of the fight with some article of German equipment as a memento.

About 11 A.M., not being able to progress further, our troops dug themselves in, the line then running from St. Julien practically due west for about a mile, whence it curved southwestward before turning north to the canal near Boesinghe.  Broadly speaking, on the section of the front then occupied by us the result of the operations had been to remove to some extent the wedge which the Germans had driven into the allied line, and the immediate danger was over.  During the afternoon our counter-attack made further progress south of Pilkem, thus straightening the line still more.  Along the canal the fighting raged fiercely, our allies making some progress here and there.  During the night, however, the Germans captured Lizerne, a village on the main road from Ypres to Steenstraate.