On the night of April twenty-second, General Alderson and his officers saw that the situation was desperate.  They thought to save their men.  The general sent up the command:  “Retire!”

The word first reached the Little Black Devils.  The men heard it, the officers heard it, and they looked over the flattened parapet of their trench.  They saw the oncoming hordes of brutes in a hellish-looking garb, and they sent back the answer:  “Retire be damned!”

The general, the officers, rested content.  With a spirit such as these men showed even against desperate odds, nothing but victory could result.

The gas and the attacking waves of men poured on.  We were not frightened.  No; none of us showed fear.  Warfare such as this does not scare men with red blood in their veins.  The Germans judge others by themselves.  A German can be scared, a German can be bluffed.  They thought that we were of the same mettle, or lesser.  At the Somme we put over on the enemy the only new thing that we have been able to spring during the whole three years—­the tanks.  Were they scared?  They were terrified!  They dropped rifles, bayonets, knapsacks, everything—­and ran.  Had not our tanks stuck in the awful mud of France, or had they a trifle more speed, I believe it might have been possible for us to have reached Berlin by this time.

It was because we could not be frightened that General French, then Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, cabled across the world on the morning of the twenty-third of April, “The Canadians undoubtedly saved the situation.”

No word of definite praise, no eulogy, no encomiums.  Just six words—­“The Canadians undoubtedly saved the situation.”

The night of April twenty-second was probably the most momentous time of the six days and nights of fighting.  Then the Germans concentrated on the Yser Canal, over which there was but one bridge, a murderous barrage fire which would have effectively hindered the bringing up of reinforcements or guns, even had we had any in reserve.

During the early stages of the battle, the enemy had succeeded to considerable degree in turning the Canadian left wing.  There was a large open gap at this point, where the French Colonial troops had stood until the gas came over.  Toward this sector the Germans rushed rank after rank of infantry, backed by guns and heavy artillery.  To the far distant left were our British comrades.  They were completely blocked by the German advance.  They were like rats in a trap and could not move.

At the start of the battle, the Canadian lines ran from the village of Langemarcke over to St. Julien, a distance of approximately three to four miles.  From St. Julien to the sector where the Imperial British had joined the Turcos was a distance of probably two miles.