The fight went on by the exchange of desultory shell and rifle fire,
but without any remarkable incident until the morning of May 24.
During this period, however, the French on our left had attained
considerable success. On May 15 they captured Steenstraate and the
trenches in Het Sas, and on May 16 they drove the enemy headlong over
the canal, finding 2,000 German dead. On May 17 they made a
substantial advance on the east side of the canal, and on May 20 they
repelled a German counter-attack, making a further advance in the same
direction, and taking 100 prisoners.
On the early morning of May 24 a violent outburst of gas against
nearly the whole front was followed by heavy shell fire, and the most
determined attack was delivered against our position east of Ypres.
The hour the attack commenced was 2.45 A.M. A large proportion of the
men were asleep, and the attack was too sudden to give them time to
put on their respirators.
The 2d Royal Irish and the 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,
overcome by gas fumes, were driven out of a farm held in front of the
left Division, and this the enemy proceeded to hold and fortify.
All attempts to retake this farm during the day failed, and during the
night of May 24-25 the General Officer Commanding the left Division
decided to take up a new line which, although slightly in rear of the
old one, he considered to be a much better position. This operation
was successfully carried out.
Throughout the day the whole line was subjected to one of the most
violent artillery attacks which it had ever undergone; and the 5th
Corps and the Cavalry Divisions engaged had to fight hard to maintain
their positions. On the following day, however, the line was
consolidated, joining the right of the French at the same place as
before, and passing through Wieltje (which was strongly fortified) in
a southerly direction on to Hooge, where the cavalry have since
strongly occupied the chateau, and pushed our line further east.
In pursuance of a promise which I made to the French
Commander-in-Chief to support an attack which his troops were making
on May 9 between the right of my line and Arras, I directed Sir
Douglas Haig to carry out on that date an attack on the German
trenches in the neighborhood of Rougebanc (northwest of Fromelles) by
the 4th Corps, and between Neuve Chapelle and Givenchy by the 1st and
Indian Corps.
The bombardment of the enemy's positions commenced at 5 A.M.
Half an hour later the 8th Division of the 4th Corps captured the
first line of German trenches about Rougebanc, and some detachments
seized a few localities beyond this line. It was soon found, however,
that the position was much stronger than had been anticipated and that
a more extensive artillery preparation was necessary to crush the
resistance offered by his numerous fortified posts.
Throughout May 9 and 10 repeated efforts were made to make further
progress. Not only was this found to be impossible, but the violence
of the enemy's machine-gun fire from his posts on the flanks rendered
the captured trenches so difficult to hold that all the units of the
4th Corps had to retire to their original position by the morning of
May 10.