May 17--British make further advances northwest of La Bassée and carry additional German trenches, all trenches on a two-mile front now being in hands of the British; French and Belgians force Germans to evacuate positions they held west of the Yser Canal; French maintain gains on the east bank; French repulse German counter-attacks on the slopes of Lorette. May 18--Heavy rains and mists hamper operations in Northern France; the French have consolidated the positions recently occupied by them to the east of the Yser Canal; French make gains near Ablain; an almost constant artillery duel is in progress north of Arras; Germans repulse British south of Neuve Chapelle. May 19--Germans capture trenches from the French on the heights of Lorette; Germans repulse British attacks near Neuve Chapelle. May 20--Recent heavy rains have made the ground in Flanders unsuited to infantry attacks and there is a lull, but artillery engagements are in progress; French make advances in Champagne by mining; French take trenches near Bagatelle, in the Argonne; fierce artillery duels between the Meuse and Moselle. May 21--French drive Germans from the last of their positions on the heights of Lorette; The French now hold the entire Lorette Hill and the lesser ridges, which the Germans had defended for six months; French repulse German attack to the east of the Yser Canal; Canadians capture a German position to the north of Ypres after the British Guards fail twice. May 22--British repulse attacks north of La Bassée; French make gains north of Arras; Germans repulse British and French attacks southwest of Neuve Chapelle; German official report states that the Allies, southwest of Lille and in the Argonne, are using mines charged with poisonous gases. May 23--British advance east of Festubert; French gain ground northeast of Notre Dame de Lorette and near Neuville-St. Vaast; Germans are repulsed east of the Yser Canal. May 24--Before attacking the British northeast of Ypres, the Germans roll a huge cloud of asphyxiating gas toward them, the volume of fumes being forty feet high along a six-mile front; because of the use of respirators, few British succumb; fighting in progress north of Arras. May 26--British make further gains in their offensive against La Bassée, and it is officially announced that the net result of their operations in the territory to the west of that town since May 1 is the capture of a total front of more than three miles, along a considerable part of which two lines of German trenches have been taken; in the district north of Arras there is desperate fighting near Angres, the Germans attempting to regain ground lost yesterday. May 27--French make further gains north of Arras; artillery engagements along the Yser Canal; Belgians repulse two German infantry attacks near Dixmude; artillery duels in the Vosges; French fail in attempt to break German lines between Vermelles and Lorette Hills.