We are now in a position to sum up the military results gained in the operations briefly told in this story. They were, as will be seen, of the utmost importance. Had the British troops not been transferred when they were from the Aisne, the whole course of the Western campaign, and with it the whole course of the War, must have been changed. With the vast superiority in numbers which, as events proved, the Germans were able to put into the field even before the end of October, a superiority aggregating nearly a million men, they would have been able, round the incompleted left flank of the Allies, not only to place themselves between the French and British forces and the coast, but, it is practically certain, to place themselves between the Allied armies and Paris. They would have gained an unspeakable strategical advantage, and possibly also, as a consequence, a succession of decisive victories. As it was, by the employment of the British troops to extend the left wing of the Allied line, this strategical scheme of the enemy was nipped in its first stages. Not only that, but it enabled the Allied generals completely to turn the tables. In place of enveloping the Allied armies as they had proposed, the Germans found themselves enveloped. To escape from this situation, which they well knew meant carrying on the War East and West with inevitably divided forces, a condition which eliminated their main chance of victory, they were forced to fight the first battle of Ypres. Despite their immensely greater numerical strength, they lost it through a succession of tactical blunders. To that has to be added the brilliant resource shown by Sir John French, and never more brilliantly than in the crisis of the battle on October 31. Enabling the Allies to maintain their envelopment, the first battle of Ypres, both definitely checked the German offensive on the West, defeated their attempt to re-seize the strategical initiative, pinned down and by degrees wasted their main forces, and what perhaps is most important of all, ensured the necessity on their part of a division of forces between the two fronts. It is absolutely true to say that the later weeks of October were the chief crisis of the War. Only it may be when the events of this War fall in the course of time into a more just perspective shall we appreciate all we owe to the men who fought through that campaign. To deal with the later and second battle of Ypres is beyond present scope. This little book will have served its purpose if, bringing into light the strictly historic truth of momentous and arresting events which may determine the destiny of Europe for ages, it has revealed at the same time the noble courage and the grand endurance of the British soldier, and has shown the majesty with which, like his fathers, he can do battle for his country. _Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London and Reading._