"An important crossing over the Lys at Warneton was strongly held by Germans, who at the entrance to the town had constructed a high barricade, loopholed at the bottom so that men could fire through it from a lying position. This formidable obstacle was encountered by a squadron of our cavalry. Nothing daunted, they obtained help from artillery, who man-hauled a gun into position, and blew the barricade to pieces, scattering the defenders. They then advanced some three-quarters of a mile into the centre of the town, where they found themselves in a large 'place.' They had hardly reached the farther end when one of the buildings suddenly appeared to leap skywards in a sheet of flame, a shower of star shells at the same time making the place as light as day, and enabling the enemy--who were ensconced in surrounding houses--to pour in a devastating fire from rifles and machine guns. Our cavalry managed to extricate themselves from this trap with the loss of only one officer, the squadron leader wounded, and nine men killed or wounded. But determining that none of their number should fall into the enemy's hands, a party of volunteers went back, and, taking off their boots in order to make no noise on the pavement, re-entered the inferno they had just left, and succeeded in carrying off their wounded comrades." By this time the Third Corps found itself approaching the main German position, which was far too strong for it to attack with any prospect of success. Just about the time that the Second Corps was retiring to the line stretching from the eastern side of Givenchy northwards the Third Corps came to a standstill. It then lay across the Lys with a front of a dozen miles--an impossible length of line for one corps to hold. Both the Second and the Third Corps had reached the limit of their eastern advance. Though they could not push forward any farther, they had closed the sally-ports at La Bassée and Armentières. One more link was necessary to connect the Third Corps with Rawlinson's force holding the eastern gate to Ypres. This was provided by the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions, under General Allenby. The 1st Division (Gough's), as we have seen, had cleared much of the country along the Lys, and had secured a footing on the right bank below Armentières. On the 14th it moved north to join the 2nd Division, which had pushed back invading bands in the neighbourhood of Cassel and Hazebrouck.