The 1st S. Staffords during the confused and sanguinary fighting of these two days, that is to say, the 25th and 26th, lost 13 officers and 440 rank and file. As has so often happened in this war, the battalion in reserve was called upon for much of the most strenuous work, and in this particular case the S. Staffords had at one time or another to support each of the four units of the 20th Brigade. Much of this work was of a particularly difficult and dangerous nature, and in the darkness and confusion that prevailed the various units were apt at times to get very greatly mixed up, and to lapse into the condition of sheep without any accredited shepherd. At one very critical moment in the ebb and flow of battle, it happened that the C.O., Col. Ovens, who was at the time in an advanced position with two companies of the S. Staffords, noticed a mob of some 300 men of these mixed units retiring on his left. He sent off Captain White, the Quarter-Master of the regiment, to find out the cause. The reply was that an order had been received to retire. Captain White--suspecting German methods, or, at any rate, suspecting that the order originated with someone who was interested in its fulfilment--by super-human efforts succeeded in rallying the men and leading them back into the firing line, an act which beyond any question had a marked effect on the fortunes of the day, or, rather, of the night. The desperate fighting of this period at and around Kruiseik will always be associated with the 20th Brigade. The other two brigades in the 7th Division were shifted about, as occasion required, to various points between Zonnebeke and Zandvoorde; but from October 19th to the 29th, the 20th Brigade operated at Kruiseik alone. The gradual annihilation of this splendid brigade--possibly the finest in the whole army--forms a story which is no less stirring than it is tragic. The tragedy is obvious, but it is relieved by the thought of the superb devotion of each of the battalions that formed the command of General Ruggles-Brise. Each battalion, in its own allotted sphere, fought to a finish. Each battalion in its turn furnished an example of unflinching heroism which is an epic in itself. They not only fought till there were no more left to fight, but they fought up to the very end with success. It must have been a consolation to their gallant Brigadier, when in the end he was carried off the field with a shattered thigh, to feel that he had survived long enough to share in a glory which will never be excelled.