the Germans back for the time being, and indeed for the whole of that night, but their concealed machine-guns continued to play havoc in the ranks of the assailants, and in the early morning of the 28th the attacking force had to fall back, the Germans once more re-occupying the town. The position of the R. West Kents was now as bad again as ever, and once more half the battalion had to face about to its left flank and rear. The execution of this movement again took its toll of officers, Captain Battersby and Lieut. Gore being killed, and Lieut. Moulton-Barratt wounded. The battalion had now lost twelve out of the fourteen officers with which it had gone into these trenches, 2nd Lieut. White and 2nd Lieut. Russell alone being left, and on these two it now devolved to maintain the spirit of the corps. The remarkable position had by this time developed that practically the whole of Neuve Chapelle was in the hands of the enemy, with the exception of the little south-east corner by the La Bassée road, which was still stubbornly held by the undefeated R. West Kents. On the other side of the La Bassée road, and in the angle which that road makes with the Richebourg road, the K.O.Y.L.I. were still standing firm with the East Surrey beyond them, but these last two regiments were not so hardly pressed, the main attack being always on the eastern side of the main La Bassée road. We must now take a glance at the Neuve Chapelle position from the larger military point of view. The counter-attacks on the 27th had failed mainly owing to the exhaustion and insufficiency of the troops employed. The place, however, being of considerable strategic importance (to us), the Divisional Head Quarters determined that it could not be left in the hands of the enemy, and an attack on a more important scale was therefore organized for the following day. Sir Horace motored across at night and saw General Conneau, who told him that in addition to the six hundred Chasseurs already in the line, he could lend him a regiment of dismounted cavalry and nine batteries of artillery. The C. in C. also sent him the 2nd C.B. under Col. Mullens, of which the 4th Dragoon Guards arrived on the evening of the 27th, the 9th Lancers and 18th Hussars during the early part of the night. The whole were placed under the command of General McCracken of the 7th Brigade, to whom the details of the attack on the following day were entrusted.