The anticlimax of the whole thing, and a cause for reflection as to the objects for which modern armies fight one another, is furnished by the fact that in the evening the Germans quietly vacated the town, apparently realizing--after the sacrifice of some 5,000 men--that the position was either untenable, or was not worth the cost of keeping. Our losses in the last day's fighting alone amounted to 65 officers and 1,466 men. The heroes of the three days' fighting were of course the R. West Kents, who immortalized themselves by a performance which in many ways must be unique. The two surviving officers, 2nd Lieuts. White and Russell, were each awarded the D.S.O., and were, in addition, the subjects of some particularly flattering remarks on the part of Sir Horace. The two Sergt.-Majors above referred to were each given the D.C.M., as also was Sergt. Stroud and Pte. Alison. At 2 a.m. on the 29th, the battalion was finally relieved by the Seaforths, having lost over 300 men in the Neuve Chapelle trenches. This affair of Neuve Chapelle marks the close of the 2nd A.C. operations in the La Bassée district. On the 31st the British troops began to be formally relieved by General Willcocks and his Indians. This corps had now been augmented by the arrival of the Ferozapore Brigade, to be followed almost immediately by the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade and the Jodhpur Lancers. By 10 a.m. on the 31st the transfer of positions was complete, and Sir Horace and his gallant but war-worn A.C. withdrew to Hazebrouck. A certain proportion of the 2nd A.C. was afterwards called upon to support General Willcocks, but for the most part we shall, in the future, find them co-operating with the 1st A.C. and the 7th Division in the neighbourhood of Ypres. As far, then, as this record of events goes, we may now bid farewell to the fighting area between Armentières and La Bassée, and follow exclusively the events east and south of Ypres. These were destined to develop into a succession of battles, in which small numbers of British troops successfully opposed large numbers of German troops, and the details of which furnish, in the words of Sir J. French, "one of the most glorious chapters in the annals of the British Army." PILKEM Having now taken a permanent farewell of the fighting in the La Bassée area, with a view to following uninterruptedly the more exciting situation which had gradually been developing around Ypres it becomes necessary once more to pick up the thread of the northern doings where it was dropped.