The Second Battle of Ypres began on April 21, 1915, and during the first days of the struggle the Patricias occupied trenches some distance south and west of those held by the Canadian Division. Though doomed to inaction they were constantly shelled by the enemy. They were eager to join in the battle raging in the north and where their kinsmen were desperately engaged, but the order to move to the firing line never came. On May 3, 1915, the battalion was withdrawn to a subsidiary line a considerable distance to the rear. In the meantime the Canadian Division won enduring fame at Ypres. Their achievements were all the more remarkable because the division was in the main made up of raw material, and until the outbreak of war untrained and undisciplined in warfare. The officers, too, had mostly learned military science from study rather than from experience; yet these former lawyers, professors, and business men, with rare exceptions, displayed valor and resource at the most trying moments in the battle. It was on April 22, 1915, that the Germans brought into action a new form of "frightfulness," which was so far successful that a gap was created in the Allies' line, which might have led to disastrous results but for the dauntless courage displayed by the Canadians. It was a calm, sunny, and peaceful day when the enemy sprang their surprise. The Canadian Division held a line of about five thousand yards extending in a northwesterly direction from the Ypres-Roulers railway to the Ypres-Poelcappelle road where at the terminus it joined the French. The division comprised three infantry brigades, the first in reserve, the second on the right, and the third in contact with the French, as previously noted. In addition to the infantry there were the artillery brigades. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the 22d, the Germans projected asphyxiating gas of great intensity over the French line on the left. Aided by the favorable wind, the gas penetrated the trenches, poisoning and disabling great numbers of troops who were wholly unprepared to combat this new horror of warfare. The French troops, principally Turcos and Zouaves, became panic-stricken and fled back over the canal and through the village of Vlamertinghe just at twilight. The Canadian reserve battalions of the First Brigade were amazed as the French soldiers surged into the town, their faces contorted with pain, and gasping for breath. It was some time before order could be restored and the staff officers could learn from the fugitives that they had left thousands of their comrades dead, or dying, that a four-mile gap had been created in the French line through which the Germans were advancing in the wake of their gas attack.