The retirement of the Third Brigade had exposed the flank of General Currie's Second Brigade. To meet the situation, he flung his left flank round south, holding his line of trenches from the afternoon of April 22, 1915, to the afternoon of April 25, 1915. On the last date he withdrew his undefeated troops. His trenches had been wiped out by artillery fire, and his fortifications in the field had been demolished; only the spirit of the troops remained unbroken. Mention should be made here of the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles), Lieutenant Colonel Lipsett commanding, which held the extreme left of the brigade position and held on through a most critical period. Early in the morning of April 23, 1915, this battalion had been driven from the trenches by a violent gas attack, but in less than an hour counterattacked and recaptured the trenches, bayoneting the enemy. Colonel Lipsett held the position after the forced retirement of the Third Brigade, his left "in the air," until the night of the 24th, when two British regiments arrived and filled the gap. Two companies of the 8th Battalion were relieved by Durham Light Infantry on the morning of the 25th and retired to reserve trenches. The Durhams were so badly hammered by the enemy during the day that a company of the 8th Canadian Battalion replaced them on the extreme left of the Canadian line. The Germans were in position to the rear of this company, while their guns on the left flank enfiladed it. The Canadians were ordered to retire, and the movement was carried out with a loss of 45 per cent of their strength. The platoon covering the retirement had all its officers and men either killed or taken prisoners. The Germans had captured the village of St.-Julien in the morning of April 25, 1915, and the situation demanded an offensive movement to check their further progress. General Alderson, commanding the Canadians and also the reenforcements, directed the advance of the Tenth Brigade under General Hull and the Northumberland Brigade through the Canadian left and center. As we are dealing with the story of the Canadian contingent, it is only necessary to say that the British troops succeeded in arresting the German advance. The Second and Third Brigades and the reenforcements had retired, fighting all the way, to a line which ran roughly from Fortuin south of St.-Julien toward Passchendaele, where they were relieved by two British brigades.