TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. Text that is both underlined and italic is denoted by ++double plus signs++. The right-pointing finger symbol is denoted by ==>. The left-pointing finger symbol is denoted by <==. A superscript is denoted by ^{x}; for example, L^{TD}. Page references in the Illustration captions, eg "_face p. 8_", have been removed. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. More detail can be found at the end of the book. WITH CAVALRY IN 1915 [Illustration: THE AUTHOR _Frontispiece_] WITH CAVALRY IN 1915 THE BRITISH TROOPER IN THE TRENCH LINE _Through the Second Battle of Ypres_ BY FREDERIC COLEMAN, F.R.G.S. (_Author of "From Mons to Ypres with French"_) _ILLUSTRATED_ LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., LIMITED 1916 LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W. Dedicated TO MY WIFE Whose bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of trying circumstances made it possible for me so long to continue to do the little that lay in my power to help the Cause we both thought JUST AND RIGHT. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The more than kind reception that Press and Public accorded my first book on the War, "From Mons to Ypres with French," has encouraged me to put together a chronicle of further events. "With Cavalry in 1915" takes up the thread of its narrative where its predecessor left it--with the closing days of 1914. If some notes of frank criticism have been included in this volume, it has been with no unkindly feeling, or with any other object than to try to give a fair picture of things at the Front as I saw them. My unbounded admiration for the splendid soldiers of the British Army, gained in the darker days of the Great Retreat from Mons, has never wavered in its allegiance to them. Never have I had occasion to change my opinion, formed in the first few weeks of the War, that the British Tommy is worth five or six of any German soldiers with whom he has yet come into contact. In the machinery and organisation of war, the small British Army was at a disadvantage, particularly when faced with the necessity of great and rapid expansion. That mistakes should have been made was more than natural--it was inevitable. I would not be so presumptuous as to criticise so freely, but that "the old order changeth": to write of the past is, I hope, permissible, and likely to lead to no misconstruction. I mean no more than that which the plain interpretation of my simple phraseology will convey. I have no axes to grind. The right men are in the British Army, and the right men are at the head of it.