For its work to be crowned with complete and lasting victory, it has but to have the undivided Empire behind it, and that, thank God, it has. The man who cannot see that the Allies will win this war, and win it conclusively, is indeed blind to what the future holds for civilisation. FREDERIC COLEMAN. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, _June, 1916_. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. JANUARY. PAGES General De Lisle and the 1st Cavalry Division Staff--Resting--Wet winter campaigning--Echoes of the Christmas truce--A would-be Hun prisoner--A visit to Furnes--A Belgian Officer's standpoint--Luncheon with Colonel Tom Bridges--The Belgian Army--Nieuport-les-Bains--The trenches along the Yser Canal--The ruined lighthouse in the sand dunes--Snow's 27th Division in the line in Flanders--Bad feet--Wrecked Vermelles--The devastation of "75" shells--"Le Sport"--General Robertson appointed Chief of Staff 1-36 CHAPTER II. FEBRUARY. Army Service Corps vagaries--Motor cars at the Front--Poperinghe--French Chasseurs--The equipment of the French foot-soldier--Belgian peasants--Flemish fatalism--The selection of trench positions--A cavalry counter-attack--French Staff work--British Staff officers--A run to Ypres--Scenes in the old Flemish city--On duty in the Salient--The Menin Road--A humble shop in the shell area--Ypres shelled--Belgian funerals under fire--The trench-line--General De Lisle has a narrow escape--The ruined Cloth Hall and Ypres Cathedral--Disappearing mural paintings--An Irish giant-powder experience--Wonderful marksmanship of the French "75's"--The way to the firing line--Past "Cavan's House"--Under fire--Brigade Headquarters in a dug-out 37-73 CHAPTER III. MARCH. Through the mud to the trenches--French reserves in the woods--Hidden batteries--Unwise photography--Shrapnel too close for comfort--Chased by shell-fire--In Hooge dug-outs--Reminiscences of the first Battle of Ypres--A tour of the first-line trenches in the rain--Loopholes--Views by periscope--Sharpshooting--A mouthful of glass--Photographs in Zillebeke Churchyard--Calling down shrapnel fire--A scamper out of Zillebeke--Hooge at night--A mine explosion--Mixed plans--Storming the mine-crater--Amusing German prisoners--The London "'bus" abroad--A timely evacuation of a house in Ypres--General Haig's order before Neuve Chapelle--Heavy British gunning--The taking of the town of Neuve Chapelle--The failure to go on--The reasons--The blame--German attack on St. Eloi--Fine work by the Rifle Brigade--Territorials--Ploegsteert and the Ploegsteert Wood--A run from Kemmel to Dickebusch--A shell in La Clytte 74-120 CHAPTER IV. APRIL.