Sir Douglas Haig, with the French on his loft, resumed
the Third Battle of Ypres on Thursday week. While the French cleared the marshes on their left flank as far as the confluence of the Steen- beek and the Yser, the British pushed forward on a wide front north of the Merlin road. On the left they took the key position of Langemarek and held it ; on the right, Irish battalions displayed prodigies of valour in advancing through the mud against the " pill-boxes," as they call the new concrete forts with machine-guns, but were unable to retain the low hills which they captured on the Zonnebeke road in face of most violent counter-attacks. The Allies took during the day 2,114 prisoners, including fifty-five officers, and twenty-four guns. The German General Staff were so much upset by the loss of Langemarek that they falsely reported its recovery by means of a counter-attack which was never mule. The next day they had to invent a fresh British attack in which, they said, Langemarck was again lost Deliberate misstatement on this scale points to confusion in Prince Ruppreeht's army.
