4.—Message sent to Officer Commanding 9th Lancers:—"Portion of front line marked with crosses on accompanying sketch, has gone; suggest your falling back and holding line marked with red dots." Operations carried on without any further alarms till dusk. We saw the right flank of the counter-attack coming up towards Hooge. The Y. and L. co-operated in this movement.
5.—Following received from Officer Commanding York and Lancasters:—
"Our attack on the Menin Road has been successful. All the enemy have been driven back off the road as far as our left flank rests. The companies have withdrawn to Louave Wood after leaving a post on Menin Road, facing north. Patrols have been pushed on to the north to try and get touch with the counter-attack, but these patrols will now be withdrawn, and the Oxford Hussars will be asked to send similar patrols. Some of the enemy have been killed. Have collected their papers and identity discs, and will send them to Brigade headquarters."
Soon after dark we received orders that the Brigade would be relieved to-night, but it was not till past midnight that the relieving regiments arrived. During the hours between dusk and midnight the enemy attacked vigorously with bombs both B Squadron and A Squadron trenches. At midnight the 16th Lancers arrived to take over. It was obvious that it was going to be a tight fit to defeat daylight. Not a moment was lost, but it was nearly two o'clock before the last squadron was relieved. The squadrons moved off independently, keeping as far as possible on the low ground. A violent fusilade commenced on both flanks of the Salient, and "Spares" were fairly flying about over our heads. The Germans were making another gas attack, and C Squadron, which took a more northerly route, caught it slightly. Our casualties were slight during the withdrawal, and it was quite light by the time we reached Ypres. We raced on through the town, as shells were falling about in a most unpleasant manner. We got back to Vlamertinghe at 4.30 a.m., the men absolutely dead beat, having walked seven miles across country at top speed. We dossed down to sleep, most of the men preferring the open to the wooden huts. Forty-eight hours without a check has been a bit more than tiring. The casualties for the 24th of May were two officers killed, twelve men killed, twelve wounded, and four died of wounds. Lieutenant Poole, who was only slightly wounded on the way back to Ypres, unfortunately succumbed to tetanus a few days later at Boulogne.
After sweeping over the firing-line and drifting past the G.H.Q. reserve line, on that Whit Monday morning, the gas still moved westward.
H and I Battery men, caught in their dug-outs, had a liberal share, and still more of the poisonous fumes gathered in ruined Ypres, or floated on to our divisional headquarters further to the west. Some of the gas was carried as far back as Vlamertinghe, between four and five miles from the German trenches.
"Willie" Du Cros, running with his ambulance convoy from Vlamertinghe to a dressing station well west of Ypres, was sufficiently overcome by gas to be for some hours dangerously ill.
Hardly a member of the 1st Cavalry Division Staff, including General de Lisle himself, escaped the gas fumes. Red and watery eyes, a pale bluish tinge to the complexion, violent headaches, and continual coughing were universal for the greater part of the forenoon.
Gas shells continually burst over Ypres and the roads near it. More than once I ran through pockets of gas, apparently caused by these gas shells. Every one of us wore respirators or masks when near Ypres, though "Babe" Nicholson inhaled sufficient gas through his respirator to render him unconscious for five minutes after a "dash up front."