"I shall never forget the thrill which passed through the men on the ships of the grand fleet when that inspiring message was received from the battle-cruiser squadron many leagues away: 'I am engaged with heavy forces of the enemy.' One looked on the faces of his fellows and saw that the effect was electrical. The great ships swung around into battle order and the responsive sea rocked and churned as the massive vessels raced for what were virtually enemy waters. As the grand fleet drew near the scene of action the smoke of battle and mutter of guns came down on the winds. The eagerness of the men became almost unbearably intense and it was a blessed relief when our own guns gave tongue."
RUSSIAN TROOPS LAND IN FRANCE.
Between April 20 and June 1, a large flotilla of transports arriving at Marseilles, France, brought Russian soldiers in large numbers to the support of the French line. The transports were understood to have made the voyage of 10,250 miles from Vladivostok under convoy by the British navy.
EARL KITCHENER KILLED AT SEA.
The British armored cruiser Hampshire, 10,850 tons, with Earl Kitchener, the British secretary of state for war, and his staff on board, was sunk shortly after nightfall on June 5, to the west of the Orkney Islands, either by a mine or a torpedo. Heavy seas were running and Admiral Jellicoe reported that there were no survivors. The crew numbered officers and men. Earl Kitchener was on his way to Russia for a secret conference with the military authorities when the disaster occurred. His latest achievement was the creation, from England's untrained manhood, of an army approximating 5,000,000 men, of whom he was the military idol.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BATTLES EAST AND WEST
After gallantly holding their own for many months against repeated German attacks, the Canadian troops holding that section of the western front southeast of Ypres, between Hooge and the Ypres-Menin railway, were engaged during the week ending June 3, 1916, in a battle scarcely less determined in its nature than that of St. Julien and other great encounters in which they distinguished themselves and added to Canadian military laurels earlier in the war.
On Friday, June 2, the Germans, after a concentrated bombardment with heavy artillery, pressed forward to the assault and succeeded in penetrating the British lines. During the night they pushed their attack and succeeded in cutting their way through the defenses to the depth of nearly a mile in the direction of Zillebeke. The hard-fighting Canadians then rallied and began counter-assaults at 7 o'clock on the following morning. By Sunday morning, June 4, they had succeeded in gradually driving the Germans from much of the ground they had gained, but the losses to the Canadians were severe.