But then the miraculous happened. Brigadier.General Charles FitzClarence decided to
attempt the recapture of Gheluvelt. There was an open gap of five hundred yards between the village and the South Wales Borderers, who had not retired and were holding on magnificently. General FitzClarence ordered the 2nd Womeaters to fill the gap. Then• charge across open ground under Major Harkey was a brilliant affair. Never perhaps was the rifle-fire of troops advancing under a rain of shrapnel so accurate and so well controlled. Hem was the tea of training. It is probably no exaggeration to say that no troops in the world could have been found to do this exact thing except men of the first British Expe- ditionary Force—the most highly trained troops, we believe, that ever took the field in the history of war. The 2nd Woreesters were in open order ; they had none of that sense of solidity and support which seems to mean so much to the German soldier, and yet they drove the German line back. Gheluvelt was retaken and the position was saved.
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