The success of the Germans in capturing St. Julien threatened a new and dangerous attack by the enemy. In order to check it a British brigade was ordered to advance. The thrust was made through the Canadian left and centre, and as the troops went forward, many of them going to certain death, they broke out into loud cheers for Canada. There was no man in the British army who was not filled with admiration for the Canadians that day. The advance was very costly, but it succeeded. For a time the Germans were checked.
Now let us see how the 2nd Brigade fared. At five o'clock on Thursday it was still holding the whole of its original line of trenches. Now that the 3rd Brigade had retired, General Curry, who was in command, had to do as General Turner had done--that is, throw back his left flank to protect his rear. It is the glory of the 2nd Brigade that they never lost their trenches. They hung on from Thursday at five o'clock until Sunday afternoon. Then there were no trenches left; they had been wiped out by the German shell fire. General Curry withdrew his unbroken and undefeated troops from the tumbled heaps of earth and sand-bags, but not before many a deed of heroism had been done.
At Grafenstafel, the extreme north-eastern point of the Ypres salient, the position was held by the 90th Winnipeg Rifles, under Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett. His battalion had been driven from its trenches by gas early on Friday morning, but in three-quarters of an hour it had recovered itself and retaken its old quarters. When the 3rd Brigade retired, as described above, a gap was left, through which the Germans strove desperately to force their way. Had they done so they would have been in the rear of the 28th Division, and the whole eastern section would have been in perilous plight. Colonel Lipsett, however, held on to this key to Ypres, though his left was "in the air," and kept the Germans out of the gap until the arrival of two British regiments. It is said that Lieutenant Bellew, a machine-gun officer of the 7th, stuck a loaf on his bayonet and hoisted it upon the parapet in defiance, while he worked his gun. It was smashed to pieces, but he afterwards continued the fire with relays of rifles. On Sunday evening the 2nd Brigade was relieved for much-needed rest. The 3rd Brigade had been relieved on the previous night.