13th May 1915
Western Front
Second Battle of Ypres: Very severe German bombardment. Cavalry, etc., hold on.
French complete conquest of Bois le Pretre.
Eastern Front
German and Austro-Hungarian troops under General von Linsingen make further advances in the Carpathians and capture 3650 Russians.
Russians retreat in Galicia.
Russians occupy Sniatyn (River Pruth).
Political, etc.
Premier Asquith announces in the House of Commons that all citizens of enemy countries of military age will be interned.
In another round of rioting, mobs destroy 150 German owned shops in East End in London.
Italy: Signor Salandra resigns.
German Sovereigns struck off the Garter roll. Kaiser Wilhelm’s membership in the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom, is annulled.
While Julian Grenfell stands talking with other officers, a shell lands a few yards away, and a splinter hits him in the head. He is taken to a hospital in Boulogne, where he dies 13 days later. His poem "Into Battle" is published in The Times the day after his death.
Into Battle
BY JULIAN GRENFELL
The naked earth is warm with Spring,
And with green grass and bursting trees
Leans to the sun's gaze glorying,
And quivers in the sunny breeze;
And life is Colour and Warmth and Light,
And a striving evermore for these;
And he is dead who will not fight,
And who dies fighting has increase.
The fighting man shall from the sun
Take warmth, and life from glowing earth;
Speed with the light-foot winds to run
And with the trees to newer birth;
And find, when fighting shall be done,
Great rest, and fulness after dearth.
All the bright company of Heaven
Hold him in their bright comradeship,
The Dog star, and the Sisters Seven,
Orion's belt and sworded hip:
The woodland trees that stand together,
They stand to him each one a friend;
They gently speak in the windy weather;
They guide to valley and ridges end.
The kestrel hovering by day,
And the little owls that call by night,
Bid him be swift and keen as they,
As keen of ear, as swift of sight.
The blackbird sings to him: "Brother, brother,
If this be the last song you shall sing,
Sing well, for you may not sing another;
Brother, sing."
In dreary doubtful waiting hours,
Before the brazen frenzy starts,
The horses show him nobler powers; —
O patient eyes, courageous hearts!
And when the burning moment breaks,
And all things else are out of mind,
And only joy of battle takes
Him by the throat and makes him blind,
Through joy and blindness he shall know,
Not caring much to know, that still
Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so
That it be not the Destined Will.
The thundering line of battle stands,
And in the air Death moans and sings;
But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,
And Night shall fold him in soft wings.