Twenty Ninth Day of the Third Battle of Ypres

Tuesday 28th August 1917

11th (Northern) Division have had an unexpected windfall today. Yesterday they managed to advance up to the walls of a strong-point called Vielles Maisons, but could not breach it. Overnight the enemy decided the place was untenable and abandoned it and the 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment has occupied it with alacrity.

We understand that, after the recent fighting in this sector of the battlefront, there are many men alive in No man’s Land, too wounded to reach safety for treatment. Something of a truce seems to have descended and there are reports of stretcher-bearers from both sides bringing in the wounded while ignored by those with weapons in their respective front lines. There are reports of wounded Germans being brought in by our men and, it seems, the reverse has also been true. In a war in which killing sometimes seems to have achieved the cold ferocity of a machine this is, to this correspondent, at any rate, a welcome reminder of our shared humanity.