Meanwhile, according to plan, fresh British battalions were crowding into the gap opened by the leading waves. By ten o’clock, “roughly nine thousand men [were squeezed] into the narrow space between Neuve-Chapelle village and the original British breastwork [where] they lay, sat, or stood uselessly in the mud, packed like salmon in the bridge pool at Galway, waiting patiently to go forward.” Fortunately, the German artillery batteries within range had little ammunition available.
