The London Irish
This led to some British soldiers being gassed by their own chlorine gas as it blew back across their lines. The Battle opened on the 25th September 1915 and the British were able to break through the weaker German trenches and capture the town of Loos, mainly due to numerical superiority. However, the inevitable supply and communications problems, combined with the late arrival of reserves, meant that the breakthrough could not be exploited. A further complication for many British soldiers was the failure of their artillery to cut the German wire in many places in advance of the attack. Advancing in open fields in full range of German machine-guns and artillery , British losses were devastating. When the battle resumed the following day the Germans were fully prepared and repulsed attempts to continue the advance.
The fighting subsided on the 28th September with the British having retreated to their starting positions. The British attacks had cost over 20,000 casualties including three Divisional Commanders; George Thesiger, Thompson Capper and Frederick Wing. Following the initial attacks by the British, the Germans made steady attempts to recapture the Hohenzollen Redoubt. This was accomplished on the 3rd October. On October the 8th the Germans attempted to recapture much of the lost ground by launching a major offensive along the entire line, but abandoned the effort by nightfall due to heavy losses. This marked the official end of the hostilities, although in an attempt to strike before the winter rains set in, the British attempted a final offensive on October 13th, which failed due to a lack of hand grenades. General Haig thought it might be possible to launch another attack on November 7th but the combination of heavy rains and accurate German shelling during the second half of October finally persuaded him to abandon the attempt.
Major-General Richard Hilton, at that time a Forward Observation Officer, said of the battle:
The fighting subsided on the 28th September with the British having retreated to their starting positions. The British attacks had cost over 20,000 casualties including three Divisional Commanders; George Thesiger, Thompson Capper and Frederick Wing. Following the initial attacks by the British, the Germans made steady attempts to recapture the Hohenzollen Redoubt. This was accomplished on the 3rd October. On October the 8th the Germans attempted to recapture much of the lost ground by launching a major offensive along the entire line, but abandoned the effort by nightfall due to heavy losses. This marked the official end of the hostilities, although in an attempt to strike before the winter rains set in, the British attempted a final offensive on October 13th, which failed due to a lack of hand grenades. General Haig thought it might be possible to launch another attack on November 7th but the combination of heavy rains and accurate German shelling during the second half of October finally persuaded him to abandon the attempt.
Major-General Richard Hilton, at that time a Forward Observation Officer, said of the battle:
A great deal of nonsense has been written about Loos. The real tragedy of that battle was its nearness to complete success. Most of us who reached the crest of Hill 70 and survived were firmly convinced that we had broken through on that Sunday, 25th September 1915. There seemed to be nothing ahead of us but an unoccupied and incomplete trench system. The only two things that prevented our advancing into the suburbs of Lens were, firstly the exhaustion of the Jocks themselves ( for they had undergone a bellyfull of marching and fighting that day ) and secondly the flanking fire of numerous German machine-guns, which swept that bare hill from some factory buildings in Cite St. Auguste to the south of us. All that we needed was more artillery ammunition to blast those clearly located machine-guns, and some fresh infantry to take
over from the weary and depleted ' Jocks '. But alas, neither ammunition nor reinforcements were immediately available, and the great opportunity passed.
over from the weary and depleted ' Jocks '. But alas, neither ammunition nor reinforcements were immediately available, and the great opportunity passed.
The following paragraphs describe the battle and are written in the style as recorded at the time:
The land around Loos was less a countryside than one vast, straggling, grimed, and miserable city of industry. The open spaces, blistered with slag-heaps and sprinkled with hovels, were uglier than the patches of building land in the lowest suburbs of London. The general result was that all the fighting between the fortified chalk swells, the corons, and villages was practically street fighting combined with the most difficult kind of trench warfare. There was no room for a battle of manoeuvres of the open field order, and the advance had to be made by the sheer weight and swiftness of the thrusting force. Swiftness indeed, was the essence of victory, for the enemy's front could only be smashed by a sudden drive that should take effect before the two German army corps could arrive to save the situation. After the failure of some of the men of the New Army in Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig might have been anxious about the driving power of their formations. But the event at Loos was to show that the new Citizen Armies of Britain when well directed were a striking force of the highest quality. The attack was made by the Scotsman of the 15th Division in the centre, the Londoners of the 47th Territorial Division on the right wing and the veterans and new drafts of the famous 1st Division on the left wing. The 1st Division was held up on the enemy's second line, and the check enable the Germans to collect local reserves along the rampart chalk. The 1st brigade however found a gap, and its gallant Brigadier showed extraudinary courage. Leaving his flank dangerously exposed, he pushed his troops ahead, and after captring some gun positions and taking five hundred prisoners he won the outskirts of the village of Hulluch. The achievment of the London Territorials was of even greater importance. Swinging out from Bully and Grenay, the Londoners were met by wild artillery fire which did but little damage, and they steadily advanced over the shrapnel swept fields to the immense slag-heaps known as the Double Crassier. Here they stormed the German machine-gun positions which had been sheltered from our artillery fire by mounds of rubbish. Pushing on from the Double Crassier, the Londoners reached the western cemetary at Loos, where the fighting became terrific. The Germans had specialised in cemetary fighting at Souchez and Neuve Chapelle, and among the lowly tombs of Loos their machine-gun parties had constructed a formidable fortress. They dug a trench at the upper end of the cemetary, and placed their machine-guns behind the burial mounds using the tombstones as additional cover and raising parapets among the graves. The Londoners who flung themselves on this disturbed resting place of the dead rapidly added to the number of corpses in the cemetary.
The land around Loos was less a countryside than one vast, straggling, grimed, and miserable city of industry. The open spaces, blistered with slag-heaps and sprinkled with hovels, were uglier than the patches of building land in the lowest suburbs of London. The general result was that all the fighting between the fortified chalk swells, the corons, and villages was practically street fighting combined with the most difficult kind of trench warfare. There was no room for a battle of manoeuvres of the open field order, and the advance had to be made by the sheer weight and swiftness of the thrusting force. Swiftness indeed, was the essence of victory, for the enemy's front could only be smashed by a sudden drive that should take effect before the two German army corps could arrive to save the situation. After the failure of some of the men of the New Army in Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig might have been anxious about the driving power of their formations. But the event at Loos was to show that the new Citizen Armies of Britain when well directed were a striking force of the highest quality. The attack was made by the Scotsman of the 15th Division in the centre, the Londoners of the 47th Territorial Division on the right wing and the veterans and new drafts of the famous 1st Division on the left wing. The 1st Division was held up on the enemy's second line, and the check enable the Germans to collect local reserves along the rampart chalk. The 1st brigade however found a gap, and its gallant Brigadier showed extraudinary courage. Leaving his flank dangerously exposed, he pushed his troops ahead, and after captring some gun positions and taking five hundred prisoners he won the outskirts of the village of Hulluch. The achievment of the London Territorials was of even greater importance. Swinging out from Bully and Grenay, the Londoners were met by wild artillery fire which did but little damage, and they steadily advanced over the shrapnel swept fields to the immense slag-heaps known as the Double Crassier. Here they stormed the German machine-gun positions which had been sheltered from our artillery fire by mounds of rubbish. Pushing on from the Double Crassier, the Londoners reached the western cemetary at Loos, where the fighting became terrific. The Germans had specialised in cemetary fighting at Souchez and Neuve Chapelle, and among the lowly tombs of Loos their machine-gun parties had constructed a formidable fortress. They dug a trench at the upper end of the cemetary, and placed their machine-guns behind the burial mounds using the tombstones as additional cover and raising parapets among the graves. The Londoners who flung themselves on this disturbed resting place of the dead rapidly added to the number of corpses in the cemetary.
Above, the Double Crassier 1915. This famous land mark was in the 47th ( London )
Divisions area of advance during the battle. It was a huge slag-heap that could be seen from the British trenches.
Divisions area of advance during the battle. It was a huge slag-heap that could be seen from the British trenches.
Leaping from one parapet to the other bombing and bayoneting as they went, they lost many men, but the Germans lost more. Yet so furious was the struggle that it was fifty minutes before the cemetary was cleared of living Germans. By that time the number of bodies outstretched among the fallen crosses and trampled wreaths greatly exceeded the number of confined figures lying beneath the ground.
But the hand to hand fighting round the slag-heaps and colliers' cottages and cemetary was almost a pleasure for fighting men compared with other features of the advance. It was the enemy's artillery that made the charging movements so costly of life. As soon as our batteries, at 6.30 in the morning, lifted over the gas and smoke screens on to the enemy's reserve positions, every German gunner worked with furious intensity to maintain a curtain of fire bewtween the German and British Lines. A combination of high explosive and shrapnel shell was principally used . It burst in thick black eddies of smoke over the advancing lines and our men fell in thousands before they came into action. The enemy really possessed in conjunction with his great number of machine-guns
sufficient artillery power to annihilate our infantry while it moved for two or three miles on a wide front, stopping on the way in order to clear the slag-heaps and trenches from the gas in its path. It is quite likely that the low hanging mist was not wholly a misfortune for the First British Army. By way of compensation the hostile artillery observers could not mark through the haze the general movement of our troops. In the mist the German gunners had only local telephone reports to guide them, and the number of these reports diminished as trench after trench was taken. The best that the Commanders of the German batteries could do was to maintain walls of fire all along the broken front lines, with a view to interrupting the movement of reinforcements and punishing the men engaged in bringing up ammunition. Our smoke screen, with the mist and the curtains of rain, gave us most of the advantages of a night attack with the bayonet. In these circumstances, which made staff work difficult, not only did the London Territorial troops show great personal fighting power, but their officers displayed a skill in leading that provoked the admiration of Sir John French. In addition to getting hold of the cemetary, the division siezed the chalk pits south of Loos, and by strongly linking these gains, with the conquest of the Double Crassier, they formed a firm defensive flank running from Loos to Bully and Grenay. In this manner they repaired the gap which had suddenly been produced between the French and British lines, when the marsh at Souchez caused General Foch's men to swerve southward. Sir John French in his despatch states that the success of the London Territorial Division removed his fear a German thrust from Lens, and enabled him at last to release his reserve and throw it into the fighting line. Every Territorial soldier must take a high pride in this glorious achievement of the London Division of former amateur volunteer soldiers. In the greatest of all ordeals , with a weakened flank through which the enemy might have divided the allied armies, they exhibited the most valuable type of fighting talent. Theirs was a great strategical victory, and not merely an admirable tactical success. They enabled their Commander-in-Chief to bring into action at the critical point four more divisions of infantry.
But the hand to hand fighting round the slag-heaps and colliers' cottages and cemetary was almost a pleasure for fighting men compared with other features of the advance. It was the enemy's artillery that made the charging movements so costly of life. As soon as our batteries, at 6.30 in the morning, lifted over the gas and smoke screens on to the enemy's reserve positions, every German gunner worked with furious intensity to maintain a curtain of fire bewtween the German and British Lines. A combination of high explosive and shrapnel shell was principally used . It burst in thick black eddies of smoke over the advancing lines and our men fell in thousands before they came into action. The enemy really possessed in conjunction with his great number of machine-guns
sufficient artillery power to annihilate our infantry while it moved for two or three miles on a wide front, stopping on the way in order to clear the slag-heaps and trenches from the gas in its path. It is quite likely that the low hanging mist was not wholly a misfortune for the First British Army. By way of compensation the hostile artillery observers could not mark through the haze the general movement of our troops. In the mist the German gunners had only local telephone reports to guide them, and the number of these reports diminished as trench after trench was taken. The best that the Commanders of the German batteries could do was to maintain walls of fire all along the broken front lines, with a view to interrupting the movement of reinforcements and punishing the men engaged in bringing up ammunition. Our smoke screen, with the mist and the curtains of rain, gave us most of the advantages of a night attack with the bayonet. In these circumstances, which made staff work difficult, not only did the London Territorial troops show great personal fighting power, but their officers displayed a skill in leading that provoked the admiration of Sir John French. In addition to getting hold of the cemetary, the division siezed the chalk pits south of Loos, and by strongly linking these gains, with the conquest of the Double Crassier, they formed a firm defensive flank running from Loos to Bully and Grenay. In this manner they repaired the gap which had suddenly been produced between the French and British lines, when the marsh at Souchez caused General Foch's men to swerve southward. Sir John French in his despatch states that the success of the London Territorial Division removed his fear a German thrust from Lens, and enabled him at last to release his reserve and throw it into the fighting line. Every Territorial soldier must take a high pride in this glorious achievement of the London Division of former amateur volunteer soldiers. In the greatest of all ordeals , with a weakened flank through which the enemy might have divided the allied armies, they exhibited the most valuable type of fighting talent. Theirs was a great strategical victory, and not merely an admirable tactical success. They enabled their Commander-in-Chief to bring into action at the critical point four more divisions of infantry.
