Battle of Loos

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Battle of Loos

British infantry advancing through gas at Loos, 25 September 1915.

Date	September 25 - 28, 1915
Location	Loos, France
Result	German victory

Combatants

United Kingdom

German Empire

Commanders

Douglas Haig

Unknown

Strength

6 divisions

Unknown

Casualties

50,000

25,000 (approx)

Western Front
Frontiers – Liège – Antwerp – Great Retreat – Race to the Sea – Neuve Chapelle – 2nd Ypres – 2nd Artois – Hill 70 – 3rd Artois – Loos – Verdun – Hulluch – Somme – Arras – Vimy Ridge – 2nd Aisne – Messines – Passchendaele – Cambrai – Michael – Lys – 3rd Aisne – Belleau Wood – 2nd Marne – Château-Thierry – Hamel – Hundred Days

The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. The battle was the British component of the combined Anglo-French offensive known as the Second Battle of Artois. General Douglas Haig, then commander of the British First Army, directed the battle; however, his plans were limited by the shortage of artillery shells which meant the preliminary bombardment, essential for success in the emerging trench warfare, was weak. Immediately prior to the troops attacking the German lines, at around 6:30 a.m., the British released 140 tons of chlorine gas with mixed success—in places the gas was blown back onto British trenches. Due to the inefficiency of the gas masks at the time, many British soldiers removed them as they could not see through the fogged-up talc eyepieces, or could barely breathe with them on. This led to some British soldiers being gassed by their own chlorine gas as it blew back across their lines.

The battle opened on September 25 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 over 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 prepared and repulsed attempts to continue the advance. The fighting subsided on September 28 with the British having retreated to their starting positions. Following the initial attacks by the British, the Germans made steady attempts to recapture the Hohenzollern Redoubt. This was accomplished on October 3rd. On October 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.

(From Warner, Philip. The Battle of Loos. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1976: 1-2).

Among the dead on the British side were Rudyard Kipling's son, John; Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother to the Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Consort of George VI); and the poet Charles Sorley. Another poet, Robert Graves, survived and describes the battle and succeeding days in his autobiography.^[1]