The Battle of Loos

1
The Battle of Loos

• 25th September 1915-18th October 1915 (though
  most fighting took place 25th-27th Sept.)

2
Why attack at Loos?

• To try to break the stalemate on the Western
  Front after failures at Neuve Chapelle and Vimy
  Ridge.
• The opening up of a Mediterranean Front at
  Gallipoli was bogged down.
• The Russians were struggling to hold the Germans
  on the Eastern Front.
• To distract the Germans from a planned French
  attack.
• Kitchener was keen to reinforce British-French
  cooperation. We must act with all energy and do
  our utmost to help France in this offensive, even
  though..we may suffer heavy losses.

3
General Haig, Commander of the First Army

4
General Haigs concerns before battle

• He believed that there were not enough shells and
  heavy artillery for such a large offensive.
• The attack would be heavily dependent on
  Kitcheners New Armies of volunteers which were
  not yet fully trained and lacked experience.
• The territory was unsuitable. Haig said the area
  was not a favourable one for an attackthe
  ground, for the most part bare and open, would be
  so swept by machine-gun and rifle-fire.that a
  rapid advance would be impossible. Sir Henry
  Rawlinson (Haigs second-in-command) said that
  the front is as flat as the palm of my hand.
  Hardly any cover anywhere.

5
The Role of the Scots

• The Battle of Loos saw the greatest mobilisation
  of Scots troops since Culloden(1746).
• Two of the six British assault divisions were the
  9th and 15th (Scottish) Divisions of the New
  Army.
• There were a dozen other Scottish formations
  within the regular (ie not New Army) Divisions
• Nearly 30,000 Scots were amongst those who tried
  to attack and hold German positions between 25th
  and 27th September 1915, the first and most
  intense phase of the battle.
• Of the 72 infantry battalions which took part in
  the first phase of the battle, half bore Scottish
  names.
• Sir Douglas Haig was himself a Scot.

6
Before the Battle

• Haig was in charge of the British forces in the
  initial assault, though the French General Foch
  was in overall command of this particular
  offensive (the French were to attack further
  south some hours after the British.) The British
  reserves, however, were under the command of Sir
  John French, the British Commander-in-Chief.
• 5,000 gas cylinders brought up to the
  front-lines. This was to be the first use of gas
  by British forces.
• A four-day preliminary artillery bombardment took
  place from 21st September.

7

• New trenches were dug in the chalky soil to allow
  thousands of men to be positioned nearer or at
  the front-line but the newly-dug trenches were
  clearly visible to the Germans and forewarned
  them of the attack, as did the very obvious
  movement forward of huge numbers of troops and
  munitions.
• Torrential rain and thunderstorms 23rd/24th Sept.
  flooded British trenches and the artillery
  bombardment created shell-holes and craters which
  made no mans land even more difficult to cross
  once soldiers went over the top.
• British soldiers were issued gas masks but they
  were primitive and extremely uncomfortable to
  wear.

8
The New Trenches at the Loos Frontline
9
25th September Day 1

• Gas was released along with smoke shells at
  first light to kill the enemy and allow the
  British to advance, but the wind dropped in some
  areas and even blew back onto the Kings Own
  Scottish Borderers and Highland Light Infantry
  causing over 2,500 casualties and weakening the
  advance. The gas had been insufficient to kill
  the German machine gunners and the artillery
  bombardment had failed in many places to cut the
  enemy barbed wire. Where the Germans did retreat,
  they deliberately flooded their own trenches and
  retreated to well-prepared and fortified
  second-line trenches which were often above the
  British lines and therefore harder to capture.

10
First British Use of Gas at Loos
11
Early success?

• There were some successes at the Hohenzollern
  Redoubt for the Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders
  and the Camerons. The Scots of the 15th Div.
  battered and bayonetted their way across the
  German lines so quickly that the Germans fled
  uphill to their second line trenches in the
  village of Loos, despite having controlled most
  of the higher ground including the mineworks
  which towered over the village. The flag of the
  7th Cameron Highlanders was flying on Hill 70,
  another key position where Scots dug in. The
  Scots of the 9th and 15th Divisions had indeed
  played a key role in punching a great hole some
  two miles deep through the German lines. But
  could they consolidate and build on their gains?

12
The Mineworks at Loos
13
26th September Day2

• The element of surprise was now lost, and there
  was no gas or preliminary bombardment to soften
  up the enemy before the next assaults.
• The Germans had brought in 22 divisions of
  reinforcements and reinforced their own
  positions.
• The British line was further forward in some
  places than others and was beginning to lose
  direction and outdistance supplies and
  reinforcements.
• Many of the soldiers had had no hot breakfast,
  there was insufficient food and water, and it was
  cold, drizzling and misty.
• The surrounding roads were clogged with traffic,
  so troop movement was slow and poorly-coordinated.
  

14
From Bad to Worse

• There was a delay in bringing in the reserves.
  Sir John French had kept them too far back behind
  the lines and when they arrived, they were tired,
  cold, wet and hungry. Haig was furious.
• The 3 reserve divisions were inexperienced or
  newly-formed and no match for the ferocity of the
  German counter-attacks and machine-guns.
• The slaughter on the second day was so great that
  the Germans eventually held their own fire to
  allow the surviving British to retreat and
  retrieve the bodies of their dead.
• The official figures for the battle listed
  casualties as over
• 50,000, of whom more than 26,000 were
  killed or missing, the vast majority of these
  being killed in the first three days.

15
The Main Phase Ends

• The British did hold on to some of their gains.
• By the 27th, although the Germans had reinforced
  their positions, they were unable to
  counter-attack further.
• By nightfall on the 27th, any hope of a
  successful big push had evaporated, though the
  battle did not officially end until October 18th.
• On the 28th, French informed Haig that two of the
  reserve divisions were to be withdrawn for
  further training.
• Despite massive losses, the battle was seen by
  many at the time as a victory, though later
  historians have described it as an almost win
  and an unnecessary and unwanted battle.

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The Significance for Scotland

• At Loos, 1 in 3 of those listed as missing in
  action were Scots and the bodies of almost 7,000
  killed in action were never found/identified.
• Of the 12 British Battalions which lost more than
  500 casualties, 8 were Scottish, from the 7th
  Camerons (687) to the Seaforths (502).
• Of the 950 men of the 6th Camerons who had gone
  into action, 700 had become casualties. At
  roll-call, the survivors called out Ower the
  hill when the names of the missing were read
  out.
• The 9th (Scottish) Div. suffered 6,058 casualties
  incl. 190 officers, the 15th suffered 6,896
  casualties incl. 228 officers.
• At least 6 Scottish battalions lost their
  commanding officers.
• The poet Charles Hamilton Sorley was killed.

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Contd.

• 5 Scots were awarded the Victoria Cross,
  Britains highest military honour, including
  Piper D. Laidlaw, who, unarmed, played his pipes
  to encourage the men of the Kings Own Scottish
  Borderers out of the trenches and continued
  playing even when wounded and lying in the mud.
• Sir Douglas Haig replaced Sir John French as
  Commander-In-Chief.
• The British had learned the importance of the
  creeping/rolling barrage and steady machine-gun
  fire.
• Scots troops who survived were more experienced
  and battle-hardened. Sir Henry Rawlinson said As
  a fighter, there is none to beat a
  Scotsman.After initial mockery, German troops
  nicknamed the kilted Scots the Ladies from Hell
  and Devils in Skirts, so fiercely did they
  fight.

18
C.H. Sorley and Piper Laidlaw

19
The Memorial to the Missing at Loos

• 139 panels bear the names of 20,597 men
  killed in this area, many of them killed in the
  Battle of Loos, whose bodies were never found /
  identified. One-third were Scottish.