25th September 1915 (1st day of Loos) The highest number of casualties for a single day suffered by the British Army.......until the 1st day of the Somme 9 months later.
The Battle of Loos took place from 25 September to 8 October 1915 in France. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used gas as a weapon, and the first mass engagement of the new Kitchener Army Divisions.
In many places British artillery had failed to cut the German wire.The engineers manning the chlorine gas cylinders warned against their use, because of the weakness and unpredictability of the wind but they were overruled by Gough. In some places the gas drifted back into the British lines and caused more British than German casualties.
At 6.30 a.m., forty minutes after the gas attack began, the 140th and 141st Brigades of the 47th (1/2nd London) Division began their advance. The gas had spread best in this sector, possibly due to the slope of the terrain towards the Loos valley. The advance was also obscured by a thick cloud of smoke from two batteries of Stokes mortars. As soon as the gas reached the German positions, they opened fire, which subsided shortly afterwards. Within a few minutes, both brigades penetrated the front trench behind the smoke and gas curtain; shortly afterwards the resistance collapsed. By 7:30 a.m., the 7th and 6th Battalions (City of London Regiment) had reached the 140th Brigade objective, the German support trench from the centre of the spoil heaps to the Bethune–Lens road. There was a German counter-attack on the right flank of the 7th Battalion but it was repulsed.
North of the Bethune-Lens road, the 141st Brigade with the 18th Battalion reached the Loos defensive trench and halted there. The 20th and 19th Battalions of the City of London Regiment crossed the trench towards the residential areas of Loos. The 20th Battalion advanced quickly, occupied the garden city and, after a determined resistance by the Germans the chalk pit and the northern end of a copse were captured. A trench at the southern end of the copse could not be taken due to a lack of ammunition. At 9:30 a.m., the 20th Battalion, supported by the 17th Battalion, reported that the chalk pit had been secured and almost all objectives had been achieved. The 19th Battalion reached the northern end of the slagheap cleared obstacles, captured the mine buildings and advanced south-east of the slagheap to a terrace with a clear field of fire but stopped before the ridge. Parts of the battalion advancing towards Puits 15 via the village of Loos were dispersed by the 15th (Scottish) Division. Some units gathered in Loos, others continued to fight on Hill 70. In the end, only a platoon of the 20th Battalion and parts of the 19th Battalion held positions on and north of the dump, reinforced by reserves of the 17th Battalion.
The advance of the 15th (Scottish) Division was for the 44th Brigade to make the direct assault; the 46th Brigade, on the left, was to attack on the north side of the village and the 45th Brigade was held in divisional reserve. The gas attack was delivered about ten minutes to six. The wind was very light, and the cloud clung too close to the ground. The breeze came from the south-west, Loos lies in a hollow and a breeze tends to eddy into a hollow, the gas blew back to some extent on the 46th Brigade on the left. The cloud was greeted with a fusillade of rifle and machine-gun fire, but as it passed over the enemy trenches the fire slackened. At 6:30 a.m. the Highlanders attacked.
Shortly before the attackers reached the remnants of the German barbed wire the German defenders opened fire and caused severe casualties amongst the British infantry but the Germans were forced back towards Lens. Despite stubborn resistance, Loos was taken by the British shortly after 8:00 a.m. The 46th Brigade advanced further north, reaching the trench line east of the road between Grenay and Hulluch around 7:30 a.m. before advancing across the open valley north of Loos. At 9:15 a.m. the brigade reached the road to Lens. The reserve battalions of the 44th and 46th Brigades were sent forward. The 10th Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders reached the new front line at Loos, while the 8th Battalion of the K.O.S.B. was ordered to maintain the advance. The fighting in Loos concentrated the mass of the two brigades on a narrow front of about 2,000 ft (600 m). At shortly after 8:00 a.m. they began the ascent of Hill 70, encountering little resistance.
At about 9:30 a.m. the Royal Engineers began preparing paths for the field artillery. Divisional orders stated that the first brigade to reach Hill 70 was to deploy a sufficient force to secure the hill until reinforcements arrived, while the rest of the troops were to advance against the German positions at St Auguste. About 900 British troops crossed Hill 70 and advanced towards the second German position at St Laurent while the rest advanced towards St Auguste. The Germans received reinforcements around 11:30 a.m. and counter-attacked to encircle the British at St Laurent. The 9th Battalion of the Black Watch was able to hold off the initial attack but more German reinforcements arrived around noon and the British line came under severe fire.
At 1:00 p.m., the Germans counter-attacked again and recaptured the Hill 70 redoubt. From there, they controlled the surrounding terrain, including the Lens–La Bassée road and the village of Loos. The reserve of the 15th (Scottish) Division, the 45th Brigade (Brigadier-General Francis Wallerstein) was sent to Loos to reinforce the left flank of the 46th Brigade. This flank was dangerously exposed due to the lack of an advance by the 1st Division. The battalions of the 45th Brigade, including the 18th Battalion of the Royal Scots and the 11th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, advanced through Loos towards Saint-Auguste but did not arrive there until after 1:00 p.m., when the Germans had already recaptured Hill 70. Without strong artillery support, a renewed attack on the hill was impossible. By nightfall both the 47th and 15th Divisions found themselves on a line between the German first and second defensive positions, from the Double Crassier to Chalk Pit Wood, along the western slope of the Cite spur which bounds the Loos valley on the south.
At 6.30 simultaneously with the Divisions of IV Corps the 9th (Scottish) Division made for Fosse 8 and the Hohenzollern Redoubt. On the extreme left the fire from the rise at Auchy La Bassee enfiladed the advance, and the 28th Brigade had desperate fighting. They pushed beyond the Vermelles-La Bassee railway, and took the first line of the German trenches. The position was too precarious to hold and slowly during the day the Lowlanders were driven back. The 26th Highland Brigade had more success with the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Saps had been run up to within a short distance of it and the artillery bombardment had played havoc with the interior of the redoubt. It was captured in a costly success and the 5th Battalion (Cameron Highlander Regiment) and the 7th Battalion (Seaforth Highlanders Regiment), with the 8th Battalion (Black Watch Regiment) in support, captured Fosse 8 against determined resistance. They had to advance over a perfectly bare, shell-swept piece of ground; the machine guns on the Fosse caused many casualties; and, owing to the hold-up of the advance on their left, their flank was in the air. The 27th Brigade was brought up, and was employed to clear the maze of trenches and cottages to the east of Fosse 8. By noon this section of the British line had driven forward in a broad salient, capturing the chief works of the defenders. Fosse 8 was cleared but not occupied in strength, and all the land between it and Haisnes was filled with isolated small forts and sections of trenches still held by German machine guns.
On the right of the 9th (Scottish) Division the 7th Division had made good progress. With no Fosse or redoubt to hold them back, they swept forward across the first German position. They reached the western side of the Quarries, where a sector of the German second line, strongly posted, held up that part of the advance. Their van entered the village of St Elie, and then pushed northwards, and by ten o'clock in the forenoon had actually reached the village of Haisnes. Had the advance been made in greater strength it might, have caught between two fires the Germans still clinging to the eastern skirts of Fosse 8 and the Holhenzollern redoubt. As it was, the extreme ground won could not be maintained. The hold on Haisnes slackened, and by midday the line of the 7th Division ran from the western end of St Elie to the west side of the Quarries, and so north to the right of the 9th Division east of the Hohenzollern redoubt. The British held a trench line at the Quarries looking across to the German position on the other side, while between them at the bottom of the hole lay a German howitzer battery, which they could not get near enough to destroy or prevent the enemy using.
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