the battle of loos Flashcards
the battle of loos took place 21-28th september 1915
it was commanded by general haig and aimed to divert German forces and attention away from french troops
half of the 72 battalions involved in the assault belonged to scottish regiments
prior to the battle of loos army commanders had concerns
haig had worries about the geography of the land and reliability of artillery and ammunition. kitchener’s army’s were not yet fully trained
it was also unclear who would command the reserves - 3 of the 6 battalions within the BEF (the reserves) were fully scottish
the initial battle plan was to launch an artiliary bombardment at fist light before attacking
the heavy artiliay bombardment of german positions began on the 21st september
23rd + 24th september heavy rain and thunderstorms had flooded communication trenches and turned no mans land and the front line into a muddy bog
on the 25th september - after the 4 day artillery bombardment the battle began
german front line remained intact and barbed wire remained more or less uncut by the artillery
despite wind being an unfavourable condition for its use haig ordered the used of gas at 5:30 that morning - some moved slowly towards no mans land before the wind changes blowing it back into the faces of scots
despite the gas release upon scots -
the surviving infantry went over top and advanced across no mans land
the seaforth highlanders captured the german trenches on the redoubt and the cameron highlanders took ‘little willie trench’
scots attacked to town of loos
as the 15th (scottish) devision emerged from the gas they were met by german machine gun fire
despite this by 8am on 25th september 1915 - scots captured the town of loos
the reserves were not used effectivly
they marched 40 miles to the front in heavy rain and when they asembled on the morning of the 26th they were tired and hungry
the atack had lost the element of surprise by this point and when the scots reserves joined the battle they were met by german artillery and machine gun fire
casualty’s were sternly high and by the 27th september any hope of a successfull ‘big push’ was gone
under pressure from the french, haig kept the battle going until 16th oct 1915
by the end of the battle 8 scots battalions had more than 500 casualty’s
