THE BATTLE OF LOOS
(The First Day--September 25)
General order of battle--Check of the Second Division--Advance of the
Ninth and Seventh Divisions--Advance of the First Division--Fine
progress of the Fifteenth Division--Capture of Loos--Work of the
Forty-seventh London Division.
Whilst the Army had lain in apparent torpidity during the summer--a
torpidity which was only broken by the sharp engagements at Hooge and
elsewhere--great preparations for a considerable attack had been
going forward. For several months the sappers and the gunners had
been busy concentrating their energies for a serious effort which
should, as it was hoped, give the infantry a fair chance of breaking
the German line. Similar preparations were going on among the
French, both in Foch's Tenth Army to the immediate right of the
British line, and also on a larger scale in the region of Champagne.
Confining our attention to the British effort, we shall now examine
the successive stages of the great action in front of Hulluch and
Loos--the greatest battle, both as to the numbers engaged and as to
the losses incurred, which had ever up to that date been fought by
our Army.
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{173}
[Illustration: La Bassée-Loos area]
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The four days which preceded the great attack {175} of September 25
were days of great activity. An incessant and severe bombardment was
directed upon the German lines along the whole front, but especially
in the sector to the immediate south of the La Bassée Canal, where
the main thrust was to be made. To this severe fire the Germans made
hardly any reply, though whether from settled policy or from a
comparative lack of munitions is not clear. On each of the days a
feint attack was made upon the German line so far as could be done
without actually exposing the men. The troops for the assault were
gradually brought into position, and the gas-cylinders, which were to
be used for the first time, were sunk in the front parapets.
The assault in the main area was to extend from the La Bassée Canal
in the north to the village of Grenay in the south, a front of about
seven miles, and it was to be supported and supplemented by many
subsidiary attacks along the whole line up to the Ypres salient, and
northwards still to where the monitors upon the coast held the German
coastguards to their sand-dunes. For the moment we will deal only
with the fortunes of the main attack. This was to be delivered by
two army corps, both belonging to Haig's First Army, that tempered
blade which has so often been the spear-head for the British thrust.
The corps were the First (Hubert Gough's) and the Fourth
(Rawlinson's). It will be remembered that a British army corps now
consisted of three divisions, so that the storming line was composed
of six divisions, or about seventy thousand infantry.
The line of the advance was bisected by a high road from Vermelles to
Hulluch. This was made the boundary line between the two attacking
corps. To {176} the left, or north of this road, was the ground of
the First Corps; to the right, or south, of the Fourth. The
qualities of the Regular and Territorial regiments had already been
well attested. This was the first occasion, however, when, upon a
large scale, use was made of those new forces which now formed so
considerable a proportion of the whole. Let it be said at once that
they bore the test magnificently, and that they proved themselves to
be worthy of their comrades to the right and the left. It had always
been expected that the new infantry would be good, for they had in
most cases been under intense training for a year, but it was a
surprise to many British soldiers, and a blow to the prophets in
Berlin, to find that the scientific branches, the gunners and the
sappers, had also reached a high level. "Our enemy may have hoped,"
said Sir John French, "not perhaps without reason, that it would be
impossible for us, starting with such small beginnings, to build up
an efficient artillery to provide for the very large expansion of the
Army. If he entertained such hopes he has now good reason to know
that they have not been justified by the result. The efficiency of
the artillery of the new armies has exceeded all expectations."
These were the guns which, in common with many others of every
calibre, worked furiously in the early dawn of Saturday, September
25, to prepare for the impending advance. The high explosives were
known to have largely broken down the German system of defences, but
it was also known that there were areas where the damage had not been
great and where the wire entanglements were still intact. No further
delay could be admitted, however, if our advance was to be on the
same day as that of the {179} French. The infantry, chafing with
impatience, were swarming in the fire trenches. At 5.40 A.M. the
gas-cylinders were turned on. At 6.30 A.M. the guns ceased fire, and
the ardent soldiers--Regulars, New, and Territorials--dashed forward
upon their desperate venture.
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{177}
[Illustration: BATTLE OF LOOS I]
APPROXIMATE POSITIONS OF BRITISH
DIVISIONS ON AFTERNOON OF SEPT. 25th
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The rough diagram of the action on page 177 will help the reader to
understand the order in which the six divisions attacked, and in a
very rough way the objectives in front of them. It is impossible to
describe simultaneously the progress of so extended a line. It will
be best, therefore, to take the various divisions from the northern
end, and to follow the fortunes of each until it reached some
definite limit. Afterwards an attempt will be made to co-ordinate
these results and show their effects upon each other.
The second regular division (Horne), acting upon the extreme left of
the main attack, had two brigades north of the La Bassée Canal and
one to the south. The most northern was the 5th (Cochrane's), and
its operations really formed part of the subsidiary attacks, and will
be treated under that head. South of it was the 6th (Daly's), to the
immediate north of the canal. The gas, drifting slowly up the line
before a slight southern breeze, had contaminated the air in this
quarter, and many of the men were suffering from the effects. None
the less, at half-past six the advance was made in a most dashing
manner, but the barbed wire defences were found to be only partially
damaged and the trenches to be intact, so no progress could be made.
The 2nd South Staffords and 1st King's Liverpools on the left and
right reached the German position, but in face of a murderous fire
were unable to make good their hold, and were {180} eventually forced
back to their own trenches after enduring heavy losses, shared in a
lesser degree by the 1st Rifles and 1st Berks in support. Upon their
right, south of the canal, was the 19th Brigade (Robertson). The two
leading regiments, the 1st Middlesex and 2nd Argylls, sprang from the
trenches and rushed across the intervening space, only to find
themselves faced by unbroken and impassable wire. For some reason,
probably the slope of the ground, the artillery had produced an
imperfect effect upon the defences of the enemy in the whole sector
attacked by the Second Division, and if there is one axiom more
clearly established than another during this war, it is that no human
heroism can carry troops through uncut wire. They will most surely
be shot down faster than they can cut the strands. The two
battalions lay all day, from morning till dusk, in front of this
impenetrable obstacle, lashed and scourged by every sort of fire, and
losing heavily. Two companies of the 2nd Welsh Fusiliers, who
gallantly charged forward to support them, shared their tragic
experience. It was only under the cover of dusk that the survivors
were able to get back, having done nothing save all that men could
do. Their difficult situation was rendered more desperate by the
fact that the wind drifted the gas--that filthy and treacherous
ally--over a portion of the line, and some of our soldiers were
poisoned by the effects. The hold-up was the more unfortunate, as it
left the Germans the power to outflank the whole advance, and many of
the future difficulties arose from the fact that the enemy's guns
were still working from Auchy and other points on the left rear of
the advancing troops. In justice to the Second Division, {181} it
must be remembered that they were faced by the notoriously strong
position called "the railway triangle," and also that it is on the
flanking units that the strain must especially fall, as was shown
equally clearly upon the same day in the great French advance in
Champagne.
The advance of the next division, the Ninth Scottish Division
(Thesiger's) of the new armies, was of a most energetic nature, and
met with varying fortunes according to the obstacles in their path.
The valour and perseverance of the men were equally high in each of
its brigades. By an unfortunate chance, General Landon, the officer
who had played so essential a part on the fateful October 31, 1914,
and who had commanded the Ninth Division, was invalided home only two
days before the battle. His place was taken by General Thesiger, who
had little time in which to get acquainted with his staff and
surroundings. The front to be assaulted was of a most formidable
nature. This Hohenzollern Redoubt jutted forward from the main
German line, and was an enclosure seamed with trenches, girdled with
wire, and fringed with machine-guns. Behind and to the north of it
lay the slag-heap Fosse 8. The one favourable point lay in the fact
that the attacking infantry had only a hundred yards to cross, while
in the other parts of the line the average distance was about a
quarter of a mile.
The attack of the Ninth Division was carried out with two brigades,
the 26th (Ritchie) and 28th (Dickens), with the 27th (Bruce) in close
support.
Continuing the plan of taking each unit from the north, we will
follow the tragic fortunes of the 28th Brigade on the left. This
brigade seems to have been {182} faced by the same unbroken obstacles
which had held up their neighbours of the Second Division upon the
left, and they found it equally impossible to get forward, though the
attack was urged with all the constancy of which human nature is
capable, as the casualty returns only too clearly show.
The most veteran troops could not have endured a more terrible ordeal
or preserved a higher heart than these young soldiers in their first
battle. The leading regiments were the 6th Scottish Borderers and
the 11th Highland Light Infantry. Nineteen officers led the
Borderers over the parapet. Within a few minutes the whole nineteen,
including Colonel Maclean and Major Hosley, lay dead or wounded upon
the ground. Valour could no further go. Of the rank and file of the
Borderers some 500 out of 1000 were lying in the long grass which
faced the German trenches. The Highland Light Infantry had suffered
very little less. Ten officers and 300 men fell in the first rush
before they were checked by the barbed wire of the enemy. Every
accumulation of evil which can appal the stoutest heart was heaped
upon this brigade--not only the two leading battalions, but their
comrades of the 9th Seaforths and 10th H.L.I, who supported them.
The gas hung thickly about the trenches, and all of the troops, but
especially the 10th H.L.I., suffered from it. Colonel Graham of this
regiment was found later incoherent and half unconscious from
poisoning, while Major Graham and four lieutenants were incapacitated
in the same way. The chief cause of the slaughter, however, was the
uncut wire, which held up the brigade while the German rifle and
machine-gun fire shot them down in heaps. It was observed that {183}
in this part of the line the gas had so small an effect upon the
enemy that their infantry could be seen with their heads and
shoulders clustering thickly over their parapets as they fired down
at the desperate men who tugged and raved in front of the wire
entanglement. An additional horror was found in the shape of a
covered trench, invisible until one fell into it, the bottom of which
was studded with stakes and laced with wire. Many of the Scottish
Borderers lost their lives in this murderous ditch. In addition to
all this, the fact that the Second Division was held up exposed the
28th Brigade to fire on the flank. In spite of every impediment,
some of the soldiers fought their way onwards and sprang down into
the German trenches; notably Major Sparling of the Borderers and
Lieutenant Sebold of the H.L.I. with a handful of men broke through
all opposition. There was no support behind them, however, and after
a time the few survivors were compelled to fall back to the trenches
from which they had started, both the officers named having been
killed. The repulse on the left of the Ninth Division was complete.
The mangled remains of the 28th Brigade, flushed and furious but
impotent, gathered together to hold their line against a possible
counter-attack. Shortly after mid-day they made a second attempt at
a forward movement, but 50 per cent of their number were down, all
the battalions had lost many of their officers, and for the moment it
was not possible to sustain the offensive.
A very different fate had befallen the 26th Brigade upon their right.
The leading battalions of this brigade were the 5th Camerons on the
left, gallantly led by Lochiel himself, the hereditary chieftain of
{184} the clan, and the 7th Seaforths on the right. These two
battalions came away with a magnificent rush, closely followed by the
8th Gordons and the 8th Black Watch. It was a splendid example of
that _furor Scoticus_ which has shown again and again that it is not
less formidable than the Teutonic wrath. The battalions were over
the parapet, across the open, through the broken wire, and over the
entrenchment like a line of Olympic hurdlers. Into the trenches they
dashed, seized or killed the occupants, pressed rapidly onwards up
the communications, and by seven o'clock had made their way as far as
Fosse 8, a coal-mine with a long, low slag-heap lying in the rear of
the great work, but linked up to it in one system of defences. It
was a splendid advance, depending for its success upon the extreme
speed and decision of the movement. Many officers and men, including
Lord Sempill, the gallant Colonel of the Black Watch, were left upon
the ground, but the front of the brigade rolled ever forwards. Not
content with this considerable success, one battalion, the 8th
Gordons, with a handful of the Black Watch, preserved sufficient
momentum to carry it on to the edge of the fortified village of
Haisnes, in the rear of the German position. The reserve brigade,
the 27th, consisting of the 11th and 12th Royal Scots, 10th Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders, and 6th Scots Fusiliers, swept onwards in
support of this movement. This brigade had varying fortunes, part of
it being held up by wire. It did not get so far forward as the
brigade upon its left, but it reached and took Fosse Alley, to the
immediate west of the Lens-Hulluch road. This position it held
against bombing attacks upon each flank until the morning of Monday
{185} the 27th, as will be described later. The Highlanders upon
their left, who had got nearly to Haisnes, dropped back when they
found themselves unsupported, and joined the rest of their brigade in
the neighbourhood of Fosse 8.
It should be mentioned that the field-guns of the 52nd Brigade R.F.A.
pushed up in the immediate rear of the firing line of the Ninth
Division, and gave effective support to the infantry. The fact that
they could do this across the open tends to show that infantry
supports could be pushed up without being confined unduly to the
communication trenches. The spirited action of these guns was
greatly appreciated by the infantry.
For the moment we will leave the Ninth Division, its left held up in
line with the Second Division, its right flung forward through the
Hohenzollern Redoubt and Fosse 8 until the spray from the wave had
reached as far as Haisnes. Let us turn now to the veterans of the
Seventh Division, the inheritors of the glories of Ypres, who filled
the space between the right of the Ninth Division and the road from
Vermelles to Hulluch which divided Gough's First and Rawlinson's
Fourth Corps. This division was constituted as before, save that the
8th and 9th Devons of the New Army had taken the place of the two
Guards battalions in the 20th Brigade. Upon receiving the word to
advance, "Over the top and the best of luck!" the men swarmed on
short ladders out of the fire trenches and advanced with cool,
disciplined valour over the open ground. On reaching the German wire
the leading brigades--the 22nd on the left with the 2nd Warwicks and
1st South Staffords in the lead, the 20th on the right with the 2nd
Gordons {186} and 8th Devons in the place of honour--lay down for a
short breather, while each soldier obeyed instructions by judging for
himself the point at which the broken, tangled mass of writhing
strands could most easily be penetrated. Then once more the whistles
blew, the men rushed forward, and, clearing the wire, they threw
themselves into the front trench. The garrison of 200 men threw
their arms down and their hands up with the usual piteous but
insincere cry of "Kameraden!" Flooding over the line of trenches,
the division pushed rapidly on without a check until they reached the
Quarries, a well-marked post in front of the village of Hulluch.
Here more prisoners and eight field-guns were taken by the 20th
Brigade. From the Quarries to the village is roughly half a mile of
uphill ground, devoid of cover. The impetus of the advance carried
the men on until they were at the very edge of the village, where
they were held up by the furious fire and by a line of barbed wire,
which was bravely cut by Private Vickers of the 2nd Warwicks and
other devoted men. Another smaller village, Cité St. Elie, to the
north of Hulluch, was also reached, the 2nd Queen's Surrey making
good the western edge of it. At both these points the division had
reached its limit, but still farther to the north its left-hand
brigade was at the southern outskirts of Haisnes in touch with the
gallant men of the Ninth Division, who were to the west of that
important village. These advanced lines could not be held without
supports; the 21st Brigade had already been absorbed farther back,
and the men of the Seventh Division fell back about 4 P.M. as far as
the Quarries, where for a time they remained, having lost many
officers and men, including Colonel {187} Stansfeld of the 2nd
Gordons, a gallant officer who was hit by a shell in the first
advance, but asked only that he should be let lie where he could see
his men. Colonel Heath of the Surreys was also killed after the
return to the Quarries.
Such was the advance of the First Army Corps, ending in a bloody
repulse upon the left of the line and a hardly less bloody success
upon the right. Across the Vermelles-Hulluch high road, the Fourth
Army Corps had been advancing on the same line, and its fortunes had
been very similar to those of its neighbour. The First Division was
operating on the left of the corps, with the Fifteenth Scottish
Division (New) in the centre and the Forty-seventh Territorial
(London) on the right. Thus the First Division was advancing upon
Hulluch on the immediate right of the Seventh Division, so that its
operations are the next to be considered.
The attack of this division was carried out by the 1st Brigade upon
the left and by the 2nd upon the right, while the 3rd was in support.
Two battalions, the 9th King's Liverpool and the London Scottish,
acted as a small independent unit apart from the brigades. The
respective objectives for the two leading brigades were the Chalk Pit
and Fosse 14 for the 2nd, while the 1st was to aim at Hulluch. These
objectives were somewhat diverging, and the two Territorial
battalions, forming what was called Green's Force, were to fill up
the gap so occasioned, and to prevent any German counter-attack
coming through.
Both brigades soon found great difficulties in their path. In the
case of each the wire was but imperfectly cut, and the German
trenches were still strong. {188} We will first follow the fortunes
of the 1st Brigade. Their rush was headed by two brave battalions of
the New Army, the 8th Berkshires on the left and the 10th Gloucesters
on the right. Both of these units did extraordinarily well, and
after bearing down a succession of obstacles got as far as the edge
of Hulluch, capturing three lines of trenches and several guns upon
the way. The 1st Camerons pressed close at their heels, lending them
the weight to carry them over each successive difficulty. The
advance took some time and was very costly. The Berkshires alone in
the course of the day lost 17 officers and 400 men, and were led by a
young sub-lieutenant (Lawrence) at the close. The Gloucesters and
Camerons suffered almost as heavily.
The experience of the 2nd Brigade to the immediate south was still
more trying, and it was held up to an extent which had a serious
bearing upon the fortunes of the day. The German trenches near Lone
Tree, which faced the brigade, were found to be intact and strongly
covered by wire. They were attacked by the 2nd Rifles and 1st North
Lancashires, with the 2nd Sussex in immediate support, but no
progress could be made. The 1st Northamptons threw themselves into
the fight, but still the trench was held at a time when it was vital
that the 2nd Brigade should be at its post in the general scheme of
advance. The ground was taken, however, on each flank of the Lone
Tree position, and Green's Force, whose function had been to link up
the diverging operations of the two brigades, was brought up for the
attack. The two battalions advanced over six hundred yards by
platoon rushes under heavy gusts of fire. As they reached a point
within fifty yards of the German line, {189} a few grey-clad,
battle-stained infantrymen clambered slowly on to the parapet with
outstretched hands. Upon the British ceasing their fire a party of 3
officers and 400 men were marched out of the trenches and gave
themselves up. Their stout resistance is a lesson in the effect
which a single obstinate detachment can exert in throwing a large
scheme out of gear.
The 1st Brigade had now got through upon the left, and the 2nd was
able to follow them, so that the whole force advanced as far as the
Lens-Hulluch road, getting in touch with the 20th Brigade of the
Seventh Division on the left. Here the resistance was strong and the
fire heavy. The division had lost very heavily. Of the 9th King's
Liverpool only Colonel Ramsay, 4 subalterns, and 120 men were left,
while many of the other battalions were almost as hard hit. It was
now raining and the light was failing. The men dug themselves in
near the old German trenches, the 3rd Brigade coming up and taking
its position on the right flank, where late that night it connected
up by means of its outer unit, the 2nd Welsh, with the Twenty-fourth
Division, which had come up in support.
The temporary check to the advance of the First Division had exposed
the left flank of its neighbour to the south, the Fifteenth
(M'Cracken's) Scottish Division of the New Army. The two divisions
were to have met at Fosse 14, but the Fifteenth Division arrived
there some hours before the others, for the reason already stated.
In spite of this a very fine advance was made, which gained a
considerable stretch of ground and pierced more deeply than any other
into the German line. The 46th Brigade was on the left, consisting
of the 7th Scots Borderers and {190} 12th Highland Light Infantry in
front, with the 8th Borderers and 10th Scottish Rifles behind them.
It was upon the parapet in front of this brigade that Piper Laidlaw
marched up and down before the attack under a heavy fire, warming the
blood of the crouching men with the maddening scream of his
war-pipes. Not until he was shot down did this gallant man cease to
urge forward his comrades. The 46th Brigade dashed forward at the
signal, and with a fine fury flooded over the German trenches, which
they carried at a rush, storming onwards across the Lens road and up
the long slope of Hill 70, taking Fosse 14 upon the way, and
eventually reaching the summit of the incline. The 45th supporting
Brigade came along after them, detaching, as they passed, 100 bombers
of the 6th Camerons to help the First Division to get forward. These
brave Highlanders held the advanced line for some hours under heavy
fire from the Lens batteries.
The 44th Brigade upon the right of the 46th had made an advance which
was equally fiery and successful. In this brigade the 9th Black
Watch and 8th Seaforths were in the lead, with the 7th Camerons and
10th Gordons behind. This brigade dashed into the main street of
Loos, where they met the Londoners of Barter's Forty-seventh
Division. They helped to consolidate this flank and to clear the
houses of Loos, while some of them pushed forward towards Hill 70.
When they reached the crest of the hill they found the remains of the
46th Brigade, consisting of remnants of the 12th H.L.I., 7th Scots
Borderers, and 10th Scottish Rifles, upon their left. It is possible
that they could have dug in and held their own, but the objective as
given in the original orders {191} had been the village of St.
Augustine, and with heroic perseverance these brave men would be
contented with nothing less than the full performance or death in the
attempt. Alas! for many of them it was the latter. Gathering
themselves together, they flung themselves forward over the crest.
On the other side was a long, low slope with isolated houses at the
bottom, the suburbs of the village of St. Laurent, which they mistook
for St. Augustine. These crackled at every window with machine-gun
fire. Of the devoted band who rushed forward none reached the
houses. The few survivors fell back upon the crest, and then,
falling back about one hundred and fifty yards, they dug in upon the
slope on the west side of it. Their position was an extraordinarily
dangerous one, for they had no protection upon the left flank, where
lay a thick wood--the Bois Hugo--through which a German attack might
come which would cut them off from the Army. Colonel Purvis, of the
Highland Light Infantry, with quick foresight, built up a thin line
of resistance upon this side from Fosse 14 in the south to the
advanced left point, manning it with a few of his own men under
Lieutenant M'Neil. A welcome reinforcement of the 6th Camerons and
7th Scots Fusiliers from the 45th Brigade were thrown in to
strengthen this weak point. This was done about 1 P.M. It was only
just in time, for in the afternoon the German infantry did begin to
debouch from the wood, but finding organised resistance they dropped
back, and their advance on this line was not renewed until the next
morning, when it fell upon the Twenty-first Division. For a time the
pressure was very great, but the men rallied splendidly round a
tattered flag bearing the Cameron tartan, and, {192} although it was
impossible to get forward, they still, in a mixed and straggling line
with hardly any officers, held firmly to their ground. Late in the
evening the 13th Royal Scots and the 11th Argyll and Sutherlands came
up to thicken the line.
Leaving the Fifteenth Division holding on desperately to that
advanced position where, as Captain Beith has tersely said, a fringe
of Jocks and Sandies lie to mark the farthest point of advance, we
turn to the remaining division upon the right--the Forty-seventh
London, under General Barter. This division upheld splendidly upon
this bloody day the secular reputation of the Cockney as a soldier.
With a keen, quick brain, as well as a game heart, the Londoner, like
the Parisian, has proved that the artificial life of a great city
does not necessarily dull the primitive qualities which make the
warrior. The cream of the London Territorial regiments had already
been distributed among regular brigades, and had made themselves an
individual name, but this was the first occasion upon which a whole
division was engaged in a really serious operation.
The left of the division was formed by Thwaites' 141st Brigade with
the 18th London Irish in the front line and the 20th Blackheath
Battalion in immediate support. To their right was Cuthbert's 140th
Brigade, which formed the extreme right of the whole attack, a
position which caused them to think as much of their flank protection
as of their frontal advance. This brigade had the 6th and 7th
Londons in the van, with the 8th and 15th (Civil Service) in support.
The 142nd Brigade (Willoughby) was in the second line.
The advance of the 141st Brigade was a splendid {193} one. At the
whistle the 18th London Irish, with a fighting yell, flooded over the
parapet with their regimental football kicked in front of them, and
were into the German trench like a thunderbolt. A few minutes later
they were followed by the Blackheath men, who passed the captured
trench, rushed on to the second, and finally won the third, which
opened for them the road to Loos. Into the south end of Loos they
streamed, while the 44th Brigade of the Fifteenth Division rushed the
north end, turning out or capturing the 23rd Silesians, who held the
post. The 19th St. Pancras Battalion followed up the attack, while
the 17th (Poplar) were in reserve. Meanwhile, the 140th Brigade had
done most useful work by making a lodgment on the Double Grassier,
formidable twin slag-heaps which had become a German fort. The
ground to the immediate south of Loos was rapidly seized and
consolidated by the Londoners, several guns being captured in the
chalk pits near the village. This operation was of permanent
importance, as the successful British advance would inevitably form a
salient projecting into the hostile lines, which would be vulnerable
if there were not some good defensive position on the flank. The
work of the Forty-seventh Division assured such a line in the south.
By mid-day, as has been shown, the British advance had spent its
momentum, and had been brought to a standstill at all points. The
German lines had been almost--but not quite--shattered. A map of the
photographed trenches shows that beyond the point reached by the
advanced troops there was only the last line which held them up. To
the east of that was open country. But the German reserves were
{194} hurrying up from all quarters in their rear, from Roulers, from
Thielt, from Courtrai and Menin and Douai. At the latter place was a
division of Guards just brought across from the Russian front. These
also were hurried into the fight. The extreme British line was too
thin for defence, and was held by exhausted men. They were shelled
and bombed and worn down by attack after attack until they were
compelled to draw slowly back and re-form on interior lines. The
grand salient which had been captured with such heroic dash and
profuse loss of life was pared down here and contracted there. The
portion to the south held by the Londoners was firmly consolidated,
including the important village of Loos and its environs. An
enormous mine crane, three hundred feet high, of latticed iron, which
had formed an extraordinarily good observation point, was one of the
gains in this direction. The Fifteenth Division had been driven back
to the western side of Hill 70, and to the line of the
Lens-Hulluch-La Bassée road. The Seventh and Ninth Divisions had
fallen back from Haisnes, but they still held the western outskirts
of Hulluch, the edge of St. Elie, the Quarries, and Fosse 8. It was
at this end of the line that the situation was most dangerous, for
the failure of the Second Division to get forward had left a weak
flank upon the north, which was weaker because the heavily-gunned
German position of Auchy lay to the north-west of it in a way that
partially enfiladed it.
The struggle was particularly desperate round the slag-heaps which
were known as Fosse 8. This position was held all day by the 5th
Camerons, the 8th Black Watch, and the 7th Seaforths of the 26th
{195} Brigade, the remaining battalion of which, the 8th Gordons,
were with the bulk of the 27th Brigade in the direction of Haisnes.
These three battalions, under a murderous fire from the Auchy guns
and from the persistent bombers, held on most tenaciously till
nightfall. When the welcome darkness came, without bringing them the
longed-for supports, the defenders had shrunk to 600 men, but their
grip of the position was not relaxed, and they held it against all
attacks during the night. About five next morning the 73rd Brigade
of the Twenty-fourth Division--a unit straight from home--pushed up
to their help under circumstances to be afterwards explained, and
shared their great dangers and losses during the second day of the
fighting.
The battalions of the Ninth Division which had got as far as the
outskirts of Haisnes held on there until evening. By that time no
reinforcements had reached them and they had lost very heavily. Both
their flanks were turned, and at nightfall they were driven back in
the direction of the Quarries, which was held by those men of the
Seventh Division (mostly of the 22nd Brigade) who had also been
compelled to fall back from Hulluch. During the night this position
was wired by the 54th Company of Royal Engineers, but the Germans, by
a sudden and furious attack, carried it, driving out the garrison and
capturing some of them, among whom was General Bruce, the Brigadier
of the 27th Brigade. After the capture of the Quarries, the flanks
of the 27th Brigade were again turned, and it was compelled to return
as far as the old German front line. The 20th Brigade had fallen
back to the same point. These misfortunes all arose from the
radically defective position of the {196} northern British line,
commanded as it was by German guns from its own left rear, and
unprotected at the flank.
Whilst this set-back had occurred upon the left of the attack, the
right had consolidated itself very firmly. The position of the
Forty-seventh Division when darkness fell was that on their right the
140th Brigade had a strong grip of part of the Double Grassier. On
their left the 19th Battalion (St. Pancras), which had lost its
Colonel, Collison-Morley, and several senior officers, was holding
South-east Loos in the rear of the right flank of the Fifteenth
Division. The 20th was holding the Loos Chalk Pit, while the 17th
and 18th were in the German second-line trenches.
There is reason to believe that the rapid dash of the stormers
accomplished results more quickly than had been thought possible.
The Twenty-first and Twenty-fourth Divisions were now brought up, as
Sir John French clearly states in his dispatch, for a specific
purpose: "To ensure the speedy and effective support of the First and
Fourth Corps in the case of their success, the Twenty-first and
Twenty-fourth Divisions passed the night of the 24th and 25th on the
line of Beuvry-Noeux-les-Mines."
Leaving the front line holding hard to, or in some cases recoiling
from, the advanced positions which they had won, we will turn back
and follow the movements of these two divisions. It is well to
remember that these divisions had not only never heard the whistle of
a bullet, but they had never even been inside a trench, save on some
English down-side. It is perhaps a pity that it could not be so
arranged that troops so unseasoned in actual warfare should {197}
occupy some defensive line, while the older troops whom they relieved
could have marched to battle. Apart, however, from this
inexperience, which was no fault of their own or of their commanders,
there is no doubt at all that the men were well-trained infantry and
full of spirit. To bring them to the front without exciting
attention, three separate night marches were undertaken, of no
inordinate length, but tiring on account of the constant blockings of
the road and the long waits which attended them. Finally they
reached the point at which Sir John French reported them in his
dispatch, but by ill-fortune their cookers came late, and they were
compelled in many cases to move on again without a proper meal.
After this point the cookers never overtook them, and the men were
thrown back upon their iron rations. Providence is not a strong
point of the British soldier, and it is probable that with more
economy and foresight at the beginning these troops would have been
less exhausted and hungry at the end. The want of food, however, was
not the fault of the supply services.
The troops moved forward with no orders for an instant attack, but
with the general idea that they were to wait as a handy reserve and
go forward when called upon to do so. The 62nd Brigade of the
Twenty-first Division was sent on first about eleven o'clock, but the
other brigades were not really on the road till much later. The
roads on which they moved--those which lead through Vermelles to
Hulluch or to Loos--were blocked with traffic: guns advancing,
ambulances returning, troops of all sorts coming and going, Maltese
carts with small-arm ammunition hurrying forward to the
fighting-line. {198} The narrow channel was choked with the crowd.
The country on either side was intersected with trenches and laced
with barbed wire. It was pouring with intermittent showers. The
soldiers, cold, wet, and hungry, made their way forward with many
stoppages towards the firing, their general direction being to the
centre of the British line.
"As we got over this plain," writes an officer, "I looked back, and
there was a most extraordinary sight; as far as you could see there
were thousands and thousands of our men coming up. You could see
them for miles and miles, and behind them a most colossal
thundercloud extending over the whole sky, and the rain was pouring
down. It was just getting dark, and the noise of our guns and the
whole thing was simply extraordinary."
Early on the march the leading brigade, the 73rd, was met by a staff
officer of the First Army, who gave the order that it should detach
itself, together with the 129th Field Company of Sappers, and hasten
to the reinforcement of the Ninth Division at Fosse 8. They went,
and the Twenty-fourth Division knew them no more. The other two
brigades found themselves between 9 and 10 P.M. in the front German
trenches. They had been able to deploy after leaving Vermelles, and
the front line were now in touch with the 63rd Brigade of the
Twenty-first Division upon the right, and with the 2nd Welsh
Regiment, who represented the right of the 3rd Brigade of the First
Division, upon their left. The final orders were that at eleven
o'clock next day these three divisions--First, Twenty-fourth, and
Twenty-first--were to make a united assault past Hulluch, which was
assumed to be in our hands, and on to the main German line. This,
then, {199} was the position of the reserves on the night of
September 25-26.
It was a nightmare night in the advanced line of the Army. The
weather had been tempestuous and rainy all day, though the men had
little time to think of such matters. But now they were not only
tired and hungry, but soaked to the skin. An aggressive enemy pelted
them with bombs from in front, and their prospects seemed as black as
the starless sky above them. It is, however, at such a time that the
British soldier, a confirmed grumbler in his hours of ease, shows to
the best advantage. The men knew that much ground had been gained.
They had seen prisoners by hundreds throwing up their hands, and had
marked as they rushed past them the vicious necks of the half-buried
captured cannon. It was victory for the Army, whatever might be
their own discomfort. Their mood, therefore, was hilarious rather
than doleful, and thousands of weary Mark Tapleys huddled under the
dripping ledges of the parapets. "They went into battle with their
tails right up, and though badly mauled have their tails up still."
So wrote the officer of a brigade which had lost more than half its
effectives.
{200}