THE BATTLE OF LOOS
(From September 27 to the end of the year)
Loss of Fosse 8--Death of General Thesiger--Advance of the
Guards--Attack of the Twenty-eighth Division--Arrival of the Twelfth
Division--German counter-attacks--Attack by the Forty-sixth Division
upon Hohenzollern Redoubt--Subsidiary attacks--General
observations--Return of Lord French to England.
The night of September 26 was a restless and tumultuous one, the
troops being much exhausted by their long ordeal, which involved
problems of supply unknown in any former wars. The modern soldier
must be a great endurer as well as an iron fighter. The Germans
during the night were very pushful in all directions. Their reserves
are said to have been very mixed, and there was evidence of
forty-eight battalions being employed against the British line, but
their attacks were constant and spirited. The advanced positions
were, however, maintained, and the morning of the 27th found the
attackers, after two days of incessant battle, still keeping their
grip upon their gains.
[Sidenote: Loss of Fosse 8.]
The main part of the day began badly for the British, however, as in
the early morning they were pushed off Fosse 8, which was an
extremely important point and the master-key of the whole position,
as its {219} high slag-heap commanded Slag Alley and a number of the
other trenches to the south of it, including most of the Hohenzollern
Redoubt. The worn remains of the 26th Brigade were still holding the
pit when morning dawned, and the units of the 73rd Brigade (Jelf)
were in a semicircle to the east and south of it. These battalions,
young troops who had never heard the whiz of a bullet before, had now
been in close action for thirty-six hours, and had been cut off from
all supplies of food and water for two days. Partly on account of
their difficult tactical position, and partly because they were
ignorant of how communications are kept up in the trenches, they had
become entirely isolated. It was on these exhausted troops that the
storm now broke. The northern unit consisted of the 7th
Northamptons, whose left wing seems to have been in the air. Next to
them were the 12th Royal Fusiliers. There had been several infantry
attacks, which were repulsed during the night. Just at the dawn two
red rockets ascended from the German lines, and at the same moment an
intense bombardment opened upon Fosse 8, causing great loss among the
occupants. It was at this time that General Thesiger, Commander of
the Ninth Division, together with his Staff-Major, Burney, was killed
by a shell. Colonel Livingstone, Divisional C.O. of Engineers, and
Colonel Wright, of the 8th Gordons, were also hit. In the obstinate
defence of the post the 90th Company R.E. fought as infantry, after
they had done all that was possible to strengthen the defences.
A strong infantry attack had immediately followed the bombardment.
They broke in, to the number of about a thousand, between the
Northamptons and {220} Fusiliers. By their position they were now
able to command Fosse 8, where the 9th Sussex had been, and also to
make untenable the position of the 27th Brigade, which occupied
trenches to the south which could be enfiladed. In "The First
Hundred Thousand" will be found a classical account of the straits of
these troops and their retirement to a safer position. General Jelf
telephoned in vain for the support of heavy guns, and even released a
carrier pigeon with the same urgent request. Seeing that Fosse 8 was
lost, he determined to hold on hard to the Hohenzollern Redoubt, and
lined its trenches with the broken remains of his wearied brigade.
The enemy at once attacked with swarms of well-provided bombers in
the van, but were met foot to foot by the bombers of the 73rd
Brigade, who held them up. The 26th Brigade endeavoured to
counter-attack, but were unable to get forward against the
machine-guns, but their bombers joined those of the English brigade
and did splendid work. The ground was held until the troops,
absolutely at the limit of human endurance, were relieved by the 85th
Brigade of the Twenty-eighth Division, as will be described later.
The trench held by the Sussex was commanded from above and attacked
by bombers from below, so that the battalion had a very severe
ordeal. Lieutenant Shackles defended a group of cabarets at one end
of the position until he and every man with him was dead or wounded.
Having taken that corner, the Germans bombed down the trench.
Captain MacIvor with thirty men on that flank were all killed or
wounded, but the officer leading the bombers was shot by Captain
Langden and the position saved. Nineteen officers and 360 men fell
in this one battalion. {221} "We gained," said one of them, "two
Military Crosses and many wooden ones." It had been an anxious day
for all, and most of all for General Jelf, who had been left without
a staff, both his major and his captain having fallen.
[Sidenote: The coming of the Guards.]
Up to mid-day of the 27th the tide of battle had set against the
British, but after that hour there came into action a fresh force,
which can never be employed without leaving its mark upon the
conflict. This was the newly-formed division of Guards (Lord Cavan),
consisting of the eight battalions which had already done such
splendid service from Mons onwards, together with the newly-formed
Welsh Guards, the 3rd and 4th Grenadier Guards, the 2nd Coldstream,
and the 2nd Irish.
On September 25 the Guards reached Noeux-les-Mines, and on September
26 were at Sailly-la-Bourse. On the morning of the 27th they moved
forward upon the same general line which the previous attack had
taken--that is, between Hulluch on the left and Loos on the
right--and relieved the two divisions which had suffered so heavily
upon the previous day. The general distribution of the Guards was
that the 1st Brigade (Fielding), consisting of the 2nd Grenadiers,
2nd and 3rd Coldstream, and 1st Irish, were on the left. They had
taken over trenches from the First Division, and were now in touch
upon their left with the Seventh Division. On the right of the 1st
Guards' Brigade was the 2nd (Ponsonby), consisting of the 3rd
Grenadiers, 1st Coldstream, 1st Scots, and 2nd Irish. On their right
again, in the vicinity of Loos, was the 3rd Brigade (Heyworth), the
1st and 4th Grenadiers, 2nd Scots, and 1st Welsh. These last two
brigades, upon which the work fell--for the 1st Brigade remained in a
{222} holding position--were operating roughly upon the same ground
as the Twenty-first Division had covered the day before, and had in
their immediate front the same wood--the Chalk Pit Wood--from which
we had been driven, and the Chalk Pit near the Lens-Hulluch road,
which we had also lost, while a little more to the right was the
strong post of Fosse 14 and the long slope of Hill 70, the whole of
which had passed back into the hands of the enemy. These formidable
obstacles were the immediate objective of the Guards. During the
night of the 26th-27th many stragglers from the Twenty-first and
Twenty-fourth Divisions passed through the Guards, informing them
that their front was practically clear of British troops, and that
they were face to face with the enemy.
At 2.30 P.M. the British renewed their heavy bombardment in the hope
of clearing the ground for the advance. There is evidence that upon
the 25th the enemy had been so much alarmed by the rapid advance that
they had hurriedly removed a good deal of their artillery upon the
Lens side. This had now been brought back, as we found to our cost.
At four o'clock the heavy guns eased off, and the two brigades of
Guards (2nd and 3rd) advanced, moving forward in artillery
formation--that is, in small clumps of platoons, separated from each
other.
The 2nd Irish were given their baptism of fire by being placed in the
van of the 2nd Brigade with orders to make good the wood in front.
The 1st Coldstream were to support them. Advancing in splendid
order, they reached the point without undue loss, and dug themselves
in according to orders. As they lay there their comrades of the 1st
Scots passed on their right under very heavy fire in salvos of {223}
high-explosive shells, and carried Fosse 14 by storm in the most
admirable manner, while the Irish covered them with their rifle-fire.
Part of the right-hand company of the Irish Guards got drawn into
this attack and rushed forward with the Scots. Having taken Fosse
14, this body of men pushed impetuously forward, met a heavy German
counter-attack, and were driven back. Their two young leaders,
Lieutenants Clifford and Kipling, were seen no more. The German
attack came with irresistible strength, supported by a very heavy
enfilade fire. The remains of the Scots Guards were driven with
heavy losses out of Fosse 14, and both they and the Irish were thrown
back as far as the line of the Loos-Hulluch road.
The remains of the shaken battalions were joined by two companies of
the 2nd Coldstream and reformed for another effort. In this attack
of the 2nd Brigade upon Fosse 14, the Scots were supported by two
companies of the 3rd Grenadiers, the other two being in general
reserve. These two companies, coming up independently somewhat later
than the main advance, were terribly shelled, but reached their
objective, where they endured renewed losses. The officers were
nearly all put out of action, and eventually a handful of survivors
were brought back to the Chalk Pit Wood by Lieutenant Ritchie,
himself severely wounded.
Captain Alexander, with some of the Irish, had succeeded also in
holding their ground in the Chalk Pit Wood, though partly surrounded
by the German advance, and they now sent back urgently for help. A
fresh advance was made, in the course of which the other two
companies of Coldstreamers pushed forward {224} on the left of the
wood and seized the Chalk Pit. It was hard soil and trenching was
difficult, but the line of the wood and of the pit was consolidated
as far as possible. A dangerous gap had been left between the 1st
Coldstream, who were now the extreme left of the 2nd Brigade, and the
right of the 1st Brigade. It was filled up by 150 men, hastily
collected, who frustrated an attempt of the enemy to push through.
This line was held until dark, though the men had to endure a very
heavy and accurate shelling, against which they had little
protection. In the early morning the 1st Coldstream made a fresh
advance from the north-west against Fosse 14, but could make no
headway against the German fire. The line of Chalk Pit Wood now
became the permanent line of the Army.
The 3rd Brigade of Guards had advanced at the same time as the 2nd,
their attack being on the immediate right on the line of Fosse 14 and
Hill 70. It may indeed be said that the object of the 2nd Brigade
attack upon Fosse 14 was very largely to silence or engage the
machine-guns there and so make it easier for the 3rd Brigade to make
headway at Hill 70. The Guardsmen advanced with great steadiness up
the long slope of the hill, and actually gained the crest, the Welsh
and the 4th Grenadiers in the lead, but a powerful German redoubt
which swept the open ground with its fire made the summit untenable,
and they were compelled to drop back over the crest line, where they
dug themselves in and remained until this section of the line was
taken over by the Twelfth Division.
[Sidenote: Rearrangements.]
The Guards had lost very heavily during these operations. The 2nd
Irish had lost 8 officers and 324 {225} men, while the 1st Scots and
1st Coldstream had suffered about as heavily. The 3rd Brigade had
been even more severely hit, and the total loss of the division could
have been little short of 3000. They continued to hold the front
line until September 30, when the 35th and 36th Brigades of the
Twelfth Division relieved them for a short rest. The Fifteenth
Division had also been withdrawn, after having sustained losses which
had probably never been excelled up to that hour by any single
division in one action during the campaign. It is computed that no
fewer than 6000 of these gallant Scots had fallen, the greater part
upon the blood-stained slope and crest of Hill 70. Of the 9th Black
Watch little more than 100 emerged safely, but an observer has
recorded that their fierce and martial bearing was still that of
victors.
The curve of the British position presented a perimeter which was
about double the length of the arc which marked the original
trenches. Thus a considerably larger force was needed to hold it,
which was the more difficult to provide as so many divisions had
already suffered heavy losses.
The French attack at Souchez having come to a standstill, Sir John
French asked General Foch, the Commander of the Tenth Army, to take
over the defence of Loos, which was done from the morning of the 28th
by our old comrades of Ypres, the Ninth Corps. During this day there
was a general rearrangement of units, facilitated by the contraction
of the line brought about by the presence of our Allies. The
battle-worn divisions of the first line were withdrawn, while
Bulfin's Twenty-eighth Division came up to take their place.
[Sidenote: Arrival of Twenty-eighth Division.]
The Twenty-eighth Division, of Ypres renown, {226} had reached
Vermelles in the early morning of Monday the 27th--the day of the
Guards' advance. The general plan seems to have been that it should
restore the fight upon the left half of the battlefield, while the
Guards' Division did the same upon the right. General Bulfin, the
able and experienced Commander of the Twenty-eighth, found himself
suddenly placed in command of the Ninth also, through the death of
General Thesiger. The situation which faced him was a most difficult
one, and it took cool judgment in so confused a scene to make sure
where his force should be applied. Urgent messages had come in to
the effect that the defenders of Fosse 8 had been driven out, that as
a consequence the whole of the Hohenzollern Redoubt was on the point
of recapture, and that the Quarries had been wrested from the Seventh
Division by the enemy. A very strong German attack was surging in
from the north, and if it should advance much farther our advance
line would be taken in the rear. It was clear that the Twenty-eighth
Division had only just arrived in time. The 85th Brigade under
General Pereira was hurried forward, and found things in a perilous
state in the Hohenzollern Redoubt, where the remains of the 26th and
73rd Brigades, driven from Fosse 8 and raked by guns from the great
dump, were barely holding on to the edge of the stronghold. The 2nd
Buffs dashed forward with all the energy of fresh troops, swept the
enemy out of the redoubt, pushed them up the trench leading
northwards, which is called "Little Willie" ("Big Willie" leads
eastward), and barricaded the southern exit. Matters were hung up
for a time by the wounding both of General Pereira and of his
Brigade-Major Flower, but Colonel {227} Roberts, of the 3rd Royal
Fusiliers, carried on. The Royal Fusiliers relieved the Buffs, and
the 2nd East Surrey took over the left of the line.
An attack was organised upon the powerful position at Fosse 8, but it
had to be postponed until the morning of September 28. At 9 A.M. the
2nd Buffs delivered a very strong assault. The 3rd Middlesex were to
have supported them, but came under so heavy a fire in their trenches
that they were unable to get forward. The Buffs, in the face of
desperate opposition, scrambled up the difficult sides of the great
dump--a perfect hill self-erected as a monument of generations of
labour. They reached the summit, but found it swept by gusts of fire
which made all life impossible. Colonel Worthington and fifteen of
his officers were killed or wounded in the gallant venture. Finally,
the remains of the battalion took cover from the fire in Dump Trench
at the bottom of the hill. It was in this trench that the Middlesex
men had been held. Their Colonel, Neale, had also been killed. From
this time onwards Fosse 8 was left in the hands of the Germans, and
the action of the Twenty-eighth Division became more of a defensive
one to prevent any further whittling away of the ground already
gained.
As the pressure was still great from the direction of Fosse 8, two
battalions of the 83rd Brigade, the 1st York and Lancasters and 1st
Yorkshire Light Infantry, were sent up to reinforce the line. On the
29th they helped to repel two attacks all along the front of the
redoubt, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, when the
Germans came on to the surface only to be shot back into their
burrows again. On the same day the 83rd and 84th Brigades relieved
the weary Seventh Division in the Quarries.
{228}
[Sidenote: Mixed fighting.]
Whilst these operations had been carried on upon the north half of
the field of battle, to the left of the bisecting road, the Twelfth
Division, a South of England unit of the New Army, had moved forward
into the space to the right of the road, taking over the trenches
held by the Guards, and connecting up with the French at Loos. Save
in the sector occupied by the Twenty-eighth Division the action had
died down, and the British, aided partly by those pioneer battalions
which had been formed out of ordinary infantry regiments to do work
usually assigned to the sappers, strengthened their hold upon the
ground that they had won, in the sure conviction that they would soon
have to defend it. The shell-fire continued to be heavy upon both
sides, and in the course of it General Wing, of the Twelfth Division,
was unfortunately killed, being struck by a shell outside his
divisional headquarters. He had been one of the artillery officers
who had most to do with the fine handling of the guns of the Second
Corps at Le Cateau, and was a very rising soldier of the most modern
sort. Three divisional generals killed--Capper, Wing, and
Thesiger--and one brigadier a prisoner! Such losses in the higher
ranks are hardly to be matched in our history. To equal them one has
to go back a hundred years to that supreme day when Picton, De Lancy,
Ponsonby, and so many others died in front of their troops upon the
historic plateau of Waterloo.
On October 1, at eight in the evening, Bulfin's men were hard at work
once more. It will be remembered that the "Little Willie" Trench had
been plugged at the southern end by the Buffs three days before. The
Germans still held the main line of it, but could not get down it
into the Hohenzollern Redoubt. It {229} was now charged most
brilliantly and carried by the 1st Welsh, of the 84th Brigade, but
after holding it for a day they lost so heavily that they were
compelled to resume their old position once more. The 1st Suffolk
tried to win the ground back, but without success.
Upon the afternoon of Sunday, October 3, the fighting, which had died
down, broke out once more. The front line at this date was formed by
the Ninth French Corps, our splendid comrades of Ypres, upon the
right, occupying Loos and that portion of the slopes of Hill 70 which
had remained in our hands. On their left was the Twelfth British
Division up to the Vermelles-Hulluch road, and to their left Bulfin's
Twenty-eighth Division, holding the northern area, including the
Hohenzollern Redoubt. For several days the bombing parties of the
enemy had been eating their way into this fortress, and upon the 3rd
the greater part of it reverted into their hands, the enemy driving
in the 84th Brigade. These attacks were based upon their strong
positions in the north, and supported by the machine-guns of Fosse 8
and the heavy artillery of Auchy. On the same day a strong force
advanced against the right of the Twenty-eighth Division between the
Quarries and the Vermelles-Hulluch road, but this attack was repulsed
with heavy loss.
On October 4 and 5 the Twenty-eighth Division was withdrawn, and the
Guards, after three days' rest, were called upon once more, the 3rd
Guards Brigade taking its position at the section of the Hohenzollern
Redoubt which we held, while the 1st was on their right, and the 2nd
in reserve at Vermelles. At the same time the First Division moved
to the front on the right of the Guards, relieving the Twelfth {230}
Division. All these troops were keenly alive to the fact that the
Germans were unlikely to sit down under their defeat, and that the
pause was only the preliminary to a great counter-attack. All
efforts were therefore made to consolidate the ground.
[Sidenote: The great counter-attack.]
The expectations were fulfilled, for upon October 8 the enemy brought
up their reserves from far and near, determined to have back the
ground that they had lost. The British and French were no less
inexorable in their grip of that which had cost them so much to win.
It is the attacker in modern warfare who pays the price. Sometimes
he gets the value of his blood, sometimes he pays it freely and gets
nothing whatever in exchange. So it was in this instance. Along the
whole long curve of the defence, from the southern trenches of the
Hohenzollern Redoubt in the north to the French position in the
south, the roar of the battle went up. On the left of the French was
the First Division, on their left the Twelfth, on theirs the Guards,
on theirs the Seventh, stout fighters all. The Germans rushed on
boldly, swarms of bombers in front, lines of supporting infantry
behind. Everywhere they were cut down and brought to a stand by the
sleet of bullets. It was the British machine-gunner who now crouched
under cover and spread death fanwise before him, while it was the
German infantryman who rushed and tripped and rose and fell in the
desperate effort to carry out the plans of his chiefs. All honour to
him for the valour of his attempt.
To appreciate the nature of a great deal of this fighting one must
remember that the whole scene of it was intersected by a perfect maze
of trenches which belonged to the original German third line of
defence, and were therefore familiar to them, while they were {231}
strange to those British troops who now occupied them. All along
these zigzag lines the two parties were only from thirty to fifty
yards apart, so that the broad, deserted plain was really intersected
with narrow runways of desperately active life. Attacks developed in
an instant, bombing parties sprang forward at any moment, rifles were
used at point-blank range, so that an exposed bayonet was often
snapped off by a bullet. "Close to the bombers' keep fifty small
bayonet periscopes, four bayonets, and five foresights of rifles were
shot off in an hour and a half," says an officer present. Over
traverses men pelted each other with anything that was deadly, while
above their heads the great shells for ever screamed and rumbled.
A great effort was made against the trench called "Big Willie,"
running out from the Hohenzollern Redoubt, which had been taken over
by the Guards. In the afternoon of the 8th, after a heavy
bombardment had flailed the position for four hours, there was a
determined rush of bombers upon these trenches, the Germans, our old
friends of the Seventh Westphalian Corps, coming on in three
battalions, each of them down a different communication trench. The
general direction of the attack was from the north and east. The
trenches assaulted were held by the 1st and 2nd Brigades of Guards,
both of which were heavily engaged. The riflemen, however, were
useless, as only a bomber can meet a bomber. At first the stormers
had some success, for, pushing along very valiantly and with great
technical precision, they broke into the section of trench held by
the 3rd Grenadiers, putting out of action most of the bombers and
machine-gunners of that corps. "Our fellows were {232} being bombed
back from traverse to traverse, and we could just see the top of the
Bosche helmets going along the trench." Lieut. Williams, with a
machine-gun, stopped the rush, but was soon shot through the head.
General Ponsonby, commanding the 2nd Brigade, called, however, for
the bombers of the 3rd Coldstream, who swept down the trench, pelted
the Germans out of it, and gloriously avenged the prostrate
Grenadiers. The 2nd Coldstream had themselves been driven back, and
their bomb-store was temporarily captured, but they came back and
regained it after some stark face-to-face fighting, in which Sergeant
Brooks, a British berserker, won his V.C. The remains of the 3rd
Grenadiers also came back, led by Lieut. Geoffrey Gunnis, and cleared
the last corner of what they had lost. The Guards lost 100 men in
this action, many of them blown to pieces by the bombs, but they
entirely cleared the trenches and regained every inch of lost ground.
The fight lasted for two hours and a half, in the course of which
9000 bombs were thrown by the British.
Another focus of strife upon October 8 was the Chalk Pit upon the
Lens-Hulluch road, that tragic spot which had seen in turn the
advance of the Fifteenth Division, of the Twenty-first, and of the
Guards. It had now been taken over by the First Division, who had
come back into the line after a rest. Across that road of death, the
Loos-Hulluch highway, lay the ill-omened Bois Hugo, which offered a
screen for the German advance. Twelve battalions were attacking, and
as many more on the line held by the French. Here the Germans lost
very heavily, going down in heaps before the rifle-fire of the 1st
Gloucesters, 2nd Munster Fusiliers, 9th King's Liverpool, {233} and
other battalions in the First Division firing line. The French 75's
had been equally deadly and successful. Between the position held by
the Guards near the Hohenzollern Redoubt on the left and that of the
First Division at the Chalk Pit on the right, the ground was held by
the Twelfth Division, the 37th Brigade of which (Fowler) was briskly
engaged. The 6th Buffs of this brigade was immediately to the right
of the Vermelles-Hulluch road, with the 6th Royal West Kent
continuing the line northwards down to the Quarries. The 6th Queen's
Surrey and 7th East Surrey were in support. Somewhat to the right
front of this brigade was a position one hundred and fifty yards
wide, called Gun Trench, which was one of the scattered forts which
the enemy still held to the west of the Loos-Hulluch road. An attack
was organised upon this position by Colonel Venables of the West
Kents, who was badly wounded in the venture. The British, led by
Captain Margetts, reached the trench in spite of terrific fire and
corresponding losses, including the whole crew of a machine-gun of
the East Surreys which had been most gallantly rushed to the front by
Lieutenant Gibson. Half the trench was cleared, but the Germans had
themselves been on the point of attacking, and the communications
leading eastwards were stuffed with men--a prolongation, no doubt, of
the same attack which was breaking to the north upon the Guards. The
weak spray of British stormers could make no progress against the
masses in the supporting trenches, and were bombed back to their own
position. It was a brave but fruitless attempt, which was destined
to be renewed with greater success a few days later, when Gun Trench
passed completely into the hands {234} of the British. The West
Kents lost 200 killed and wounded in this affair. At night the whole
line of the French and British defences was inviolate, and though
there was an acute controversy between the official accounts as to
the number of German casualties, it is certain that, whatever they
may have been, they had nothing to show in return, nor is it a sign
of military virtue to recoil from an enterprise with little loss.
The German fighter is a tougher fellow than the cutters-down of his
casualty lists will allow. British losses were comparatively small.
Though the Germans had gained no ground upon the 8th, the British
were averse from allowing them to remain in undisputed possession of
that which they had won upon the 3rd. It was especially upon the
Hohenzollern Redoubt that the British fighting line fixed a menacing
gaze, for it had long been a centre of contention, and had now passed
almost completely into the possession of the enemy. It was
determined to make a vigorous attempt to win it back. The
Forty-sixth North Midland Territorial Division (Stuart-Wortley), who
were veterans of nine months' service at trench warfare, but had not
yet been heavily engaged, were brought up from the rear, and upon
October 12 they relieved the Guards Division on the left of the front
line. At the same time it was planned that there should be an attack
of the First Division to the west of Hulluch, and of the Twelfth
Division in the region of the Quarries. Of these we shall first
describe the attack of the Territorials upon the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
[Sidenote: Attack of the Forty-sixth Division.]
On October 13, at noon, a severe bombardment was opened which
concentrated upon the enclosure of the redoubt, and the space between
that and Fosse 8. {235} This bombardment for some reason does not
seem to have been effective, and even while it went on the sniping
and machine-guns were active in the enemy line. An hour later there
was an emission of gas, borne by a brisk breeze towards the German
trenches, and later still a smoke-cloud was sent out to cover the
advance. At two o'clock the troops dashed over the parapet, the
138th Brigade, consisting of men of Lincoln and Leicester, upon the
left, while the 137th, the men of Stafford, were on the right. In
immediate support was the 139th, a Sherwood Forester Brigade. The
line upon the left was headed by the 4th Leicesters and 5th Lincolns,
the men, with that light-hearted courage which is so intolerable to
the heavier German spirit, singing, "Here we are, here we are, here
we are again!" as they vaulted out of their trenches. The attack
upon the right was led by the 5th North and 5th South Staffords. The
advance was splendidly executed, and won the critical admiration of
some of the Guards who were privileged to see it. In the face of a
murderous fire the attacking line swept, in an order which was only
broken by the fall of stricken men, up to the front-line trench, two
hundred yards in front.
Here, however, the attack was held up by an overwhelming fire. The
5th North Staffords, whose objective was "Big Willie," were
exterminated for all immediate military purposes, their losses being
19 officers and 488 men. The gallant survivors succeeded in getting
as far as a communication trench which led to "Big Willie," and held
on there. The advance of the 5th South Staffords upon the right was
conditional upon the success of their comrades to the left. The
officer commanding the left companies saw that little progress had
been made, and exercised his discretion {236} in holding back his
men. The officer on the right of the South Staffords could not see
what was going on, and advanced his company, with the result that
they ran into the same fatal fire, and lost terribly. The two
reserve companies coming up were only able with very great difficulty
to reach the British front-line trenches, dropping half their number
in the venture. The result of all this slaughter, which seems to
have been entirely due to inadequate artillery preparation, was that
the second line of attack upon the right, consisting of the 6th North
and 6th South Staffords, could do no more than garrison the
front-line trenches, and lost very heavily in doing so.
On the left, however, things had gone better, for at that part our
guns seemed to have made more impression. The advance of the 4th
Leicesters and 5th Lincolns swept over the Hohenzollern Redoubt and
carried the whole of this formidable work up to Fosse Trench. About
a hundred yards short of this point the advance was held up by
concentrated machine-gun fire. The losses had been very heavy,
especially in officers. The rear companies won forward to the front
none the less, and the 4th Lincolns came up also to thicken the
attenuated firing-line. They held their ground with difficulty, but
were greatly helped by their pioneer battalion, the 1st Monmouths,
veterans of Ypres, who rushed forward with rifle and with spade to
consolidate the captured ground.
Bombing parties had been sent out by the British, those on the right
to reach and bomb their way down "Big Willie," those on the left to
clear Fosse Trench. The parties upon the right, drawn from the
various Stafford regiments, got into "Big Willie," and stuck to their
work until they were all destroyed, officers and {237} men. The
enemy bombers then counter-attacked, but were met by Lieutenant
Hawkes with a party of the 5th South Staffords, who drove them back
again. The pressure was very severe, however, until about four in
the afternoon, when the action upon the right died down into a duel
of heavy guns upon either side.
On the left, however, where the gallant Territorial infantry held
hard to its gains, the action was very severe. The bombing attacks
went on with varied fortunes, a company of the 5th Leicesters bombing
its way for more than two hundred yards up "Little Willie" Trench
before its supplies ran out and it had to retire. At three o'clock
there was a fresh infantry advance, the 7th Sherwood Foresters of the
reserve 139th Brigade endeavouring to get forward, but losing so many
in crossing the redoubt that they were unable to sally out from the
farther side. The redoubt was now so crowded with mixed units all
under heavy fire that there might have been a Spion Kop but for the
steadiness of all concerned. At one time the men, finding themselves
practically without officers, began to fall back, but were splendidly
rallied by Colonel Evill of the 1st Monmouths and a few other
survivors. The advent of two companies of the 5th Leicesters
retaining their disciplined order helped to avert the danger, and the
line was formed once again along the western face of the redoubt.
During this movement the 7th Sherwood Foresters who remained in the
north-east of the redoubt were cut off, but with splendid pertinacity
they held their ground, and made their way back when darkness fell.
In the early morning of the 14th, Captain Checkland, with a company
of the 5th Sherwood Foresters, pushed an advance up to the place
where {238} their comrades of the 7th Battalion had been, and found
Captain Vickars of that regiment, who, with of a bravery which
deserves to be classical, defended almost single-handed a barrier,
while he ordered a second one to be built behind him, cutting him off
from all succour. He was desperately wounded, but was brought back
by his comrades.
The 8th Sherwood Foresters had also come to the front, and made a
spirited attack in the early morning of the 14th, driving the enemy
from the western side of the redoubt and firmly establishing the
British gains in that quarter. This gain was permanent, though it
proved to be rather a visible prize for valour than a useful
strategic addition to the line. So long as the sinister, low-lying
dump of Fosse 8 overlooked it and was itself untaken, it was
impossible to make much use of the redoubt. For forty-eight hours
the advanced line was held by the 139th Brigade against several brisk
counter-attacks. At the end of that time the position was handed
over to the safe custody of the Guards, while the Forty-sixth North
Midland Division withdrew from that front line which was of their own
creation. Colonel Martin of the 4th Leicesters, who was shot through
the knee, but refused to move until he saw the result of the attack,
Colonel Fowler of the 8th Sherwoods, Colonel Sandall of the 5th
Lincolns, Major Cooper of the 4th Lincolns, and nearly 4000 officers
and men, were among the casualties during the forty-eight hours of
exposure.
The action was a very desperate one, and nothing could have been
finer than the conduct of all engaged. "It was not the actual
advance, but the holding of the position afterwards, that was
dreaded, as {239} the Germans are so quick at counter-attacking." So
wrote one of the combatants. The dread was well founded, for the
Germans proved to be very numerous and aggressive, and there can be
little doubt that at this period their bombers had a technical
proficiency which was superior to our own, whether their opponents
were Guards or Territorials. It is characteristic of the unique
warfare now prevailing that the contending parties had practically
abandoned rifles, save as so many pikes, and that each man carried a
pouch full of projectiles, the size of a duck's egg, and capable of
disabling a dozen in a single burst. It may be added that both sides
wore leathern helmets, sometimes with the visors up and sometimes
with the face entirely concealed, so that it appeared to be a
murderous strife of the strange, goggle-eyed, mask-faced creatures of
a nightmare. Such were the extraordinary products of modern European
warfare.
Could all the ground taken have been permanently held, this would
have been a fine little victory. So constant has been the phenomenon
that the extreme point cannot be held that it could now be stated as
an axiom for either side, and seemed to suggest that the methods of
attack should be in some way modified. Each successive line of
resistance has decreased the momentum of the stormers and has helped
to lessen their store of bombs, while the farther they have advanced
the more difficult it is for fresh men or supplies to reach them.
Then, again, their diminished numbers have caused a contraction and
bunching of the line, so enabling the counter-attack to get round
their flanks. Add to this the physical exhaustion caused by extreme
exertions while carrying a considerable weight, and one has the
factors which always {240} produce the same result, and which led
eventually to the more fruitful tactics of the limited objective.
When the Forty-sixth Midland Division advanced upon the Hohenzollern
Redoubt on October 13, there was a brisk attack also by the Twelfth
Division upon their right, and by the First Division on the right of
the Twelfth. In the case of the Twelfth Division, now commanded by
General Scott, the 37th Brigade (Fowler) was heavily engaged. The
7th East Surreys of this brigade carried and permanently held the Gun
Trench, a position which had cost them the lives of many officers and
men upon the 8th. Attacking the same line of trenches to the left,
the 6th Buffs lost heavily under oblique fire, without any
appreciable gain. Of three companies who went out, 11 officers and
400 men were left upon the ground, and a photograph has revealed the
perfect alignment of the dead. The 35th Brigade (Straubensee) had a
similar experience to the left near the Quarries, the losses falling
most heavily upon the 5th Berkshires and the 7th Norfolks.
At the same hour the First Division, with a smoke and gas screen
before them, had broken in upon the German lines to the south-west of
Hulluch, near the Hulluch-Lens road. About a thousand yards of
trenches were taken, but the shell-fire was so murderous that it was
found to be impossible to retain them. On the whole, it must be
admitted that, although ground was gained along the whole line from
the Hohenzollern Redoubt to Hulluch by this very desperate fighting,
the losses were so heavy and the results so barren that there was no
adequate return for the splendid efforts of the men. The attack was
urged by Territorials upon the left, New Army men {241} in the
centre, and Regulars upon the right, and at all points it was equally
gallant.
The operations at the main seat of action, the Loos sector, have been
treated continuously in order to make a consecutive narrative, but we
must now return to consider the subsidiary attacks along the line
upon September 25.
[Sidenote: Subsidiary attacks.]
While the First and Fourth Corps, supported by the Eleventh, had been
delivering this great attack between La Bassée and Grenay, a series
of holding actions had been fought from the coast downwards, so as to
pin the Germans so far as possible to their places. Some of these
attacks were little more than demonstrations, while others in less
serious times would have appeared to be considerable engagements.
The Second Regular Division (Horne), acting upon the extreme left of
the main attack, was astride of the La Bassée Canal. The most
northern brigade, the 5th (Cochrane's), was opposite to Givenchy, and
its advance seems to have been intended rather as a distraction than
as a serious effort. It took place half an hour or so before the
general attack in the hope of misleading them as to the British
plans. At the signal the three leading regiments, the 1st Queen's
Surrey, the 2nd Oxford and Bucks, and the 2nd Highland Light
Infantry, dashed forward and carried the trench line which faced
them. The 9th Glasgow Highlanders advanced upon their right. The
attack was unable to make any further progress, but the fight was
sustained for several hours, and had the desired effect of occupying
the local forces of the enemy and preventing them from detaching
reinforcements to the south.
The same remark would apply to the forward {242} movement of the 58th
Brigade of the Nineteenth Division to the immediate north of
Givenchy. This division of the New Army is mainly English in
composition, but on this their first serious engagement the work fell
chiefly upon two Welsh battalions, the 9th Welsh and the 9th Welsh
Fusiliers. Both these corps sustained heavy losses, but sacrificed
themselves, as so many others were obliged to do, in keeping up the
appearance of an attack which was never seriously intended.
Taking the subsidiary attacks from the south upwards, we come next to
that of the Indians in the vicinity of Neuve Chapelle. This was a
very brilliant affair, carried out with the true Indian tiger spring.
Had it been possible to support by adequate reserves of men and an
unrestricted gun-fire, it had in it the possibility of a fine
victory. The attack was carried out by the Meerut Division, with the
Garhwali Brigade on the right and the Bareilly upon the left, the
Dehra Dun being in reserve. On the right the Garhwalis were partly
held up by wire, but the Bareillys came through everything and swept
into the front-line trenches, taking 200 unwounded prisoners of the
Seventh Westphalian Corps. Two battalions of the Black Watch, the
2nd and 4th, with the 69th Sikhs, were in the lead, a combination
which has broken many a battle line before. The 58th Rifles
(Vaughan's) and a second Sikh regiment, the 33rd, thickened the
attack, and they swept forward into the second-line trenches, which
they also cleared. They were now half a mile within the enemy's
position, and both their flanks were open to attack. The reserve
brigade was hurried up, but the trenches were blocked with wounded
and prisoners, so that progress was very difficult. The German
counter-attack was {243} delivered with great energy and valour. It
took the form of strong bombing parties acting upon each exposed
flank. The 8th Gurkhas, who had been the only battalion which
succeeded in breaking through on the right, linked up with the 4th
Black Watch, holding back the flank advance to the south, but to the
north the Germans got so far forward that the advanced Indians were
practically cut off. The immediate neighbours of the Indians to the
north were the 60th Brigade of the Twentieth Division, another
English division of the New Army. Two battalions of this brigade,
the 12th Rifle Brigade and the 6th Shropshires, were thrown into the
fight, and covered the threatened flank until their supply of
bombs--more and more an essential of modern warfare--was exhausted.
It was clearly necessary that the advanced troops should be drawn
back, since the reserves could not be got up to support them, and the
need was becoming very great. In a little they might be attacked on
front and rear with the chance of disaster. The Sikhs and
Highlanders fell back, therefore, with great steadiness, but enduring
heavy losses. In the end no ground was gained, but considerable
punishment was inflicted as well as suffered, the German trenches
being full of their dead. The primary purpose of holding them to
their ground was amply fulfilled. It cannot be denied, however, that
in this, as in so many other episodes of the Battle of Loos, the
German showed himself to be a stubborn fighter, who rises superior to
temporary defeat and struggles on while there is still a chance of
victory. His superior supply of bombs had also a good deal to do
with the success of his counter-attack.
Whilst this very sharp conflict had been raging {244} on the Indian
line, the Eighth Division to the north was engaged in a very similar
operation in the region of Bois-Grenier. The course of events was
almost exactly the same in each instance. The attack of the Eighth
Division was carried out by the 25th Brigade (Stephens). The 2nd
Rifle Brigade were on the right, the 2nd Berks in the centre, and the
2nd Lincoln upon the left. The front trench was carried, and 120 men
of the Sixth Bavarian Reserve Division fell into the hands of the
stormers. Part of the second line was also captured. The positions
were held for the greater part of the day, and it was not until four
in the afternoon that the increasing pressure of the counter-attack
drove the British back to their original line. Here again the object
of detention had been fully achieved.
The most important, however, of all the subsidiary attacks was that
which was carried out to the extreme north of the line in the
district of Hooge. This attack was made by the Fifth Corps, which
had changed both its general and its divisions since the days of its
long agony in May. It was now commanded by General Allenby, and it
consisted of the Third Regular Division (Haldane), the Fourteenth
Light Infantry Division of the New Army (Couper), and the Forty-sixth
Division of Midland Territorials (Stuart-Wortley), the fine work of
which at a later stage of the operations has already been described.
The first two of these units bore the brunt upon September 25. The
advance, which was across the old bloody ground of Bellewaarde, was
signalled by the explosion of a large mine under the German position
in the trenches immediately south of that Via Dolorosa, the
Ypres-Menin road.
{245}
The attack upon the left was made by the 42nd Brigade (Markham), all
four battalions, the 5th Oxford and Bucks, 5th Shropshires, 9th Rifle
Brigade, and 9th Rifles being strongly engaged. The German trenches
were reached and occupied, but after some hours the counter-attack
proved to be too strong, and the brigade fell back to its original
line.
Two brigades of the Third Division attacked in the centre in the
direction of Bellewaarde Lake. The 7th Brigade upon the left ran
into unbroken wire, before which the leading regiments, the 2nd Irish
Rifles and the 2nd South Lancashire, sustained heavy losses while
making no progress. The 8th Brigade to the south of them had better
fortune, however. This brigade, strengthened by the 1st Scots
Fusiliers, made a fine advance immediately after the great mine
explosion. Some 200 prisoners and a considerable stretch of trench
were captured. A redoubt had been taken by the 4th Gordons, and was
held by them and by the 4th Middlesex, but the bombardment in the
afternoon was so terrific that it had to be abandoned. By evening
the original line had been reoccupied, the division having certainly
held the Germans to their ground, but at very heavy cost to
themselves. As these various attacks from the 5th Brigade at the La
Bassée Canal to the Fourteenth Division at Ypres never entered into
the scheme of the main fight, it is not to be wondered at that they
ended always as they began. Heavy loss of life was doubtless
incurred in nearly every case. Sad as it is that men should die in
movements which are not seriously intended, operations of this kind
must be regarded as a whole, and the man who drops in an attack which
from the beginning has been a mere pretence has enjoyed as {246}
heroic an end as he who falls across the last parapet with the yell
of victory in his dying ears.
[Sidenote: Results.]
A modern battle is a sudden furious storm, which may blow itself out
in two or three days, but leaves such a tempestuous sea behind it
that it is difficult to say when the commotion is really over. In
the case of the Battle of Loos, or of Loos-Hulluch, it may be said to
have begun with the British advance upon September 25, and to have
ended with the establishment of an equilibrium on the northern flank
of our salient on October 13. From that time onwards for many weeks
comparative peace rested upon this sector. A time therefore, has
come when the operations may be reviewed as a whole. The net result
was a gain to the British of nearly seven thousand yards of front and
four thousand of depth, though if one be asked what exact advantage
this gain brought, save as a visible sign of military virtue, it is
hard to find an answer. Had the gain gone to that farther distance
which was hoped for and aimed at, the battle might, as in the case of
the French in Champagne, have been a considerable victory. As it
was, the best that we can claim is that one or two more such advances
in the same neighbourhood would bring the valuable French coal-fields
back to their rightful owners. The most substantial proofs of
victory were 3000 prisoners, including 57 officers, 26 field-guns,
and 40 machine-guns. On the other hand, in the mixed fighting of the
26th we lost not fewer than 1000 prisoners, including a
brigadier-general. Altogether the losses to the Army during the
three weeks of fighting were not less than 50,000 men and 2000
officers. A large proportion of these were wounded.
{247}
There are some consolations for our limited success in this venture.
Having started to endeavour to break the German line in one movement,
it was natural to persevere, but now that we can see from how strong
a hand our enemy played, we may well ask ourselves whether a more
successful advance upon the 26th and 27th might not have led to grave
troubles. The French had been held on the right; the Second Division
was stationary upon the left. Therefore we were advancing from a
contracted base, and the farther the advance went the more it
resembled a long, thin tongue protruded between the jaws of the
enemy. There was considerable danger that the enemy, closing in on
either flank while holding the advance in front, might have bitten it
off, for we know for certain that we had none of those successive
rolling waves of reinforcement coming up which would turn an ebb to a
flood. However, as it was we had much for which to be thankful.
When one thinks of the almost superstitious reverence with which the
German army used to be regarded--an army which had never once been
really beaten during three European campaigns--it is surely a just
cause for sober satisfaction that a British force, half of which
consisted of new formations, should have driven such an enemy with
loss of prisoners and guns out of a triple line of fortifications,
strengthened by every device of modern art, and should afterwards
have permanently held the greater part of the field against every
effort at reconquest.
The account of this great battle, a battle in which from first to
last no fewer than twelve British divisions were engaged in the Loos
area alone, cannot be concluded without a word as to the splendid
French {248} success won in Champagne during the same period. There
is a great similarity between the two operations, but the French
attacked with at least three times as many men upon a threefold
broader front. As in our own case, their best results were gained in
the first spring, and they were able to continue their gains for
several days, until, like ourselves, they found that the
consolidating defence was too strong for the weakening attack. Their
victory was none the less a very great one, yielding 25,000 prisoners
and 125 captured cannon. It is impossible to doubt that both French
and British if they duly learned their lessons, and if they continued
to accumulate their resources, were now on the path which would lead
them to final victory.
Before settling down into the inactivity enforced by the Flemish mud,
there was one further brisk skirmish upon October 20 in that old
battle-ground, the Hohenzollern Redoubt. This was a bombing attack,
organised by the 2nd Irish Guards and led by Captain Hubbard. The
Irishmen were new to the game, and somewhat outclassed at first by
the more experienced Germans, but under the gallant encouragement of
Lieutenant Tallents, who rallied them after being himself badly
wounded, they turned the tide, and, aided by the Coldstream, made
good the section attacked. Lieutenant Hamilton was killed and 60 men
killed or wounded in this brisk encounter.
[Sidenote: Coming of winter.]
So, for a second time, wet, foggy winter settled down upon the
water-logged, clay-bottomed trenches. Little did those who had
manned them at Christmas of 1914 imagine that Christmas of 1915 would
find them in the same position. Even their brave hearts would have
sunk at the thought. And yet a move {249} back of a couple of miles
at Ypres, and a move forward of the same extent in the south, were
all that either side could show for a year's hard work and the loss
of so many thousand lives. Bloch, the military prophet of 1898, had
indeed been justified of his wisdom. Far off, where armies could
move, the year had seen great fluctuations. The Russians had been
pushed out of Poland and far over their own borders. Serbia had been
overrun. Montenegro was on the verge of utter destruction. The
great attempt upon the Dardanelles had been made and had failed,
after an epic of heroism which will surely live for ever in our
history and in that of our brave Australian and New Zealand brothers.
We had advanced in Mesopotamia to within sight of the minarets of
Bagdad, and yet again we had been compelled to leave our task
unfinished and our little force was besieged at Kut. The one new
gleam of light in the whole year had been the adhesion of Italy to
the cause of Freedom. And yet, though nearly every detail had been
adverse to us, our deepest instincts told us that the stream did in
truth move with us, however great and confusing might be the surface
current. Here on the long western line, motionless, but not passive,
locked in a vast strain which grew ever more tense, was the real war.
All others were subsidiary. And here in this real war, the one
theatre where decisive results could be looked for, our position was
very different in the opening of 1916 to that which 1915 had shown
us. In the year our actual Army in France had grown three- and
fourfold. The munitions had increased in far greater proportions.
The days had gone for ever when a serious action meant three months
of shell economy before the fight and three months {250} of
recuperation after it. To the gunners it was like an evil dream to
look back to the days when three shots per day was the allowance, and
never save on a definite target. Now, thanks to the driving power of
Lloyd George and his admirable band of assistants, there would never
again be a dearth, and no attack should ever languish for want of the
means to follow it up. Our guns, too, were clustering ever more
thickly and looming ever larger. Machine-guns were pouring forth,
though there, perhaps, we had not yet overtaken our enemy. Above
all, our Fleet still held the seas, cries of distress or at least of
discomfort from within Germany rose ever more clearly, and it was
certain that the sufferings which she had so wantonly and wickedly
inflicted upon others were beginning to be repaid to her. "Gott"
does indeed "strafe," and needs no invocation, but now, as always, it
is on the guilty that the rod falls. The close of 1915 found the
Empire somewhat disappointed at the past, but full of grim resolution
for the future.
[Sidenote: Change of command.]
One event had occurred in the latter end of the year which cannot be
allowed to pass without comment. This was the retirement of Sir John
French, and his return as Lord French to take command of the home
forces. It is a difficult matter to get the true proportion, either
of events or of characters, in so great an epoch as this. It will be
years before the true scale will gradually be found. At the same
time it can be said now with absolute certainty that the name of John
French will go down to history for the sterling work that he has done
during sixteen months of extreme military pressure. Nothing which
the future could bring, however terrific our task, could {251} be
charged with the same possibilities of absolute disaster as those
operations of the past through which he and his brilliant
subordinates had successfully brought the Army. His was the
preparation of the troops before the campaign, his the
responsibilities of mobilisation, and his the primary credit that
they were in the fighting line by August 22, 1914--they who, upon
August 4, had been scattered without their reserves or full equipment
over a dozen garrison towns. This alone was a great feat. Then came
the long, desperate fight to make head against a superior foe, the
rally, the return, the fine change of position, the long struggle for
the coast, the victory saddened by the practical annihilation of the
old Regular Army, the absorption and organisation of the new
elements, the resumption of the offensive, and that series of
spirited actions which, if they never attained full success, were
each more formidable than the last, and were all preparatory
exercises for the great Somme battles of 1916. This was the record
which Lord French took back with him to the Horse Guards, and it is
one which can never be forgotten by his fellow-countrymen.
Sir Douglas Haig, who succeeded to the chief command, was the leader
who would undoubtedly have been called to the vacant post by both
Army and public had leaders been chosen in the old Pretorian fashion.
From the beginning he and Smith-Dorrien had been the right and left
hands of the Chief, and now that ill-health had unhappily eliminated
the latter, Haig's claim was paramount. Again and again he had borne
the heaviest part in the fighting, and had saved the situation when
it seemed desperate. He was a man of the type which the {252}
British love, who shines the brighter against a dark background.
Youthful for so high a command, and of with a frame and spirit which
were even younger than his years, with the caution of a Scotchman and
the calculated dash of a leader of cavalry, he was indeed the ideal
man for a great military crisis. No task might seem impossible to
the man who had held back the German tide at Ypres. With Haig in
command and with an Army which was ever growing in numbers, in
quality, and in equipment, the British waited with quiet confidence
for the campaign of 1916.
{253}
INDEX
Ainslie, General, 162
Alderson, General, 50, 57, 62, 134, 143
Alexander, Captain, 223
Allenby, General, 142, 244
Anley, General, 75, 86, 104, 155
Army Medical Service, 1
Aston, Lieutenant, 30
Baldock, General, 142
Ballard, General, 29, 152
Bannatine-Allason, General, 143
Barnett, Major, 161
Barrett, Captain Moulton, 35
Barter, General, 136, 143, 190, 192
Barton, Captain, 37
Bearman, Captain, 130
Beatty, Admiral Sir David, 168
Beecher, Lieutenant-Colonel, 146
Beith, Captain, 192
Bellewaarde, battle of, 82
Bennett, Captain Leigh, 5
Bernhardi and our Colonial Militia, 57
Bibby, Lieutenant, 17
Blagrove, Adjutant, 161
Bliss, Colonel, 17
Bottomley, Major, 130
Bowes, General, 90, 108, 150
Boyle, Colonel, 51, 52, 72
Bridgford, Colonel, 70
Briggs, General, 98
Brook, Colonel, 131
Brooks, Sergeant, V.C., 232
Bruce, General, 181, 195
Bulfin, General, 42, 109, 142, 144, 225, 226
Bulgaria joins the Central Powers, 171
Bulkeley-Johnson, General, 100
Burchall, Colonel, 56, 72
Burnett, Captain, 36
Burney, Staff-Major, 219
Burnyeat, Lieutenant, 35
Bush, Lieutenant, 4
Byng, General Sir Julian, 142
Cameron of Lochiel, Colonel, 183
Campbell, General, 149, 216
Campbell, Colonel, 41
Campbell, Major Carter, 18
Campbell-Dick, Captain, 123
Capper, General, 143, 201, 228
Carmichael, Captain, 14
Carter, General, 22
Carter, Colonel, 23
Carter, Captain, 201
Cavan, Lord, 5, 133, 221
Cavendish, Colonel Lord Richard, 77
Champagne, French offensive in, 170, 248
Chaplin, Colonel, 160
Chapman, General, 106
Checkland, Captain, 237
Chesham, Lord, 103
Clark, Colonel James, 94
Clark, Lieutenant, 90
Clifford, Lieutenant, 223
Coates, Captain, 213
Cochrane, General, 179, 241
Cockburn, General, 161
Collison-Morley, Colonel, 196
Compton, Lord, 103
Congreve, General, V.C., 142, 144, 161
Cooper, Major, 238
Couper, General, 142, 156, 244
Crabb, Lieutenant, 9
Craig, Lieutenant, 146
Croker, General, 93
Cuinchy, action of, 2
Curry, General, 59
Cuthbert, General, 136, 192
Daly, General, 179
Dardanelles, attempt to force the, 168, 170, 249
Davies, General, 143, 144
De Ligne, General, 65
De Lisle, General, 52, 66, 96, 109
Dent, Major, 207
Dering, Captain, 36
Dickens, General, 181
Dill, Major, 119
Dobson, Major, 215
D'Urbal, General, 6
Edgar, Major, 135
Edwards, Captain, 92
Egerton, Staff-Captain, 38
Elton, Lieutenant, 31
Evans-Freke, Colonel the Hon., 103
Evill, Colonel, 237
Fane, Captain, 95
Fanshawe, General, 23, 143
Farquhar, Colonel, 34
Ferguson, General, 7, 42, 109, 142
Ferguson, Colonel, 103
Ferrers, Captain, 17
Festubert, battle of, 115
Feveran, Captain, 23
Field, Lieutenant Hamilton, 49
Fielding, General, 221
Finegan, Captain, 149
Flower, Brigade-Major, 226
Foch, General, 166, 172, 225
Follett, Captain, 31
Forbes, Colonel, 31
Forestier-Walker, General, 203, 206, 208
Fortescue, General, 8, 10, 31, 108
Fowkes, Major, 6
Fowler, General, 233, 240
Fowler, Colonel, 238
Fraser, Colonel, 131
Freke, Colonel, 103
French, General Sir John, 12, 13, 42, 43, 97, 115, 125, 176, 196,
197, 217, 225, 250, 251
Fry, Lieutenant, 30
Gabbett, Colonel, 130
Gardner, Major, 11
Gault, Major, 89
Geddes, Colonel, 55, 72
Geen, Lieutenant, 160
George, Right Hon. David Lloyd, 137, 250
Gibson, Lieutenant, 233
Givenchy, actions at, 3, 145, 147
Gloster, General, 55, 213
Gough, General, killed, 8, 34
Gough, General Hubert, 175, 185
Gough, Colonel Worsley, 95
Graham, Colonel, 182
Graham, Major, 182
Graham, Lieutenant, 5
Green, Lieutenant, 4
Greenlees, Lieutenant, 130
Grenfell, Captain the Hon. J., 103
Griffin, Colonel, 155
Griffith, Colonel, 39
Griffiths, Major Norton, 35
Gunnis, Lieutenant Geoffrey, 232
Hadow, Colonel, 207
Haig, General Sir Douglas, 7, 13, 29, 115, 143, 144, 175, 251, 252
Haldane, General, 142, 144, 244
Hamilton, Colonel (Durham Light Infantry), 213
Hamilton, Colonel Douglas, 202
Hamilton, Lieutenant, 248
Harper, General, 24
Harrington, Captain, 25
Harrison, Captain, 31
Hasler, General, 64, 72
Hassell, Lieutenant, 130
Hawkes, Lieutenant, 237
Heath, Colonel, 187
Heyworth, General, 129, 221
Hibbert, General, 147
Hicks, Colonel, 73
Hill 60, battle of, 34-44
Hill 70, fight for, 202-225
Hohenzollern Redoubt, fight for, 220-240
Hooge, action at, 140-165
Horne, General, 179, 241
Hosley, Major, 182
Howard, Major, 210
Hubbard, Captain, 248
Hull, General, 62, 72, 76, 104
Hutton, General Sir Edward, 206
Italy joins the Allies, 171, 249
Jackson, Colonel, 105
Jacob, General, 19
James, Lieutenant, 4
Jelf, General, 219, 220, 221
Jellicoe, Admiral Sir John, 167
Jerome, Colonel, 42
Johnson, Major, 149
Johnston, Captain, 43
Jones, Colonel, 100
Joslin, Major, 35, 36
Kavanagh, General, 66, 101
Keary, General, 65
Keir, General, 142
Kelly, Lieutenant, 146
Khartoum, Bishop of, 133
Kipling, Lieutenant, 223
Kitchener, Lord, 137
Kut, British force besieged in, 170, 249
Laidlaw, Piper, V.C., 190
Landon, General, 143, 144, 181
Langden, Captain, 220
Langemarck, battle of, 45
Laskie, Captain, 216
Lawford, General, 129
Lawrence, Colonel, 99
Lawrence, Lieutenant, 188
Leckie, Colonel, 51, 52
Leckie, Major, 134
Lees, Major, 39
Leveson-Gower, Lord, 103
Liebenrood, Captain, 213
Lindsay, General, 142
Lipsett, Colonel, 65
Livingstone, Colonel, 219
Logan, Colonel, 213
Lomax, General, 109
Longley, General, 8, 29
Loos, battle of, 172-252; operations reviewed, 246
Lord, Major, 130
Loveband, Colonel, 105
Lowry-Cole, General, 16, 116, 119
Lowther, General, 123
_Lusitania_, sinking of the, 125
McAndrew, Colonel, 16
M'Cracken, General, 189
McGee, Colonel, 59
McHaig, Colonel, 72
MacIvor, Captain, 220
Maclean, Colonel, 182
McLean, Colonel, 26, 28
MacNaughton, Major, 4
M'Neil, Lieutenant, 191, 214
Mallandain, Lieutenant, 64
Margetts, Captain, 233
Markham, General, 245
Martin, Colonel (Lancaster), 72
Martin, Colonel (Leicester), 238
Mathieson, Lieutenant, 19
Maude, General, 34
Mercer, General, 53, 56
Mesopotamia, campaign in, 170
Miller, Lieutenant, 79
Mitford, General, 203, 214
Mitford, Major the Hon. C. B., 103
Monro, General, 109, 134, 165
Moriarty, Colonel, 105
Morland, General, 35, 41, 42, 142, 144, 165
Morrison-Bell, Major, M.P., 2
Neale, Colonel, 227
Neuve Chapelle, battle of, 12-28
Neville, Captain, 97
Nicholls, General, 208, 210
Nicholson, General, 163
Niven, Lieutenant, 89, 90
Norsworthy, Major, 58
Northey, General, 38, 42
Noyes, Major, 207
Nugent, General, 157, 160, 161
O'Gowan, General Wanless, 6, 35, 38, 42
Oldham, Major Leslie, 34
O'Leary, Private Michael, V.C., 5
Oxley, General, 120
Papineau, Lieutenant, 9, 90
Paterson, Major, 40
Paynter, Colonel, 28
Pereira, General, 226
Phillips, Hon. C. E. A., 103
Pickersgill, Lieutenant, 107
Pinney, General, 16, 18
Plumer, General, 7, 8, 10, 29, 46, 92, 96, 109, 142, 143
Ponsonby, General, 221, 232
Prowse, General, 77, 154
Prowse, Colonel, 31
Pryce, Captain Mostyn, 32
Pulman, Captain, 19
Pulteney, General, 7, 143
Purvis, Colonel, 191
Putz, General, 45
Ramsay, General Sir John, 23, 204
Ramsay, Colonel, 189
Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, 7, 14, 116, 175, 185
Rees, Captain, 4
Regiments:
_Artillery--_
Durham Territorial Artillery, 107
Hon. Artillery Company, 152
R.F.A., 40th Brigade, 5; 52nd Brigade, 185; 94th Brigade, 215
_Cavalry--_
1st Life Guards, 97
2nd Life Guards, 97
Royal Horse Guards (Blues), 97, 103
1st Dragoons (Royals), 79, 103
3rd Dragoon Guards, 97, 110
4th Dragoon Guards, 98
5th Dragoon Guards, 98
10th Hussars, 97
11th Hussars, 8, 98
18th Hussars, 98, 106
9th Lancers, 98, 106
16th Lancers, 8
Essex Yeomanry, 97, 103
Leicestershire Yeomanry, 97, 103
North Somerset Yeomanry, 97, 103
_Guards--_
Coldstream, 2, 4, 5, 6, 134, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 232, 248
Grenadier, 25, 26, 28, 129, 133, 221, 223, 224, 231, 232
Irish, 5, 6, 133, 221, 222, 223, 224, 232, 248
Scots, 2, 4, 25, 28, 129, 130, 221, 222, 223, 225
Welsh, 221, 224
_Infantry--_
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 72, 76, 86, 92, 94, 105, 180,
184, 192
Artists' Rifles (28th London), 136
Bedford, 37, 38, 39, 78, 80, 203
Berkshire, 16, 28, 119, 120, 127, 180, 188, 240, 244
Black Watch, 3, 4, 120, 123, 125, 149, 184, 190, 194, 200, 225,
242, 243
Border, 25, 28, 129
Buffs (East Kent), 54, 77, 106, 107, 163, 165, 204, 205, 226,
227, 228, 233, 240
Cambridge, 30
Cameron Highlanders, 3, 41, 93, 94, 123, 131, 183, 188, 190, 191,
194, 200, 202
Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 17, 28, 120, 147, 148, 190
Cheshire, 91, 108
Connaught Rangers, 68
Devon, 17, 18, 40, 41, 78, 80, 120, 185, 186
Dorset, 78, 80
Dublin Fusiliers, 72, 92, 105
Duke of Cornwall's, 8, 29, 30, 55, 71, 159, 160, 161
Durham Light Infantry, 60, 62, 64, 69, 106, 107, 160, 162, 164,
165, 213
East Lancashire, 18, 19, 64, 85, 86, 92, 99, 105, 120
East Surrey, 38, 39, 40, 64, 92, 106, 204, 227, 233, 240
East Yorkshire, 52, 58, 77, 86, 89, 162, 165, 206, 207
Essex, 75, 76, 98, 100, 105, 204
Gloucester, 3, 4, 93, 95, 123, 125, 188, 232
Gordon Highlanders, 25, 26, 28, 129, 147, 149, 184, 185, 190,
195, 245
Hampshire, 34, 65, 69, 86, 99
Herts, 133
Highland Light Infantry, 131, 133, 182, 190, 191, 241
Inniskilling Fusiliers, 127
Irish Fusiliers, 98
King's Liverpool, 23, 127, 128, 133, 149, 179, 187, 189, 232
King's Own Royal Lancaster, 71, 75, 77
King's Own Scottish Borderers, 35, 36, 42, 182, 183, 189, 190
King's Royal Rifles, 24, 71, 157, 158, 159, 160
Lancashire Fusiliers, 75, 76, 155
Leicester, 19, 28, 163, 235, 236, 237, 238
Leinster, 31, 33, 95
Lincoln, 16, 28, 119, 120, 150, 151, 208, 210, 214, 235, 236,
238, 244
Liverpool, 122
Liverpool Scottish, 150, 151, 153
London Rifle Brigade, 85, 99
London Scottish, 3, 187
1st London, 16, 28, 119
3rd London, 19, 28
6th London, 192
7th London, 192
8th London, 192
9th London (Queen Victoria Rifles), 38, 39, 136
12th London (Rangers), 60, 91, 92, 136
13th London (Kensington), 16, 28, 119, 121
15th London (Civil Service), 192
17th London (Poplar), 193, 196
18th London (Irish), 136, 192, 193, 196
19th London (St. Pancras), 193, 196
20th London (Blackheath), 136, 192, 193, 196
21st London, 136
22nd London, 136
23rd London, 136
24th London, 136
Manchester, 68
Middlesex, 17, 18, 55, 69, 92, 107, 180, 201, 227, 245
Monmouth, 35, 60, 75, 83, 85, 89, 91, 108, 236, 237
Munster Fusiliers, 123, 232
Norfolk, 201, 203, 240
Northampton, 5, 18, 120, 122, 188, 201, 219
North Lancashire, 122, 147, 148, 188
North Staffordshire, 235, 236
Northumberland Fusiliers, 68, 91, 108, 150, 151, 206, 207, 216
Oxford and Bucks, 131, 241, 245
Queen Victoria Rifles, 38, 39, 136
Queen's Westminsters, 136, 162, 164
Queen's (West Surrey), 129, 186, 204, 233, 241
Rifle Brigade, 16, 26, 28, 32, 58, 77, 89, 94, 98, 105, 119, 120,
154, 157, 158, 243, 244, 245
Rifles, 3, 10, 20, 31, 32, 90, 94, 98, 122, 127, 180, 188, 201,
245
Royal Fusiliers, 64, 65, 69, 77, 106, 107, 150, 151, 201, 219, 227
Royal Irish, 8, 31, 55, 62, 75, 85, 105
Royal Irish Fusiliers, 8, 30, 72, 86
Royal Irish Rifles, 16, 28, 119, 120, 245
Royal Lancaster, 9, 55, 85, 86, 104, 148
Royal Scots, 55, 94, 95, 129, 184, 192
Royal Scots Fusiliers, 28, 150, 151, 184, 191, 245
Royal West Kent, 9, 35, 36, 42, 204, 205, 233, 234
Seaforth Highlanders, 22, 28, 62, 72, 182, 184, 190, 194, 200
Sherwood Foresters, 18, 25, 28, 120, 162, 164, 165, 204, 235,
237, 238
Shropshire, 32, 55, 70, 89, 163, 165, 243, 245
Somerset Light Infantry, 77, 154, 208, 209
South Lancashire, 75, 83, 86, 245
South Staffordshire, 24, 129, 130, 179, 185, 235, 236, 237
South Wales Borderers, 4, 123, 125
Suffolk, 60, 90, 91, 108, 204, 205, 229
Sussex, 3, 5, 122, 188, 201, 220
Warwick, 72, 92, 129, 130, 155, 185, 186
Welsh, 4, 108, 123, 189, 198, 203, 229, 242
Welsh Fusiliers, 123, 129, 130, 180, 242
West Riding, 37, 71, 79, 80
West Yorkshire, 17, 18, 25, 210
Wiltshire, 29, 134, 152
Worcester, 18, 26, 28, 29, 127, 128, 152, 201
York and Lancaster, 55, 71, 77, 92, 163, 165, 208, 209, 227
Yorkshire, 206, 207, 208, 210
Yorkshire Light Infantry, 37, 86, 213, 215, 216, 227
Royal Engineers, 11, 35, 36, 38, 42, 43, 79, 84, 195, 198, 219
_Canadian--_
1st Canadians (Ontario), 53, 146
2nd Canadians, 53
3rd Canadians (Toronto), 53, 135
4th Canadians, 53
5th Canadians, 50, 135
7th Canadians (British Columbia), 135
8th Canadians (Winnipeg Rifles), 50, 65
10th Canadians, 51, 134, 135
13th Canadians (Royal Highlanders), 50, 53, 57, 58, 59, 134
14th Canadians (Montreal), 59, 134
15th Canadians (48th Highlanders), 50, 57, 58
16th Canadian Scottish, 51, 134
Princess Patricia's, 9, 32, 89, 98
King Edward's Horse, 137
Seely's Mounted Brigade, 137
Strathcona's Horse, 137
_Indian Army--_
129th Baluchis, 68
39th Garhwalis, 19, 28
1st Gurkhas, 71
3rd Gurkhas, 19, 20, 22, 28
4th Gurkhas, 22, 28, 71
8th Gurkhas, 19, 243
58th Indian Rifles (Vaughan's), 242
3rd Indian Sappers and Miners, 67
Jats, 22
34th Pioneers, 67
15th Sikhs, 133
33rd Sikhs, 242
69th Sikhs, 242
Rhodes, Lieutenant Arthur, 107
Rhodes-Moorhouse, Lieutenant, 73
Richard, Colonel, 123
Richebourg, battle of, 115
Richmond, Captain, 3
Riddell, General, 69, 72
Ritchie, General, 181
Ritchie, Lieutenant, 223
Roberts, Colonel, 227
Robertson, General, 180
Robins, Captain, 79
Robinson, Colonel, 91
Romer, Colonel, 205
Roupell, Lieutenant, V.C., 40
Rowe, Colonel Fisher, 28
Rutter, Major, 99
St. Eloi, action of, 29
Sackville, Lieutenant, 32
Sandall, Colonel, 238
Sandeman, Lieutenant, 49
Scott, General, 240
Scott, Lieutenant, 105
Seebold, Lieutenant, 183
Selby-Smith, Captain, 32
Sempill, Colonel Lord, 184
Severne, Lieutenant, 43
Shackles, Lieutenant, 220
Shipley, Colonel, 39
Sladen, Colonel, 36
Smith, General Douglas, 6, 150
Smith-Bingham, Colonel, 103
Smith-Dorrien, General Sir Horace, 7, 12, 13, 23, 29, 35, 46, 53, 66,
67, 142, 251
Smyth, Lieutenant, 133
Snow, General, 8, 109, 143, 144, 165
Somervail, Lieutenant, 18
Southey, General, 19
Sparling, Major, 183
Stansfeld, Colonel, 187
Steele, Colonel, 103
Stephens, General, 244
Stockwell, Captain, 130
Stockwell, Captain (Canadians), 146
Storer, Major, 210
Straubensee, General, 240
Stronguist, Captain, 213
Stuart, Colonel, 152
Stuart-Wortley, General, 142, 234, 244
Suatt, Captain, 23
Summerhays, Lieutenant, 39
Sutton, Sir Robert, 103
Tallents, Lieutenant, 248
Taylor, Major, 210
Thesiger, General, 32, 122, 181, 219, 228
Thwaites, General, 136, 192, 215
Townshend, General, 170
Towsey, Colonel, 162
Tulloh, Colonel, 93
Turner, General, 51
Uniacke, Colonel, 28
Vandenburg, Lieutenant, 90
Vansittart, Colonel, 205
Venables, Colonel, 233
Vickars, Captain, 238
Wallace, Colonel, 60, 91
Walter, Colonel, 210
Watson, Lieutenant, 39
Watts, General, 21
Way, Colonel, 207
Webb, Lieutenant, 23
Wendover, Viscount, 103
Widdington, Major, 10
Wilkinson, General, 206
Willcocks, General Sir James, 116
Williams, Lieutenant, 43
Williams, Lieutenant (Grenadier Guards), 232
Williams, Valentine, quoted, 79
Willoughby, General, 136, 192
Wilson, General, 109, 142, 144
Wing, General, 143, 144, 228
Wood, Colonel, 131
Woolley, Lieutenant, V.C., 39
Worthington, Colonel, 227
Wright, Colonel, 219
Wright, Lieutenant, 17
Würtemberg, Duke of, 46
Wynyard, Captain, 40
Ypres, second battle of, 45-114; result of the battle, 110; sequence
of events, 111-114
Zeppelin raids on Britain, 169
THE END
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