Battle of Loos
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| Battle of Loos | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War I | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
 Great Britain |
 German Empire |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Douglas Haig | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 6 divisions | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 50,000 | 25,000 (approx) | ||||||
The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. The battle was the British component of the combined Anglo-French offensive known as the Second Battle of Artois. General Douglas Haig, then commander of the British First Army, directed the battle however his plans were limited by the shortage of artillery shells which meant the preliminary bombardment, essential for success in the emerging trench warfare, was weak. The British also released 140 tons of chlorine gas with mixed success—in places the gas was blown back onto British trenches.
The battle opened on September 25 and the British were able to break through the weaker German trenches and capture the town of Loos. However the inevitable supply and communications problems and the late arrival of reserves meant that the breakthrough could not be exploited. When the battle resumed the following day, the Germans were prepared and repulsed attempts to continue the advance. The fighting subsided on September 28 with the British having retreated to their starting positions.
Among the dead on the British side were Rudyard Kipling's son, John; Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother to the Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Consort of George VI); and the poet Charles Sorley. Another poet, Robert Graves, survived and describes the battle and succeeding days in his autobiography.[1]
[edit] References
- 1 Graves, Robert [1929] (1960). “15”, Goodbye to All That, 1957 revised edition, London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-027420-0.
