The Battle of Loos is one of those First World War battles that seems to exemplify all the worst aspects of that terrible war. Much was expected of this offensive, ‘The Big Push’ as it was named at the time, but it was to be a costly and futile endeavour that later provided a touchstone for many of the harshest judgements of the war. The tragedy was that the Allies were still struggling to come to terms with this new kind of warfare. They had yet to grasp the basic mechanics of attacking strong fixed defences, and yet ‘attack’ seemed the only option.

 

The British artillery barrage began on 21st September, and at 5:50am on 25th September Haig ordered the release of gas from canisters in the front-line. The gas clouds lingered in No Man’s Land and in some places drifted back towards the British trenches, causing unnecessary casualties. 40 minutes later, the assaulting infantry began their advance across open fields, and despite heavy losses, by midday had captured the village of Loos and the Hohenzollern Redoubt just to the north. The 21st and 24th Divisions were now called upon to exploit this early success but, due to poor communications and planning, did not go into action until the afternoon of 26th September. Their objective was the strongly-held German second-line defences, and in the event the attack was a costly failure with both divisions taking huge casualties. On 27th September, 1915 the day Arthur is listed as being killed in action, with the Guards Division now finally under Haig’s command, the 1st and 2nd Guards Brigades began to relieve the 21st and 24th Divisions with orders to consolidate the line. But nothing was going right, and the call for the reserves had been unnecessarily delayed. Conditions for the relief were appalling, the battlefield was strewn with dead bodies and abandoned equipment, and the ground was muddy and slippery. But despite the confusion as the Guards moved forward in darkness, the relief was completed by dawn and they ‘had succeeded in making themselves as safe and comfortable as was humanly possible’. Early that afternoon Cavan was ordered to consolidate the British line, with 2nd Guards Brigade capturing Chalk Pit and Puits No 14.bis on the Lens-La Bassée road, 3rd Guards Brigade capturing Hill 70, and 1st Guards Brigade protecting the left flank.

The ground was flat, and the area beyond the road was particularly exposed to German machine-gun and artillery fire.  The three objectives could be clearly seen from where Brigadier-General Ponsonby, commanding 2nd Guards Brigade, issued his orders. It was a particularly bleak and unattractive view, not rolling countryside with conveniently placed cover and dead ground, but a stark coalfield dotted with odd buildings and slag heaps. Puits No 14.bis, was a pit head, with a fragile looking gantry for the winding gear silhouetted on the horizon, described by The Times Special Correspondent as ‘a conspicuous and ugly building with the usual lofty chimney’. Two companies of 2nd Irish Guards moved off at 4pm, and reached Chalk Pit Wood with only a few casualties, having been protected by a smokescreen laid by the 1st Guards Brigade. They then joined 2nd Scots Guards as they ‘advanced in open order and doubled down hill under very heavy fire of shrapnel’. Reinforced unexpectedly by a detachment of 4th Grenadiers, the Scots and Irish then assaulted the ‘Keep’ and the Puits. A small party of Scots Guards managed to get inside the building where there was some ‘fierce hand-to-hand fighting with the Germans’ but casualties had been so heavy that success was not possible.  Meanwhile, the 1st Coldstream following up the Irish Guards and the 3rd Grenadier Guards supporting the Scots Guards had come under fire as they advanced towards Chalk Pit Wood. A few Grenadiers managed to reach the Puits, but along with the Scots Guards were forced to pull back. By the end of the day 2nd Guards Brigade had achieved some success by securing Chalk Pit Wood, but at considerable cost, and the toll in officers was particularly high.