The following morning at 5.50am on Saturday the 25th September 1915, the British bombardment that had been directed against the German lines over the last four days, fell with a renewed intensity on their front defences.  At the same time, the chlorine gas that had been so carefully stored under the British parapets, was released from its cylinders.  Forty minutes later, in the face of German rifle and machine gun fire, the men of the 15^th (Scottish) and 47^th (London) Divisions clambered out of their trenches and headed off through the smoke, gas and mist towards the German lines.

 

William Chadwick and the men of the 7^th KOSB had got off to a slow start.  Just as they were preparing to go over the top, a change in wind direction had blown the gas back into their trenches.  The men hesitated.  Piper Laidlaw, forty years old and a recalled Reservist, seeing that the men were wavering, jumped onto the top of the parapet and, with shells exploding and bullets whistling around his ears, proceeded to march up and down playing the regimental march, ‘Blue Bonnets over the Border’.  Urged on by his example, the 7^th KOSB rallied and, with Laidlaw still piping, they ran forward together.  Laidlaw was awarded the Victoria Cross.  Half an hour after leaving their trenches, the Borderers and the 10^th Scottish Rifles attacking with them had pushed through the German first line of defence and on towards Loos where they halted in front of the wire entanglements.

 

To their right, the leading battalions of the 44^th Brigade: the 9^th Black Watch and the 8^th Seaforth Highlanders, had pushed on into the village followed by the 7^th Camerons and 10^th Gordons in support and by 8am, after fierce hand-to-hand fighting during which the men moved systematically from house to house, the village was in British hands.

 

The 47^th Division to the right of the Scotsmen also had early successes.  Attacking with the 140^th and 141^st Brigades, an hour after leaving their front lines the men of the 1/7^th & 1/6^th Londons had reached their final objective, a German support trench running from the middle of the Double Crassier to the Loos cemetery, and were in touch with the 7^th Camerons.  Corporal Bill Howell, following up behind with the 1/8^th Londons, saw it all.

 

“The 7^th Londons captured their objectives pretty cheap and so did we.  We were on the right flank, The Double Crassier.  We got in there and they expected a counter attack from a German bombing squad.  The REs came up and put a bit of wire in front of us and me and two other snipers had to go up on top of this Double Crassier.  They had like a little narrow gauge railway line where they put the trucks with the muck in and it made lovely cover.  I made myself a little hole, lay down there and waited to pick off any Germans although I never saw any at all.  What I did see was a panorama of the whole battlefield.  The night before we’d been up with the cylinders of gas and now I could see the Seaforths advancing behind it.  I think it was a soft battle for us.”

Tasked to attack the trenches north of Loos, the 1^st Division though, had not had such an easy time of it.  The part of the line it held, from Northern Sap to the Vermelles-Hulluch Road, bulged slightly eastward so that the front of the 2^nd Brigade faced south-east.  When the wind had changed direction, gassing the 7^th KOSB in their trenches to their immediate right, fumes from the 1^st Division’s gas cylinders and those from the 15th Division, had blown back in concentrated form across their jumping off trenches.  Although the 1^st Division engineers had been quick to turn their cylinders off, the 2^nd Kings Royal Rifle Corps and the 1^st Loyal North Lancashires who were to lead the attack had each suffered around two hundred casualties.  Men from the supporting companies had been quickly rushed up to take the places of their gassed comrades and now most of them were lying down on the top of the parados at the back of their trench to avoid the fumes.

 

At 6.20am the wind had changed direction again, this time blowing towards the south west, and the gas cylinders had been turned back on.  A quarter of an hour later, the poisonous clouds having drifted far enough away from the British trenches, the men of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and Loyal North Lancashire had begun their advance.  Worse though was to come.  Advancing through the gas clouds and the mist, assailed by two enemy machine guns which had managed to escape the British bombardment, they reached the wire only to find that their artillery had failed to cut it.  Attempts by the men to find a path through using wire cutters had failed and now they lay in No-Man’s land, unable to continue further and seeking whatever cover they find.  To their left, the 10^th Gloucesters and the 8^th Royal Berkshires of the 1^st Brigade had managed to reach their objectives but the Gloucesters in particular had paid a heavy price and now only 60 of them remained.  Sixty five years later, Bombardier Leonard Sadler Gifford, manning his gun with the 7^th Divisional Royal Horse Artillery would describe the infantrymen dead or dying on the wire as looking just like ‘washing on the line’

 

When, at around 7.30am, the mist and smoke cleared, the prospect of further assault by the men pinned down in front of the wire was even more hopeless.  The 1^st Brigade’s supporting battalion, the 2^nd Royal Sussex, was now ordered forward along with two companies of the 1^st Northamptonshire Regiment.  Together with the remnants of the 1^st North Lancs they would attempt to push through to the German defences while the 2^nd KRRC would re-organise in the British front trench.

 

Private Edward Burnage of the 2^nd Royal Sussex now moved forward with the rest of the battalion.  Burnage was one of Kitchener’s men, an Eastbourne man who had joined up eight months earlier.  Attesting with the 9^th Royal Sussex, he had been posted to the reserve 3^rd battalion and three days later, sent with a draft to the 2^nd battalion on 1^st May.  On 9^th May, he had come through the battle of Aubers Ridge unscathed although his battalion and the 1^st Northants had both suffered the heaviest losses with over 500 casualties apiece.  Now the two battalions were to attack together again.

 

Advancing towards the same uncut wire that had proved so hazardous to the 2^nd KRRC and 1^st Loyal North Lancs, the 2^nd Royal Sussex stalled south of Lone Tree: a landmark former cherry tree which had once  blossomed in No-Man’s Land until it had been reduced to a shattered stump by artillery fire.  Exposed to continuous machine gun fire the battalion lost 19 officers and 600 men in around 15 minutes. 

 

It says something ‘for the gallant manner in which these two battalions attempted to force a way into the German positions’ reports the Official History, that Sergeant Harry Wells of the 2^nd Royal Sussex and Captain A M Read of the 1^st Northants were both posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.  Private Burnage received a gun shot wound in the loin and would play no further part in hostilities for the time being. 

 

Chailey had also played its part in the Battle of Loos with a number of its men serving with the 2^nd Royal Sussex.  Corporal George Saunders and Private Ernest Still had both taken part and both were already out of action having been wounded.  Saunders was still recovering from a wound he’d picked up in January whilst Private Still had been wounded the previous month.  Privates, Martin, Bristow and Oliver had also taken part in the offensive and like Burnage, they had stalled in front of the wire south of the Lone Tree.  Private Martin had come through without a scratch but fate had been less kind to his two companions.  Charles Bristow had been wounded while twenty six year old Private John Oliver had been killed.  The Parish newsletter would mention them both and in due course and John Oliver’s photograph would be reproduced in The Sussex Express the following March.  It was small consolation to his father Harry who had lost his only son.

 

John Currie meanwhile was advancing with the 10^th Gordons through Loos and had caught up with the assaulting battalions on the eastern exits of the village.  Arthur Reeve and the 8^th KOSB had also pushed forward in support of the 46^th Brigade.  One company had joined up with the 10^th Scottish Rifles while the others moved up to the outer flank of the 7^th KOSB.

 

By 9.30am, the advance on the 15^th Divisional front was going so well that the order was sent for the Royal Engineers to bridge trenches and prepare tracks for the Royal Field Artillery to move forward .  Having fought their way through Loos there was no holding back the eager recruits of the 15^th Division.  The 1500 men of the 44^th and 46^th Brigades who had survived thus far, now moved up the slope of Hill 70, pushing the Germans in front of them and whilst some men established themselves in a line along the reverse slope, between 800 and 900 others pushed forward. 

 

The slope of Hill 70 though, inclined towards the South East and so instead of pushing ahead towards their 6^th line objective of Cite St Augustin, ‘the men being excited’ (according to the war diary of the 7th KOSB), wheeled round to the right and towards the German held Dynamitiere, a heavily fortfified strongpoint.  As soon as they reached it, the fleeing Germans had turned around and now opened up a deadly fire on the men racing down the slopes. 

 

The Fifteenth Divisional history reports that some men of the leading lines of the 44^th Brigade actually got as far as the outer houses that comprised the Dynamatiere but were then either killed or captured.  The remainder, with a few of the 46^th Brigade were exposed in the open within eighty yards of the German front trench and it was now their turn to seek whatever cover they find.  Exposed to what the War Diary of The 10^th Gordon Highlanders describes as ‘scathing machine gun and rifle fire’, they remained where they were until around 1pm when those that could manage too, were forced to retire back over the crest and rejoin the line on Hill 70 late in the afternoon.  

 

John Currie was one of 221 other ranks wounded.  Total casualties for the battalion were recorded in the battalion war diary as ‘7 officers, 374 NCOs and men, 1 mule’.  Arthur Reeve and William Chadwick were also casualties: Chadwick shot through the left foot, Reeve with a bullet wound in his right thigh.  Both men would be on the hospital ship ‘H S Dieppe’ within three days and then transported by rail to the 2^nd Eastern General Hospital at Brighton.  The 7^th KOSB would sustain over 600 casualties at Loos and the 8^th KOSB would suffer nearly 400.  Lieutenant Herbertson, the battalion’s bombing instructor, was dead, one of six 8th KOSB officer fatalities.

 

As part of the 45^th Infantry Brigade which was to be held in reserve behind the 44^th and 46^th Brigades, James Sweeney and the men of the 13^th Royal Scots had yet to play an active part in the battle.  Already though, there had been casualties.  On their way to their assembly positions South East of Mazingarbe, somebody had dropped a box of Batty bombs and 16 men had been seriously injured.  Now, some eleven hours later, they were waiting anxiously to move forward.  At 12 noon the order came to move into Loos and to hold it. 

 

“So far,” reports the 15^th Divisional History, “ all had gone well; the losses had certainly been heavy, but if fresh troops arrived, there was no reason why the victorious career of the Fifteenth Division should not have continued.”

 

And fresh troops were exactly what did appear - or at least troops who were freshly arrived in France.  At 2pm, General McCracken was informed by IV Corps that the 21^st Division had been ordered to advance on Loos and that its 62^nd Brigade was at his disposal.  The 21^st had arrived in France between 7^th and 15^th September and together with another inexperienced K3 division, the 24th, which had also recently arrived, it was to push forward to exploit the anticipated successes of the first phase of the battle.  In fact both divisions had been kept too far back and now they had been hurriedly rushed up, the men cold, tired and soaked to the skin.

 

At 6pm, the 45^th Brigade were ordered forward again to Hill 70, the 44^th Brigade being withdrawn into Divisional Reserve behind Loos.  Both they and the 46^th Brigade had been fighting for twelve hours and the men were exhausted.  Under cover of darkness, the 45^th Brigade, with remnants of the 46^th and a few men of the 19^th Londons, began to improve the trenches so hastily constructed earlier in the day. 

 

The following morning at 5am, came fresh orders: “The 45^th and 62^nd Brigades will attack Hill 70 at 9am today.  45^th Brigade will attack from the west… The 62^nd Brigade will attack from the north west… The attack will be preceded by an hour’s intense bombardment by all available guns.” At 8am on 26^th September, every available gun that could be brought into action, opened fire on the Germans defending Hill 70.  An hour later, the men of the 45^th Brigade, supported by the newly arrived K3 men of the 62^nd Brigade, launched their assault. 

 

The entry that James Sweeney would leave in Nurse Oliver’s album later, would give only the briefest details.  He would restrict himself to basic facts and choose a page where he would be in good company.  Finding John Currie’s entry and the words, “wounded at Hill 70 25/9/15 during the Battle of Loos”, he drew a line under it and added his own message:

Had he felt more inclined to detail he may have written, “wounded by British artillery fire dropping short onto the trenches we were waiting in”.  It was not the fault of the artillerymen.  The morning was misty and they had been told that the trenches would be temporarily evacuated.  But nobody had told the Scotsmen and the 13^th Royal Scots in particular had suffered casualties.  With classic understatement, The Official Historian would write many years later, that the men upon whom the British shells fell “… were therefore somewhat shaken and not perhaps able to take such a vigorous part in the assault as they might otherwise have done.”

 

On the other hand, perhaps Sweeney survived the initial bombardment and was one of the men who ran towards the German lines just when the bombardment – and regrettably, the mist - lifted at 9am.  Parties of the attacking battalions succeeded in breaking through into the German lines where desperate hand-to-hand fighting then ensued.  But the attack was broken up by heavy machine gun cross-fire from both sides and artillery fire which either killed the Scotsmen as they ran or forced their surviving colleagues to retire.  The few remaining men of the Fifteenth Division could not, on their own, re-take Hill 70.  More help would be needed.

 

Private John Sheridan, a married man living in Leigh, Lancashire and working as a miner when war broke out, had arrived in France with the 12^th Northumberland Fusiliers on 10^th September.  The battalion, which had been formed in Newcastle in September 1914, was one of five K3 Northumberland Fusiliers battalions formed in the city that month and more battalions would follow.  Now though, they had been thrown into the thick of things; shelled on their way up to the trenches and passing what seemed like endless streams of wounded men making their way back.  To make matters worse they weren’t even sure exactly where they were going.  The inadequate small scale maps they had, showed Hill 70 only as a small ringed contour and the Loos Crassier did not even feature.  For a moment they had been in danger of confusing the two and marching up the wrong slope.

 

But they had found Hill 70 and had even managed to surmount the crest where again the rifle, machine gun and shellfire had proved to be too heavy.  First individuals and then small parties of men began to retreat and could not be urged forward by their officers.  Sheridan’s part in the battle finished no sooner than it had begun, a casualty on the first day in which he had been called into action.

 

He was not the only one.  The 12^th Northumberland Fusiliers would suffer 22 officer casualties and 459 amongst the other ranks.  By the end of the war, the 21^st Division would take part in all the major battles on the Western Front and suffer 55,000 casualties, the highest of any New Army Division.  Loos alone would cost them over 4,000.    

 

Meanwhile, two more recent arrivals to the battlefront were also preparing to play their part in ‘The Big Battle of Loos’ with the 24^th Division.  Corporal Horace Wood wasn’t new to soldiering but he was an experienced hand in another K3 Division that needed all the help it could get.  Wood had arrived in France in December 1914 with a battalion of the Royal West Kents and had then been posted to the 8th battalion which had been formed at Maidstone in September 1914. 

 

Twenty year old Private George Lucas hadn’t even wanted to be an infantryman.  A motor driver living in Tonbridge with his parents when war was declared, he had applied to join the Royal Engineers but found himself posted to the 8^th Royal West Kents instead.  Now, as dawn broke on the morning of the 26^th, both men found themselves shivering in a communication trench east of Lone Tree on the northern part of the front.  The 8^th Royal West Kents were part of the leading Brigade (the 72^nd) of the 24^th Division and in a few hours time they would attack.

 

At 11am, Lucas and Wood and the rest of the 8^th West Kents moved off down the slope from Lone Tree Ridge into the Loos Valley.  At their side, to the right, were men of the other leading battalion of the 72nd Brigade, the 9^th East Surrey Regiment, all of them moving in immaculate order as if taking part in a Military Tattoo rather than walking towards the heavily fortified German second line.

 

As the Royal West Kents, crossed the Lens-La Bassee Road they came under heavy enfilade fire from Hulluch on their left, Bois Hugo on their right and the German second line trenches straight ahead of them.  “To add to their discomfiture,” the Official Historian later commented in typical measured tone, “the enemy brought up two half-batteries of field guns into a concealed position in Hulluch and opened fire at point blank range with shrapnel and occasional gas shell, enfilading the whole length of the advancing lines.” 

 

Fired upon from all sides; gassed, shelled and shot at, Kitchener’s men from the Home Counties still pressed forward, a few who reached the uncut barbed wire even trying to cut a way through themselves.  But it was a hopeless task.  With the German defenders standing head and shoulders above their second line trenches and taking pot shots at the few survivors who had managed to get that far, the attack of the 72^nd Brigade, like so many other efforts at Loos, withered and died.

 

The 8^th Royal West Kents suffered most heavily of all, losing nearly 600 officers and men.  Divisional casualties, at 4,178 were slightly higher than those sustained by the 21^st Division.