CHAPTER 7: THE SECOND DAY: 26 SEPTEMBER 1915

1Getting an accurate picture of events in the Quarries is, as one divisional history noted, ‘quite beyond attainment’. For details see C.T. Atkinson, The Seventh Division, 1914–1918 (London: John Murray, 1927), p. 217;TNA: PRO WO 95/1659, 2/Yorkshire War Diary, 26 September 1915; PRO WO 95/1660, 22 Brigade, ‘Narrative on Operations September 25–29’.

2H. Gough, The Fifth Army (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1931), p. 114.

3TNA: PRO WO 95/2216, 73 Brigade War Diary, 25 September 1915.

4TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Lieutenant-Colonel R.R. Gibson (12/Royal Fusiliers) to Brigadier- General Sir J.E. Edmonds, 23 August 1926.

5TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Colonel G.H. Boileau (CRE 7^th Division) to Edmonds, 28 February 1926.

69/Norfolks had been detached from 71 Brigade at ia.m. on 26 September. A further battalion, 8/Bedfordshire, followed at 3a.m., but was unable to make contact and returned to 71 Brigade the following morning.

7TNA: PRO WO 95/1623, 9/Norfolk War Diary, 25 September 1915.

8TNA: PRO WO 95/1351, 2/Worcestershire War Diary, 26 September 1915. 2/Worcestershire was part of a composite battalion formed from three battalions of 2^nd Division (2/Worcestershire, 1/KRRC and 1/Royal Berkshire) commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel B.C.M. Carter (1/King’s, 6 Brigade).

9After noticing large numbers of Germans massing in front of Stützpunkt IV and then advancing towards Bois Hugo, Lieutenant-Colonel A.G. Prothero (CO 2/Welsh) put a telephone call through to 3 Brigade reporting these movements. Because it was so difficult to change the orders at such late notice, he was told to continue with the attack, whatever the circumstances. At 11 a.m. 1/Black Watch reported to 3 Brigade that masses of Germans had been seen moving to the south-east and also (erroneously) that the Welsh were not advancing. Brigadier-General H.R Davies (GOC 3 Brigade), alarmed at the situation, but having no means to contact 2/Welsh, ordered the two battalions to stand fast and await events. TNA: PRO WO 95/1281, 2/Welsh War Diary, 26 September 1915.

10TNA: PRO WO 95/1275, 3 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

11J. Buchan & J. Stewart, The Fifteenth (Scottish) Division, 1914–1919 (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood, 1926), p. 42. McCracken’s phone call to Rawlinson, where he expressed his ‘doubts as to the fitness of his division to resume the offensive’, does not seem to have been recorded in the log of telephone conversations at IV Corps HQ held in LHCMA: Montgomery-Massingberd Papers, 6/4–6, ‘Telephone Conversations of Lieutenant-General Rawlinson, 26/09/15’.

12Rawlinson to Kitchener, 21 April 1915, cited in R. Prior & T. Wilson, Command on the Western Front. The Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914–18 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), p. 78.

13NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5301–33–25, Rawlinson Diary, 26 September 1915.

14Sir J.E. Edmonds (comp.), History of the Great War: Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos (London/Nashville: Imperial War Museum/Battery Press, 1995; first published 1928), p. 310.

15J. Ewing, The Royal Scots, 1914–1919 (London: Oliver & Boyd, 1929), p. 201.

16Here Private R. Dunshire (13/Royal Scots) won the Victoria Cross for bringing in wounded men.

17Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 311–2.

18TNA: PRO WO 95/1924, LXXII I Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

19TNA: PRO WO 95/1923, LXXI Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

20M. Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Western Front 1914–18 (Dorset: Henry Ling, 1986), p. 124.

21TNA: PRO WO 95/1942, 45 Brigade, ‘Report on Operations from 21 September to the 30 September’.

22Buchan & Stewart, The Fifteenth (Scottish) Division, 1914–1919, p. 43.

23TNA: PRO WO 95/2155, 13/Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary, 26 September 1915.

24TNA: PRO WO 95/1942, 45 Brigade, ‘Report on Operations from 21 September to the 30 September’.

25TNA: PRO WO 95/2151, 62 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

26TNA: PRO WO 95/2155, 12/Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary, 26 September 1915.

27A. Clark, The Donkeys (London: Pimlico, 1997; first published 1961), pp. 163–74; T. Travers, ‘The Army and the Challenge of War 1914–1918’, in D. Chandler & I.F.W Beckett (eds.), The Oxford History of the British Army (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; first published 1994), p. 221. J. Keegan, The First World War (London: Pimlico, 1999; first published 1998), p. 218. See also Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 129. The map on p. 128 (map 11) confuses the deployment of 21^st and 24^th Divisions.

28Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 342, n. 1.

29Clark, The Donkeys, p. 173.

30E.S. Osswald, Das Altenburger Regiment (Thuringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 153) im Weltkrieg (Oldenburg: Stalling, 1922), pp. 181–4.

31Ibid., p. 184.

32C.R. Simpson (ed.), The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment, 1914–1918 (London: The Medici Society, 1931), p. 114.

33TNA: PRO WO 95/2158, 8/Somerset Light Infantry, ‘Report on Operations 25^th, 26^th and 27^th September 1915’. It was around this time that Brigadier-General N.T. Nickalls (GOC 63 Brigade) was killed whilst trying to rally his men around Chalk Pit House.

34At 9.45 a.m. 64 Brigade received a note from 63 Brigade, timed 8.53a.m., which requested a battalion to move up in support because its right flank was being pressed by a German attack on Bois Hugo. 14/Durham Light Infantry was immediately sent forward. TNA: PRO WO 95/2159,64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

35TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

36Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 321.

37Quoted in Ibid., p. 329.

38Ibid., p. 328.

39TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

40One battalion of 157 Infantry Regiment was stationed in Hulluch, one battalion of 26 Regiment lay between Hulluch and Stützpunkt IV and three battalions 153 Infantry Regiment were situated to the south around Bois Hugo. One battalion of 22 Reserve Regiment was deployed in Cité St Auguste. Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 316, n. 2.

41See for example TNA: PRO WO 95/2210, 72 Brigade, ‘Diary of Events 5 p.m. 25^th September to 4.30 a.m. 27^th September 1915’; Anonymous, The History of the Eighth Battalion the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914–1919 (London: Hazell, Watson &Viney, 1921), p. 19; C.T. Atkinson, The Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment, 1914–1919 (London: Simpson, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, 1924), p. 128; R.S.H. Moody, Historical Records of the Buffs East Kent Regiment (3^rd Foot) (London: The Medici Society, 1922), p. 97; IWM: 76/210/1, Account of F.W Billman. For German operations see Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, p. 69.

42TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Colonel E. Vansittart to Edmonds, 25 January 1926.

43TNA: PRO WO 95/2210, 72 Brigade, ‘Diary of Events 5 p.m. 25^th September to 4.30 a.m. 27^th September 1915’.

44TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Lieutenant L.G. Duke (8/Queens, 72 Brigade) to Edmonds, 20 November 1918.

45Sir D. Haig, The Haig Papers from the National Library of Scotland, part 1, Haig’s Autograph Great War Diary (Brighton: Harvester Press Microfilm, 1987), 26 September 1915.

46NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5301–33–25, Rawlinson Diary, 26 September 1915.

47NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5201–33–18, ‘Letter Book Volume II, May 1915-Aug 1916’, Lieutenant-General Sir H. Rawlinson to Lord Kitchener, 29 September 1915.

48Haig, The Haig Papers, 27 September 1915.

49Ibid., 27 September 1915.

50Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 342–5. Edmonds also included two paragraphs on ‘Young and Old Soldiers’ taken from Sir J. Kincaid, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: Random Shots From A Rifleman, pp. 348–9, n. 3.

51TNA: PRO WO 95/2158, Major-General G.T. Forestier-Walker to II Corps, 15 October 1915.

52TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General G.T. Forestier-Walker to Edmonds, 24 January 1927. Fores tier-Walker was relieved of command on 18 November 1915.

53TNA: PRO WO 158/32,‘Report from 24^th Division’, 25 October 1915.

54TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Colonel E. Vansittart to Edmonds, 25 January 1926.

55TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Captain B.A. Fenwick to Edmonds, 20 December 1918.

56TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Colonel E. Vansittart to Edmonds, 25 January 1926.

57Atkinson, The Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment, 1914–1919, p. 129.

58TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Brigadier-General C.G. Stewart (GSOI 24^th Division) to Major A.F. Becke, 3 August 1926.

59TNA: PRO WO 95/1281, 2/Welsh War Diary, 26 September 1915.

60NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5301–33–25, Rawlinson Diary, 26 September 1915.

61TNA: PRO WO 95/711, ‘General Account of the Operations by Brigadier-General T.G. Matheson Commanding 46 Infantry Brigade’.

62Among this party of around 500 men was Sergeant A.F. Saunders (9/Suffolk) who was awarded the Victoria Cross.

63These included Brigadier-General T.G. Matheson (GOC 46 Brigade), Major-General G.T. Forestier-Walker (GOC 21^st Division) and Brigadier-General G.G.S. Carey (BGRA XI Corps).

64TNA: PRO WO 158/32,‘Report from 24^th Division’, 25 October 1915.

65The spectacle of thousands of British troops calmly moving eastwards, its lines marshalled by officers on horseback, was watched by men of 153 Infantry Regiment. The regimental history compared the sight to a ‘peacetime exercise’, so impressed was the writer by the discipline of the British, moving forward under fierce shrapnel fire. Osswald, Das Altenburger Regiment, p. 186. See also TNA: PRO WO 95/1616, 11/Essex War Diary, 26 September 1915; PRO WO 95/2214, 8/ Queens War Diary, 26 September 1915; PRO WO 95/2158, 8/Somerset Light Infantry War Diary, 26 September 1915; PRO WO 95/2210, 72 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

66TNA: PRO WO 158/32,‘Report from 24^th Division’, 25 October 1915.

67Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 333. The German Official History records that the ‘young troops’ of 21^st and 24^th Divisions ‘fled back, at first individually and then in larger groups to their initial position and sometimes even past this point’. Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, p. 69.

68TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

69G.D. Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches (London: Macmillan, 2000), p. 179.

70TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

71TNA: PRO WO 95/2157, 63 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

72TNA: PRO WO 158/32,‘Report from 24^th Division’, 25 October 1915.

73TNA: PRO WO 95/2158, Major-General G.T. Forestier-Walker to II Corps, 15 October 1915.

74TNA: PRO WO 95/2157, 63 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

75TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Colonel J.R. Wethered (Brigade Major 62 Brigade) to Edmonds, 19 January 1926.

76TNA: PRO WO 95/2216, Brigadier-General R.G. Jelf, ‘Report on Operations of 73^rd Brigade from 26–27 September 1915’.

77Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 293–4.

78LHCMA: Edmonds Papers, 3/10, ‘Memoirs’, Chapter XXVI, p. 8.

79TNA: PRO WO 95/885, AA&QMG XI Corps War Diary, 23 and 24 September 1915.

80Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 335. This quote forms the elegiac ending of Alan Clark’s account of Loos in The Donkeys, p. 174.

81Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 293–4.

82TNA: PRO WO 95/2216, Brigadier-General R.G. Jelf, ‘Report on Operations of 73^rd Brigade from 26–27 September 1915’.

83TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

84TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Lieutenant L.G. Duke to Edmonds, 20 November 1918.

85IWM: 96/29/1, Account of Lieutenant J.H. Alcock.

86TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Major J. Buckley to Edmonds, 1 January 1927.

87TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Captain H. Pattison to Edmonds, 2 February 1927.

88TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General G.T. Forestier-Walker to Edmonds, 24 January 1927.

89TNA: PRO WO 95/2197, CVII Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

90R.G.A. Hamilton, The War Diary of the Master of Belhaven 1914–1918 (Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 1990; first published 1924), pp. 75–6.

91TNA: PRO WO 95/2197, CVII Brigade RFA War Diary, 25–6 September 1915. According to 71 Brigade War Diary (PRO WO 95/1619), the brigade had concentrated on a crossroads about 500 yards south-east of Le Rutoire by 9 p.m. on the evening of 25 September.

92Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 316–7.

93TNA: PRO WO 95/2142, XCV Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

94TNA: PRO WO 95/1643, XXII Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

95TNA: PRO WO 95/2198, CIX Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

96TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

97TNA: PRO WO 95/1250, XXVI Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

98TNA: PRO WO 95/2141, XCIV Brigade RFA War Diary, 26 September 1915.

99TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Brigadier-General C.G. Stewart to Major A.F. Becke, 3 August 1926.

100Ibid.

101IWM: 76/210/1, Account of F.W. Biliman.

102Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 317–8.

103TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General Sir R. Ford to Edmonds, 5 February 1926.

104TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General Sir R. Ford to Edmonds, 5 February 1926.

105TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General H.M. de F. Montgomery to Edmonds, 12 January 1926.

106TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Lieutenant-Colonel C.G. Stewart to Edmonds, 19 January 1926.

107For command problems in the pre-war British Army and their damaging influence between 1914–18 see for example M. Samuels, Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies, 1888–1918 (London: Frank Cass, 1995), passim; N. Gardner, Trial by Fire. Command and the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), passim;T. Travers, ‘Command and Leadership Styles in the British Army: The 1915 Gallipoli Model’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 29, no. 3 (July 1994), p. 434.

108Finding exact salaries for the senior officer ranks of the BEF during the First World War is difficult, but the Army List for 1897 lists the following salaries: Commander-in-Chief (Headquarters), £4,500; Commander-in-Chief (otherwise), J¿3,923; General, £2,920; Lieutenant-General, £2,007; Major-General, £1,095; Brigadier-General, £912; Colonel, £730; Lieutenant-Colonel (depending on the services), between £475 (infantry) and £639 (RAMC and RE). Therefore, if a temporary Major-General had been ‘degummed’, he could possibly return to his permanent rank, which is likely to have been that of Colonel. He would, therefore, lose £365 per year. See also TNA: PRO WO 113/16, ‘Memorandum on the Subject of Loans, Attachments, and Interchanges of and between Officers of the Regular Army and Officers of the Forces of the Overseas Dominions’, 31 August 1910.

109Gough, The Fifth Army, p. 116; TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army War Diary, 27 September 1915.

110Gough, The Fifth Army, p. 116.

111See T. Travers, The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare 1900–1918 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2003; first published 1987), p. 48. In Company Training (1913) Haking wrote that the offensive would succeed, even if opposed by a greater number of defenders, ‘as sure as there is a sun in the heavens’.

112R. Feilding, War Letters to a Wife, ed. J. Walker (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2001; first published (1928), p. 19. Haking’s confidence was also commented upon by R. Kipling, The Irish Guards in the Great War (2 vols., London: Macmillan, 1923), I, pp. 6–7. Haking believed that the coming offensive was ‘the greatest battle in the history of the world’ and instructed all platoon leaders to push on whenever possible, even at the risk of uncovering their flanks.

113TNA: PRO WO 95/2210, 73 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

114TNA: PRO WO 158/32, ‘Report from 24^th Division’, 25 October 1915. Stracey was apparendy told that only fifty German soldiers were occupying the Quarries, but considering the lamentable level of confusion then reigning on the battlefield, it is difficult to know how this total was arrived at.

115Travers, The Kitting Ground, pp. 20–3 and ‘The Hidden Army: Structural Problems in the British Officer Corps, 1900–1918’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 17, no. 3 (July 1982), pp. 523–44; M. Brown, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front (London: Pan, 2001; first published (1993), Chapter 15; Gardner, Trial by Fire, pp. 95–8; S. Robbins, British Generalship on the Western Front 1914–18. Defeat into Victory (London: Frank Cass, 2005), pp. 22–4, 61–2.

116Travers, The Kitting Ground, p. 20.

117See I.F.W. Beckett, ‘Hubert Gough, Neill Malcolm and Command on the Western Front’, in B. Bond (ed.), ‘Look to your Front’ Studies in the First World War by the British Commission for Military History (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1999), pp. 3–4.

11891 Reserve Regiment was also supported by three battalions of 9, 17 and 18 Bavarian Regiments from II Bavarian Corps, which had arrived at Haisnes during the night.

119Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 303–4.

120TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Major-General H.R. Davies to Edmonds, 29 April 1926.

121TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, ‘Operations of the 12/Royal Fusiliers, 73 Brigade, 24^th Division, Sept 25–28’.

122TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Lieutenant-Colonel H.W.B. Thorp to Edmonds, 18 January 1926.

123TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson to Edmonds, 5 February 1926.

124IWM: DS/MISC/2, Account of Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson. This was also witnessed by Major J. Buckley (9/KOYLI, 64 Brigade). TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Major J. Buckley to Edmonds, 1 January 1927.

125TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson to Edmonds, 5 February 1926.

126IWM: DS/MISC/2, Account of Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson.

127Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 346.

128BLL: POW 043, Account of Captain L. McNaught-Davis.

129IWM: DS/MISC/2, Account of Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson.

130BLL: GS 0309, Account of General Sir Philip Christison.

131TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Colonel J.R. Wethered (Brigade Major 62 Brigade) to Edmonds, 19 January 1926. See also Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 314, n. 1.

132Moody, Historical Records of the Buffs East Kent Regiment (3^rd Foot), p. 97.

133He won a posthumous Victoria Cross. See P. Batchelor & C. Matson, VC’ of the First World War. The Western Front 1915 (Stroud: Sutton, 1997), p. 161.

134For an account of Bruce’s capture see F. Davies & G. Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1995), pp. 119–20.

135See Davies & Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs, pp. 53–4.

136IWM: DS/MISC/2, Account of Lieutenant-Colonel K. Henderson.

137See Appendix III: Senior British Officer Casualties.

138Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 342.

139TNA: PRO WO 95/2159, 64 Brigade War Diary, 26 September 1915.

140Ewing, The Royal Scots, 1914–1919, p. 201.

141Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 303.

142TNA: PRO WO 95/2210, 72 Brigade, ‘Diary of Events 5 p.m. 25^th September to 4.30 a.m. 27^th September 1915’.

143Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Der Operationen Des Jahres 1915 (Berlin: E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1933), p. 75.

144Osswald, Das Altenburger Regiment, pp. 181–4.

145See M. Samuels, Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies, 1888–1918 (London: Frank Cass, 1995), passim.

146Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 299.

147Reichsarchiv, Das Koniglich Sachsische 13. Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 178 (Dresden: Wilhelm und Bertha V. Baensch Stifung, 1935), p. 69.

CHAPTER 8: RENEWING THE OFFENSIVE! 27 SEPTEMBER–13 OCTOBER I915

1The most detailed operational account – despite being only 38 pages long – remains Sir J.E. Edmonds (comp.), History of the Great War: Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos (London/Nashville: Imperial War Museum/Battery Press, 1995; first published 1928), pp. 350–88.

2Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918. Der Operationen Des Jahres 1915 (Berlin: E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1933), p. 74.

3Supported by 26 Reserve Brigade, 14^th Division continued to hold the front from just north of the Quarries to the La Bassée canal, while 117^th Division occupied the trenches between the Quarries and Stützpunkt IV. 5^th Division held the ground on the left of 117^th Division up to the Lens–Béthune road. A battalion of 3 Guard Grenadier Regiment moved up to Hulluch on 27 September and on 30 September further reinforcements in the form of XI Corps, again from the east, arrived behind the front of Sixth Army. On 2 October three battalions of II Bavarian Corps were relieved by a battalion of 6^th Bavarian Reserve Division. On 3 October 5^th and 117^th Divisions were strengthened by the arriv; of 216 and 233 Reserve Regiments respectively. Artillery resources were also bolstered by the arrival of 4 Guard Field Artillery Regiment and three light field howitzer batteries of 2 Guard Field Artillery Regiment. See Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 375–7.

4Ibid., pp. 267–71, 346–8, n. 1.

5General Joffre to General Foch, 26 September 1915, cited in Ibid., pp. 347.

6Sir J. French, 1914 (London: Constable, 1919), p. 371. This comment again revealed how much Sir John had deteriorated as a commander. There was no ‘gap’ to ‘rush’.

7The Guards Division contained a cross-section of the crème of Edwardian British society, which included numerous members of the aristocracy. The Staff Captain of 1 (Guards) Brigade was Lord Gort, who later rose to prominence and commanded the BEF on its return to France in 1940. The Guards Division also contained a future Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, and from October 1915 the son of the current Prime Minister, Raymond Asquith. There was also a strong showing from the aristocracy, which included the twenty-one-year-old HRH Edward, Prince of Wales, Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. G. Baring (fourth son of Lord Ashburton), Captain C.H.F. Noel (second son of the third Earl of Gainsborough) and Lieutenant Hon. H.D. Browne (second son of the Earl of Kenmore). Captain L.H. Tennyson (the grandson of the Poet Laureate) and Lieutenant J. Kipling (the only son of Rudyard Kipling) were also in the division.

8Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 340–1; TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army War Diary, 26 September 1915.

9H. Macmillan, Winds of Change, 1914–1939 (London: Macmillan, 1966), p. 74.

10TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army War Diary, 27 September 1915; C. Headlam, History of the Guards Division in the Great War, 1915–1918 (2 vols., London: John Murray, 1924), I, pp. 52–3, n. 2.

11TNA: PRO WO 95/1212, 1 (Guards) Brigade War Diary, 27 September 1915; PRO WO 95/880, Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Longridge (GSOI 1^st Division) to IV Corps, 28 September 1915.

12According to Brigadier-General G.P.T. Feilding (GOC 1 (Guards) Brigade),‘the whole country was absolutely lost to sight. . . gunfire balls were at once fired in the air from the German trenches south of Hulluch and the enemy turned the whole of their artillery onto the smoke and fired with rifles as well’. TNA: PRO WO 95/1190, Feilding to the Guards Division, 29 September 1915.

13TNA: PRO WO 95/1217, ‘Operations of 2^nd Guards Brigade, During 27, 28, 29 September 1915’, p. 3. Lieutenant John Kipling (2/Irish Guards) was posted missing during this attack. See T. Holt & V. Holt, My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling’s Only Son (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1998), passim. See also W. Ewart & C. Lowther, The Scots Guards in the Great War, 1914–1918 (London: John Murray, 1925), pp. 115–6.

14TNA: PRO WO 95/1223, 4/Grenadier Guards War Diary, 27 September 1915. The march of 3 (Guards) Brigade to Loos has become something of a legend. Numerous accounts speak of the bravery and discipline of the men as they spread out into artillery formation and endured heavy shrapnel fire. By portraying the undoubted courage and discipline of the men, these reports arguably deflected attention from the Guards Division’s disappointing battlefield debut. See C.H. Dudley Ward, History of the Welsh Guards (London: John Murray, 1920), p. 29; it was a display of ‘magnificent coolness and discipline’ according to Headlam, History of the Guards Division in the Great War, 1915–1918, 1, p. 59; the most dramatic account can be found in ‘The Guards at Loos’ in The Times, 8 November 1915.

15Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 359; Dudley Ward, History of the Welsh Guards, pp. 31–5. See also the rather curiously titled ‘Account of the Capture of Hill 70 by 3 Guards Brigade, September 27 1915’; and Lieutenant Colonel W. Murray-Threipland to Colonel G.R.C. Lord Harlech, 28 September 1915 (TNA: PRO WO 95/1190).

16TNA: PRO WO 95/1223, 2/Scots Guards War Diary, 27 September 1915.

17R.G.A. Hamilton, The War Diary of the Master of Belhaven 1914–1918 (Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 1990; first published 1924), pp. 77–8.

18TNA: PRO WO 95/2143, XCVII Brigade RFA War Diary, 27 September 1915.

19Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 355, n. 1. See also Headlam, History of the Guards Division in the Great War, 1915–1918,1, p. 54.

20NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5201–33–18, ‘Letter Book Volume II, May 1915-Aug 1916’, Lieutenant-General Sir H. Rawlinson to Lord Kitchener (Secretary of State for War), 28 September 1915.

21Another attempt to capture Puits 14 took place on the afternoon of the following day, 28 September, but was a lamentable failure. This attack seems to have originated directly from Haig, who proved characteristically stubborn in accepting that the Guards Division could not take their objectives without greatly increased support. Haking, Cavan and the commander of 2 (Guards) Brigade, John Ponsonby, were of the opinion that their men should consolidate their positions and attempt no attack. Headlam, History of the Guards Division in the Great War, 1915 1918,1, pp. 65–6. See also TNA: PRO WO 95/1190, ‘Operations of 2^nd Guards Brigade, During 27, 28, 29 September 1915’, p. 4; PRO WO 95/1219, 1/Coldstream Guards War Diary, 28 September 1915; Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, pp. 365–6.

22The German attack was made by a Composite Bavarian Regiment and 91 Reserve Regiment.

23TNA: PRO WO 95/2216, Brigadier-General R.G. Jelf, ‘Report on Operations of 73^rd Brigade from 26–27 September 1915’. Jelf’s role in the defence of the Hohenzollern Redoubt seems to have been somewhat more heroic than his modest report allows. According to one senior officer, Jelf‘personally led a charge to cut out ‘C’ Company’ at midday on 27 September. PRO CAB 45/121, Major T.G.E Paget (7/Northamptonshire) to Brigadier-General Sir J.E. Edmonds, 14 June 1926.

24See Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 352, 364, 369.

25TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, General Sir E.S. Bulfin to Edmonds, 11 December 1927. Bulfin also added, recalling his time in Palestine in 1917–18, that ‘I wish I had been under Allenby at Loos.’

26TNA: PRO WO 95/2278, Private Diary of Brigadier-General C.E. Pereira, 20 October 1915.

27H. Gough, The Fifth Army (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1931), p. 117. This was a complaint typical of those who worked under Gough. See TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Colonel D.W Cameron of Lochiel to Edmonds, 17 September 1926; and Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 236.

28According to Pereira’s account, ‘I had only the one map with which to explain orders to the COs which made it very difficult and the 9^th Division only sent two officers as guides; about a dozen maps showing the German trenches, but not giving all the names arrived just before we went into the trenches so that our taking over could not have been begun in more difficult circumstances. In addition I was given three different situations; first that some of the captured trenches were lost, secondly all the captured trenches were lost, finally that the Hohenzollern Redoubt was still held; this meant three lots of orders.’TNA: PRO WO 95/2278, Private Diary of Brigadier-General C.E. Pereira, 27 September 1915.

29TNA: PRO WO 95/2268, ‘Narrative of the Operations of 26 September to 5 October 1915 in which the 28^th Division took part’, p. 2.

30TNA: PRO WO 95/2278, 85 Brigade War Diary, 28 September 1915.

31TNA: PRO WO 95/2279, 2/Buffs War Diary, 28 September 1915. Eleven machine guns were apparently counted later in Slag Alley.

32TNA: PRO WO 95/2276, 84 Brigade War Diary, 29 September 1915. 2/Cheshire attacked the Chord on 1 October and was partially successful; 1/Welsh managed to take sections of Little Willie on 1 October, but because their flanks had been uncovered, German bombing attacks were able to recover the lost ground; and 1/Suffolk attacked Little Willie in the early hours of 3 October but failed to hold any gains. See TNA: PRO WO 95/2276, 2/Cheshire War Diary, 1 October 1915; PRO WO 95/2277, ‘Account written by Major Hoggan on the 1^st October’, contained in 1/Welsh War Diary, 1/2 October 1915 and 1 /Suffolk War Diary, 3 October 1915,

33TNA: PRO WO 95/2274, 1/KOYLI War Diary, 4 October 1915; PRO WO 95/2273, 83 Brigade War Diary, 4 October 1915.

34A. Simpson, ‘British Corps Command on the Western Front, 1914–1918’, in G. Sheffield & D. Todman (eds.), Command and Control on the Western Front. The British Army’s Experience 1914–1918 (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2004), p. 101.

35TNA: PRO WO 95/2268, ‘Notes on Staff Work and Command in 28^th Division’, undated. Original emphasis.

36TNA: PRO WO 95/2278, Private Diary of Brigadier-General C.E. Pereira, 27 September 1915.

37TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 4 October 1915.

38See for example the stirring account of the attack of 1/Welsh (84 Brigade) against Little Willie on i October. TNA: PRO WO 95/2277, ‘Account written by Major Hoggan on the 1^st October’, contained in 1/Welsh War Diary, 1/2 October 1915. Second-Lieutenant A.J.T. Fleming-Sandes (2/East Surrey, 85 Brigade) and Private S. Harvey (1/York & Lancaster, 83 Brigade) both won Victoria Crosses on 29 September.

39TNA: PRO WO 95/2278, Private Diary of Brigadier-General C.E. Pereira, 27 September 1915.

40Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918, pp. 74–5.

41TNA: PRO WO 95/2277, 1/Suffolk War Diary, 2 October 1915. ‘A’ Company did, however, lose its commanding officer, Lieutenant Gale, who ‘could not be found in the dark’.

42TNA: PRO WO 95/2268,‘Narrative of the Operations of 26 September to 5 October 1915 in which the 28^th Division took part’, p. 4.

43TNA: PRO WO 95/2273, 83 Brigade War Diary, 29 September 1915.

44PRO WO 95/2273, 83 Brigade War Diary, 30 September 1915.

45TNA: PRO WO 95/1752, LI Brigade RFA War Diary, 27 September 1915. According to the war diary of XXXV Brigade RFA (7^th Division) on 27 September: ‘Great difficulty was experienced in recognising the men in this area Fosse 8, and the enemy must have been let off a heavy artillery punishment a great number of times on account of this.’

46Reichsarchiv, Das Koniglich Sachsische 13. Irfanterie-Regiment Nr. 178 (Dresden: Wilhelm und Bertha V Baensch Stifung, 1935), p. 61.

47M. Samuels, Command or Control? Command, Training and Tactics in the British and German Armies, 1888–1918 (London: Frank Cass, 1995), p. 114.

48Sir J.E. Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 1, Winter 1914–15; Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres (London: HMSO, 2000; first published 1927), p. 95.

49For details on British grenades see P. Stigger, Note 1668, ‘Numerous Matters Relating to Grenades’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, vol. 81 (2003), pp. 168–77.

50See A. Stuart Dolden, Cannon Fodder. An Infantryman’s Life on the Western Front, 1914–18 (Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press, 1980), p. 28;TNA: PRO WO 95/2279, 2/Buffs War Diary, 28 September 1915. For a discussion of British close-quarter weaponry see P. Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army’s Art of Attack 1916–1918 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 112–119.

51Gough, The Fifth Army, p. 121.

52Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 194.

53Captain Rowland Feilding (1/Coldstream Guards) described this period well. ‘The strain upon the men was heavy, but they bore it splendidly and cheerfully. To make matters harder, there was a penetrating rain which soaked us all, and the cold was bitter, so that we were not only practically sleepless, but wet and shivering all the time. We never lay down: there was nowhere to lie but the watery trench. Of course we had no hot food or drink, but mercifully a rum ration was got up which was a Godsend to all.’ R. Feilding, War Letters to a Wife, ed.J. Walker (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2001; first published 1929), p. 26.

54See TNA: PRO WO 95/158 and WO 95/159, First Army War Diary, 27 September-13 October 1915.

55Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 368. See also Rawlinson’s complaint about the difficulty of bringing field artillery forward close enough to shell the German wire of the second line. NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5201–33–18, ‘Letter Book Volume II, May 1915–Aug 1916’, Lieutenant-General Sir H. Rawlinson to Lieutenant-Colonel A. Fitzgerald (Kitchener’s Private Secretary), 14 October 1915.

56Hamilton, The War Diary of the Master of Belhaven 1914–1918, p. 81. See also pp. 80–7 for a graphic account of the horrors of being under German counter-battery fire.

57TNA: PRO WO 95/159, First Army War Diary, 2, 4, 5 October 1915.

58TNA: PRO 95/1219, 1 /Coldstream Guards War Diary, 29 September 1915.

59See also Feilding, War Letters to a Wife, ed. J. Walker, p. 27.

60R. Kipling, The Irish Guards in the Great War (2 vols., London: Macmillan, 1923), I, p. 121.

61F. Davies & G. Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 1995), pp. 107–8. It seems that a rather unwise decision to surround the reporting centre with artillery batteries attracted enemy counter-battery fire.

62Ibid., p. 108.

63Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 363.

64TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army War Diary, 28 September 1915.

65On 28 September 8 (Cavalry) Brigade conducted a thorough search of the village and found 29 German troops still alive hidden in cellars and rubble. TNA: PRO WO 95/1156, 8 (Cavalry) Brigade War Diary, 28 September 1915.

66TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army to I, IV and XI Corps, 30 September 1915.

67TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army War Diary, 30 September 1915.

68TNA: PRO WO 95/158, First Army to I, IV and XI Corps, 30 September 1915.

69IWM: French Papers, PP/MCR/C32, French Diary, 30 September 1915.

70TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 4 October 1915.

71IWM: Wilson Papers, DS/MISC/80, HHW 25,Wilson Diary, 4 October 1915.

72See Ibid., 5 October 1915, when Wilson thought Haig had ‘botched the whole thing’ and was ‘absolutely incapable’.

73TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Copy of Telephone Message, Sir John French to GOC 1^st Army’, 4 October 1915.

74TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 4 October 1915.

75IWM: Wilson Papers, DS/MISC/80, HHW 25,Wilson Diary, 9 October 1915.

76TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 5 October 1915.

77Sir D. Haig, The Haig Papers from the National Library of Scotland, part 1, Haig’s Autograph Great War Diary (Brighton: Harvester Press Microfilm, 1987), 27 September 1915.

78Ibid., 28 September 1915.

79TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 5 October 1915.

80IWM: French Papers, PP/MCR/C32, French Diary, 5 October 1915.

81Haig, The Haig Papers, 2 October 1915.

82IWM: Wilson Papers, DS/MISC/80, HHW 25,Wilson Diary, 30 September 1915.

83According to Sir John’s Private Secretary it was the ‘General’s birthday dinner: So we had to cheer up. I had a very long talk with him afterwards. He is very gratified at all the telegrams but depressed at the failure of the French on our right.’ IWM: Fitzgerald Papers, PP/MCR/118, Fitzgerald Diary, 28 September 1915.

84Haig, The Haig Papers, 28 September 1915. See also J. Charteris, At G.H.Q. (London: Cassell, 1931), p. 116. Needless to say Haig disagreed with these sentiments.

85Haig, The Haig Papers, 8 October 1915.

86The attack on 8 October seems to have been a massed infantry assault, which was repulsed all along the line. German shelling had been heavy all morning, but increased in intensity around 3p.m. An hour later, twelve battalions of 7^th and 3^th Divisions moved against the French IX Corps around the Double Crassier and against the British positions near the Chalk Pit. Two German regiments (153^rd and 216^th) attacked 1^st Division, but were repulsed with heavy casualties, chiefly because of the intense rifle and machine gun fire of 1/Gloucestershire and 9/King’s. Further north, the Germans advanced in ‘massed formation’ against 12^th Division and according to the divisional history were ‘repulsed with tremendous losses’. See Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 372; E. Wyrall, The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914–1919. Volume I: 1914–1915 (London: Edward Arnold, 1928), p. 199; Sir A. Scott (ed.) & P. Middleton Brumwell (comp.), History of the 12^th (Eastern) Division in the Great War, 1914–1918 (London: Nisbet & Co, 1923), p. 17.

87TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Robertson to Haig, 6 October 1915.

88TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 6 October 1915.

89TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 5 October 1915.

90TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 6 October 1915.

91TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 8 October 1915.

92TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 8 October 1915.

93TNA: PRO WO 95/159, GHQ to Haig, 12 October 1915.

94This reference to the ‘salient’ that Haig had ‘created’ perhaps betrays a certain frustration and disappointment that Sir John felt towards the results of Haig’s attack on 25 September 1915.

95TNA: PRO WO 95/159, Haig to GHQ, 12 October 1915.

96Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 381.

97Ibid., pp. 389–90.

98NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5301–33–25, Rawlinson Diary, 16 October 1915.

99Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 388.

100TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 13^th October’, p. 1. The document was original titled ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 12^th October’, but owing to the confusion over the exact date of attack, pencil marks have added‘13 October’ where necessary.

101TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Notes of Conference Held at Advanced First Army Headquarters at Hinges at 6 pm on 6^th October, 1915’, p. 1.

102Ibid., p. 1.

103Ibid., p. 3.

104TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 13 ^th October’, p. 7.

105TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Artillery Support for the Attack of XI Corps on 13 October 1915’, p. 4. It is not known whether any 18-pounders were actually used in this way on 13 October. For the effective use of guns positioned in the British front breastwork at Festubert see Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 59.

106TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Notes of Conference Held at Advanced First Army Headquarters at Hinges at 6 pm on 6^th October, 1915’, pp. 1–2.

107TNA: PRO WO 95/2662, ‘Notes Made at a Visit by Lt. Col. Gathorne Hardy, GSOI, 7^th Division to Divisional Headquarters, 7/10/15’.

108TNA: PRO WO 95/2692, ‘Information Supplied by an Officer Who Took Part in the Attack on Fosse 8’.

109TNA: PRO WO 95/1846, 35 Brigade War Diary, 10 October 1915; and J.D. Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire (Loughborough: The Echo Press, 1919), pp. 74–5.

110TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Notes of Conference Held at Advanced First Army Headquarters at Hinges at 6 pm on 6^th October, 1915’, p. 3.

111TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 13^th October’, pp. 1–2. Haking probably meant 8 October as the date of the German counter-attack.

112TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Artillery Support for the Attack of XI Corps on 13 October 1915’, p. 1.

113Ibid., p. 2.

114TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 13 ^th October’, pp. 6–7.

115TNA: PRO 95/WO 95/712, ‘Telephone Conversations of Lieut-General Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bt., K.C.B., C.V.O., from the Commencement of the Attack’, 28 September 1915.

116TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Scheme for the Attack by XI Corps on 13^th October’, p. 7.

117TNA: PRO WO 95/159, ‘Notes of Conference Held at Advanced First Army Headquarters at Hinges at 6 pm on 6^th October, 1915’, p. 2. Emphasis added. Considering that the German troops on the northern sector of the battlefield had recently recaptured Fosse 8 and most of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, and had rarely ‘ran away’ during the entire battle, it is difficult to see on what grounds Haking was making such a statement.

118For complaints about Montagu-Stuart-Wortley and his ‘degumming’ after 46^th Division’s abortive assault on Gommecourt on 1 July 1916 see T. Travers, The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern Warfare 1900–1918 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2003; first published 1987), pp. 156–7. See also S. Robbins, British Generalship on the Western Front 1914–18. Defeat into Victory (London: Frank Cass, 2005), p. 22, 55, 64, 77.

119TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Lieutenant-General Hon. E.J. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley to Edmonds, 23 June 1926.

120Ibid. Original emphasis.

121See TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Brigadier-General C.V Wingfield-Stratford (CRE 46^th Division) to Edmonds, 28 June 1926; and Colonel W.G. Neilson (Brigade Major 139 Brigade) to Edmonds, 26 June 1926. For Haking’s optimism see Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire, p. 74.

122See TNA: PRO WO 95/2674, IV (North Midland) Brigade RFA, 12, 13 October 1915.

123For the gas operation on 13 October see D. Richter, Chemical Soldiers. British Gas Warfare in World War One (London: Leo Cooper, 1994), pp. 95–7.

124Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 380, n. 3. Only 1,100 were discharged.

125Ibid., p. 381.

126C.H. Foulkes, “GAS!” The Story of the Special Brigade (London: Blackwood, 1934), pp. 88–9.

127Richter, Chemical Soldiers, p. 97.

128TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, Brigadier-General G.C. Kemp to Edmonds, 26 June 1926.

129TNA: PRO WO 95/95/1846, 35 Brigade War Diary, 13 October 1915.

130TNA: PRO WO 95/1858, 37 Brigade War Diary, 13 October 1915.

131TNA: PRO WO 95/1860, 6/Buffs War Diary, 13 October 1915.

132Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire, p. 76. Corporal J.L. Dawson of the Special Brigade won a Victoria Cross for his efforts to remove three leaking cylinders from the trenches.

133IWM: 79/5/1,‘Attack by 46^th Division Oct 13^th 1915’, by Lieutenant-Colonel G.J. Worthington (1/5^th North Staffordshire), p. 5; 88/52/1, Account of F. Hunt (1/5^th Lincolnshire, 138 Brigade).

134IWM: P262, Account of J.W. Moore (1 /6^th South Staffordshire, 137 Brigade).

135TNA: PRO WO 95/2662,‘Report on the Operations of the 46^th Division. October 13 ^th and 14^th 1915’, p· 5·

136IWM: 79/5/1,‘Attack by 46^th Division Oct 13^th 1915’, by Lieutenant-Colonel G.J. Worthington, p. 7; TNA: PRO WO 95/2662, ‘Report on the Operations of the 46^th Division. October 13^th and 14^th 1915’, p· 2.

137TNA: PRO WO 95/2683,‘1/5^th Battalion South Staffs Regt. Narrative of Events from 12 noon on 13^th October 1915 to 3 a.m. 15^th October 1915’.

138See TNA: PRO CAB 45/121, Lieutenant-Colonel R.R. Raymer (CO 1/5^th South Staffordshire, 137 Brigade) to Edmonds, 26 June 1926; PRO WO 95/2683,‘1/6^th Battalion North Staffs Regt. Narrative of Engagement - Fosse 8 - 13^th October 1915’; ‘Report of the Part Taken by the 1/6^th Battalion South Staffs Regt in the Operations of the 46^th Division on the 13^th October 1915’.

139TNA: PRO WO 95/95/1846, 35 Brigade War Diary, 13 October 1915; Scott (ed.) & Middleton Brumwell (comp.), History of the 12^th (Eastern) Division in the Great War, 1914–1918, pp. 21–2; and TNA: PRO WO 95/1822, 12^th Division War Diary, 13 October 1915. Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley, a young poet with 7/Suffolks, was killed in this assault. According to the battalion war diary, Sorley was ‘killed whilst leading the attack’. TNA: PRO WO 95/1853, 7/Suffolk War Diary, 13 October 1915.

140The attack of 6/Buffs (on the left of 37 Brigade’s front) was a disaster. In a few minutes three companies were ‘practically wiped out’ and shellfire cut all the telephone wires to and from the battalion headquarters. TNA: PRO WO 95/1860, 6 Buffs War Diary, 13 October 1915.

141At a i Brigade conference on 8 October ‘It was stated frankly that the artillery had little hope of cutting the wire, but it was expected that the troops would be able to cut it for themselves under cover of a smoke cloud.’J.H. Lindsay, The London Scottish in the Great War (London: Regimental HQ, 1925), p. 84.

142TNA: PRO WO 95/1264, 1/Cameron Highlanders War Diary, 13 October 1915.

143TNA: PRO WO 95/1263, 1 /Black Watch War Diary, 13 October 1915;WO 95/1265, 8/Royal Berkshire War Diary, 13 October 1915; 10/Gloucestershire War Diary, 13 October 1915; M. Lloyd, The London Scottish in the Great War (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2001), p. 66–7.

144R. Prior & T. Wilson, Command on the Western Front. The Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914–18 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), p. 129.

145Corporal J.D. Pollock (5/Cameron Highlanders, 26 Brigade), 27 September 1915; Corporal A.A. Bert (1/1^st Hertfordshire, 6 Brigade), 27 September 1915; Second Lieutenant A.B. Turner (1/Royal Berkshire, 6 Brigade, attached to Carter’s Force), 28 September 1915; Second Lieutenant A.J.T. Fleming-Sandes (2/East Surreys, 85 Brigade), 29 September; Private S. Harvey (1/York & Lancaster, 83 Brigade), 29 September 1915; Lance Sergeant O. Brooks (3/Coldstream Guards, 1 (Guards) Brigade), 8 October 1915; Acting Sergeant J.C. Raynes (LXXI Brigade RFA, 15^th (Scottish) Division), 11 October 1915; Corporal J.L. Dawson (187 Field Company, Special Brigade), 13 October 1915; Captain C.G. Vickers (1/7^th Sherwood Foresters, 139 Brigade), 14 October 1915.

146Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 387.

147Scott (ed.) & Middleton Brumwell (comp.), History of the 12^th (Eastern) Division in the Great War, 1914–1918, p. 24.

148Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1915, vol. 2, p. 392.

149See Appendix III: Senior British Officer Casualties.

150IWM: 79/5/1,‘Attack by 46^th Division Oct 13^th 1915’, by Lieutenant-Colonel G.J. Worthington, p. 2.

151TNA: PRO WO 95/2691, 1/5^th Lincolnshire War Diary, 8 October 1915.

152TNA: PRO WO 95/1853, 7/Norfolk War Diary, 13 October 1915.

153Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire, p. 84.

154TNA: PRO WO 95/95/1846, 35 Brigade War Diary, 13 October 1915.

155IWM: PP/MCR/104, Wedgwood Papers, Asquith to Wedgwood, 28 November 1915. Wedgwood’s original letter to Asquith does not survive, but his report is included in Asquith’s reply to Wedgwood. Asquith immediately sent the report to Sir Douglas Haig and his comments are contained in the same file, Haig to Asquith, 24 November 1915.

CONCLUSION: LOOS, THE BEF AND THE ‘LEARNING CURVE’

1For the dismissal of Sir John French see P. Bryant, ‘The Recall of Sir John French’, published in three parts in Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association, no. 22, 23 and 24 (1988); R. Holmes, The Little Field Marshal Sir John French (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981), pp. 304–313; G. H. Cassar, The Tragedy of Sir John French (London: Associated University Presses, 1985), pp. 270–287.

2TNA: PRO 30/57/53, Kitchener Papers, General Sir Douglas Haig to Lord Kitchener, 29 September 1915. Sir William Robertson (CGS GHS) and Sir Henry Rawlinson (GOC IV Corps) were also involved in undermining Sir John’s authority.

3See Sir J. French, ‘Loos’, 15 October 1915, in Complete Despatches of Lord French, 1914–1916 (Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2001; first published 1916), pp. 391–413.

4R. Prior &T. Wilson, Command on the Western Front. The Military Career of Sir Henry Rawlinson 1914–18 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), passim.

5To be fair to Rawlinson, his handling of Fourth Army between July and November 1918, particularly the battles of Hamel (4 July), Amiens (8–15 August) and the attack on the Hindenberg Line (29 September), proved that he had learnt something from his experiences in 1914–16. See Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, part VI.

6See Appendix II: Total Recorded British Deaths, 25 September 1915 and 1 July 1916.

7These figures must, however, be used with some caution. The totals only show the number of soldiers who died on that day. It may also include soldiers who had died of wounds sustained from earlier actions, but it is not unreasonable to assume that most will have been killed in action that day.

8TNA: PRO WO 95/1629, Lieutenant-General Sir W. Robertson to 7^th Division, 3 October 1915.

9For details of ‘The Generals of Loos’ see F. Davies & G. Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs. General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918 (London: Leo Cooper, 1995), pp. 30–5.

10Sir J.E. Edmonds (comp.), History of the Great War: Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, Sir Douglas Haig’s Command to the 1^st July: Battle of the Somme (London/Nashville: Imperial War Museum/Battery Press, 1993; first published 1932), p. 18.

11Ibid., p. 24.

12Ibid., p. 91.

13G. Sheffield, The Redcaps. A History of the Royal Military Police and its Antecedents from the Middle Ages to the Gulf War (London: Brassey’s, 1994), p. 62.

14G. Sheffield, ‘The Operational Role of British Military Police’, in P. Griffith (ed.), British Fighting Methods in the Great War (London: Frank Cass, 1996), p. 82.

15IWM: MISC 134 (2072), ‘Administration Arrangements During the Battle of Loos’, by Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. M.A. Wingfield, 4 January 1916.

16Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, pp. 163–70.

17Prior & Wilson, The Somme, pp. 32–3.

18Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 166.

19Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, p. 295.

20P. Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers. A History of British Survey and Mapping on the Western Front 1914–1918 (Lewes: Mapbooks, 1999), p. 115. See also C. Cole (ed.), Royal Flying Corps Communiqués 1915–1916 (London: Tom Donovan, 1990; first published 1968), passim.

21Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, p. 85. See also D. Jordan, ‘The Army Co-Operation Missions of the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force 1914–1918’, Ph.D., Birmingham, 1997.

22Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, p. 60.

23Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 164. According to Brigadier-General E.W. Alexander (BGRA 15^th Division), he had used a form of‘creeping barrage’ at Loos, ‘not in close conjunction with advancing infantry but to sweep the area behind the German front’. Cited in Bidwell & Graham, Firepower, p. 83.

24S. Marble, "The Infantry Cannot do with a Gun Less”: The Place of the Artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914–1918 <www.gutenberg-e.org>, Chapter 6, p. 6.

25Sir M. Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Western Front 1914–18 (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1986), p. 156.

26P. Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front: The British Army’s Art of Attack 1916–1918 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 61.

2719 Brigade (2^nd Division) was transferred to 33^rd Division on 25 November 1915 and replaced by 99 Brigade (33^rd Division). 21 Brigade (7^th Division) was transferred to 30^th Division on 19 December 1915 and was replaced by 91 Brigade (30^th Division) the following day. 28 Brigade (9^th Division) was broken up on 6 May 1916 and replaced by the South African Brigade, until 23 September 1918 when it joined 66^th Division. 28 Brigade was reformed on 11 September 1918. 12^th and 15^th Divisions kept their original brigade structure throughout the war. 63 Brigade (21^st Division) was transferred to 37^th Division on 8 July 1916 and was replaced with no Brigade (37^th Division) on 7 July 1916. 71 Brigade (24^th Division) was transferred to 6^th Division on 11 October 1915 and was replaced by 17 Brigade (6^th Division) on 14 October 1915.

28For raids see Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front, pp. 61–2; and T. Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914–1918: The Live and Let Live System (London: Macmillan, 1980), pp. 176–203.

29‘The Changes in the Composition of a British Division on the Western Front During the Great War, 1914–1918’, Appendix 1, Major A.F. Becke, Order of Battle of Divisions. Part I-The Regular British Divisions (London: HMSO, 1935), pp. 126–7.

30Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, p. 289.

31‘Fourth Army Tactical Notes’, Appendix 18, cited in Edmonds (comp.), Military Operations France & Belgium, 1916, vol. 1, pp. 131–47. Original emphasis.

32J.P. Harris, ‘The Rise of Armour’, in Griffith (ed.), British Fighting Methods in the Great War, p. 115.

33A. Palazzo, Seeking Victory on the Western Front. The British Army and Chemical Warfare in World War I (Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), p. 79. For a description of the Livens projector see p. 103.

34White Star was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene. Red Star contained only chlorine.

35General Sir Douglas Haig, ‘General Factors to be Weighed in Considering the Allied Plan of Campaign During the Next Few Months’, 16 January 1916, cited in S. Marble, ‘General Haig Dismisses Attritional Warfare, January 1916’, Journal of Military History, vol. 65, no. 4 (October 2001), p. 1061. Original emphasis.

36TNA: PRO 30/57/53, Kitchener Papers, Haig to Kitchener, 29 September 1915. Note the personalised reference to ‘plucky fellows’ again reflecting Haig’s primarily human centred view of warfare.

37Sir D. Haig, The Haig Papers from the National Library of Scotland, part 1, Haig’s Autograph Great War Diary (Brighton: Harvester Press Microfilm, 1987), Haig to Lady Haig, 18 October 1915.

38J. Terraine, Douglas Haig. The Educated Soldier (London: Cassell, 2000; first published 1963), p. 173.

39Rawlinson to Kitchener, 28 September 1915, cited in Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 130.

40Rawlinson Diary, 31 March 1916, cited in Prior & Wilson, The Somme, p. 41. Rawlinson also stated that had 15^th Division been supported by 21^st and 24^th Divisions, ‘I have no doubt whatever that we should have forced our way through the German third line and been able to release the cavalry against the enemy’s lines of communication.’ NAM: Rawlinson Papers, 5201–33–18, ‘Letter Book Volume II, May 1915–Aug 1916’, Rawlinson to Lord Stamfordham, 29 September 1915.

41Brigadier-General C.E.D. Budworth cited in S. Bidwell & D. Graham, Firepower: British Army Weapons and Theories of War, 1904–1945 (Boston: Allen Unwin, 1982), p. 79.

42LHCMA: Montgomery-Massingberd Papers, 7/1, ‘Lecture on Battle of Loos’. See also T. Travers, ‘Learning and Decision-Making on the Western Front, 1915–1916: The British Example’, Journal of Canadian History, vol. 18, no. 1 (April 1983), pp. 87–8.

43Travers, ‘Learning and Decision-Making on the Western Front, i9i5-i9i6:The British Example’, p. 96. Original emphasis.

44See Prior & Wilson, The Somme, Chapters 5 & 6.

45See Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, Part IV.

46Prior & Wilson, The Somme, p. 56.

47TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, ‘Comments on Loos’, by Major R.B. Johnson (15/Durham Light Infantry, 64 Brigade), undated.

48Prior & Wilson, The Somme, pp. 58–9.

49A. Simpson, ‘The Operational Role of British Corps Command on the Western Front, 1914–18’, D. Phil., University College, London, 2003, passim.

50See J. Lee, ‘Some Lessons of the Somme: The British Infantry in 1917’, in B. Bond (ed.), ‘Look to your Front’ Studies in the First World War by the British Commission for Military History (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1999), pp. 79–87.

51See K. Grieves, ‘The Transportation Mission to GHQ in 1916’, in Ibid., pp. 63–78.

52Prior & Wilson, Command on the Western Front, p. 305, 397. See also T. Travers, ‘The Army and the Challenge of War 1914–1918’, in D. Chandler & I.F.W. Beckett (eds.), The Oxford History of the British Army (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; first published 1994), p. 232.

53It is hoped that Nathan M. Greenfields forthcoming Baptism of Fire: The Canadians at Second Ypres 1915 will fill this gap in the historiography.

54TNA: PRO CAB 45/120, General Sir H. Gough to Edmonds, 23 July 1926.