The Battle of Loos

The Battle of Loos, or the ‘battle of firsts’, was designed to be a big push for the allies in a first ever Anglo-French operation. It was to be the first major British offensive, the first ever time the British had used gas, the first time Kitchener’s volunteer army was to be used in an attack, the first time the Royal Artillery had to execute a prolonged artillery bombardment and also the first time the army’s staff’s abilities to plan, organize and co-ordinate a major offensive would come in. 1915 had so far not been a successful year for the allies as there had been no decisive advance on the Western Front, they were also still reeling from the disaster at Gallipoli. All the while the Germans continued to inflict major damage on the Russian Army on the Eastern Front.

The Battle of Loos began on the 21st of September 1915 with a 4 day artillery bombardment; the actual battle began on the 25th of September. The time it took place was conveniently soon after the shell scandal. It took place in Northern France towards the Belgian border in a huge salient bound by Artois and Champagne. The countries involved were Britain, France, Germany and Belgium, and it was to be led by Field Marshal Sir John French and General Sir Douglas Haig.

In the lead up to the Battle of Loos a lot had been happening in the war. On September the 1st, after American outrage at the sinking of the Lusitania as part of the Germans U-boat campaign, the Germans agreed to stop sinking passenger vessels without warning. On September the 5th Tsar Nicholas II made himself Russian Commander-in-Chief and on September the 12th after the failure of the Austrians ‘Black-Yellow’ offensive Germany had taken over complete control of the Austro-Hungarian forces. Earlier in the year the British ‘shell scandal’ as it became widely known, had helped knock the Liberal Government from power on the 25th May 1915. The shell scandal was linked to the failures at both Loos and Neuve-Chapelle. Joffre wanted to...