|
 3.00am
: weather reports now show conditions are likely to be less favourable;
the wind is slowing and shifting to the South, although possibly
improving after sunrise. Haig issues orders for the release of
gas at 5.50am, with the infantry attack timed 40 minutes later.
 3.30am
: German troops go onto alert in front lines, orders having been
given on receipt of information from an Indian deserter.
4.00am
: British shellfire increases. It is now the heaviest bombardment
of the war to date.
5.15am
: although wind is only slightly increasing, Haig orders units
to carry on. German troops stand down from alert.
 5.50am
: heavy British bombardment hits German front line defences,
and cloud gas is released. The gas forms a 30 to 50 feet
high blanket, moving forward slowly in places (although still
short of the enemy positions at 6.25am),
but is virtually standing still in the British assault positions
in other areas.
6.00am
: the now dog-tired reserve Divisions complete their assembly
at
Noeux-les-Mines and Beuvry.
6.30am
: all infantry units move out from front lines and move towards
the enemy positions, and the artillery lifts to a second line
(between the 1st- and 2nd German trenches, on communications).
Very
early reports suggest good forward movement. Sir Douglas Haig
requires the reserves to begin to move forward. Out of direct
communication with French, he has to send an officer in a car
to Chateau Philomel.
7.05am
: British artillery lifts again, following a timetable, onto German
communication trenches.
7.05am
- noon
:
IV
Corps (Rawlinson)
The
right-hand 47th (London) Division:
In this sector the gas cloud moved well, and with thick smoke
from mortar shells, the leading units captured the first German
positions before the enemy were aware of what was happening. British
machine-gunners located in North Maroc caught enemy troops
fleeing. German machine-guns firing from Cite St Pierre caused
losses, and some counter-attacks with bombs threatened the newly-taken
positions. However, 1/20 Londons
eventually captured the Chalk Pit, and the 140th Brigade
secured the Double Crassier. The left-most battalion, the
1/19th Londons, suffered heavy casualties early on from a machine-gun
firing from the area of the 15th Division, and most of it's officers
were hit. The companies of the battalion were badly broken up
as they advanced into the Southern buildings of Loos, and
the flank defence on the Loos Crassier was not extended as planned.
15th
(Scottish) Division In
this sector the gas cloud hung back, causing delays and some losses
to the advancing troops. Although the infantry had only 200 yards
to cross from the heads of the Russian saps, the gas and smoke
only covered them for the first 40 - and as men emerged into the
clear, two German machine-guns swept twice across the advancing
line, causing many casualties. The MG's were soon joined by enemy
artillery fire from beyond Loos. However, strong parties continued
the advance, cleared the German front lines and began to storm
through Loos village itself. By 8.00am
the village was entirely in British hands.
On
the left of the Divisional front, men reached the La Bassee-Lens
road by 9.15am. Reserves were ordered
up to support this advance. Emerging from the village, men of
many units advanced unopposed - but without clear landmarks and
with few officers, they headed for the summit of Hill 70
rather than to the left which was the original plan. On the extreme
right, the 1/9 Black Watch,
finding that the expected flank defences of the 1/19 Londons absent,
halted. The mass of infantry now on Hill 70, seeing Germans retreating
in some disarray, began to advance down the far-side slope. This
advance was caught by German crossfire from the 2nd line, and
it was brought to a standstill by 10.30am,
with men doing their best to take cover on completely open ground
on the downward slope North of Cite St Laurent. Calls for
artillery support were answered with a bombardment falling away
to the left, on Cite St Auguste, the original objective
of the Division. 200 men on the hill, now reinforced by the 7/RSF,
dug in a trench behind the crest line. Although by 11.30am
the enemy had reinforced his position in front of Cite St Laurent,
steps had been taken to evacuate Lens, such was the threat
of a further Scots advance.
The
left-hand 1st Division began to advance
a few minutes late, after casualties were suffered from the British
gas which had drifted back into the assault trenches. On
the right front of 2nd Brigade, it was discovered that
the enemy wire was undamaged, having been out of direct observation
over a crest line, and two German machine guns and heavy rifle
fire played across the lines of advancing troops as desperate
efforts were made to cut the wire. The succeeding lines of infantry
could not move forward and took to ground just below the gentle
crest line. By 7.30am the gas and
smoke had cleared, completely exposing the pinned-down troops
in no man's land. The 1st Brigade did not suffer so badly
from gas, and the lead battalions (10/Gloucesters
and 8/R. Berkshires, both New Army
units that had replaced Guards battalions in the Division in August
1915) advanced through all objectives despite heavy casualties.
By 8.00am they were in Gun Trench,
an intermediate line running South of the Hulluch quarries. The
Regular support battalion, 1/Camerons,
pressed the advance on towards Hulluch. They waited for the 2nd
Brigade to come up on their right. Further attacks by 2nd Brigade
had met with the same devastating fire as the first, and was held
up, with a large number of men lying out in the open, close under
the German wire. At 9.10am Division
gave orders to Green's Force to advance in support, but all runners
were hit and the orders were not received until 10.55am.
A direct frontal attack by the 1/14th London
Regiment (London Scottish) and 1/9th King's
at Lone Tree met with a hail of close-range bullets, and
many men were hit. 2/Royal Munster Fusiliers,
coming up in support, found the trenches near Le Rutoire so full
of dead and wounded that they advanced above ground, and were
virtually annihilated. The attack had effectively halted.
I
Corps (Gough)
The
right-hand 7th Division found
that the gas cloud generally moved well in this sector, but local
wind variations meant that not all cylinders were turned on here.
Many men struggled to breathe in their gas helmets as they advanced
into the cloud and removed them, consequently suffering from gas
themselves. Heavy losses were incurred by the lead units of 20th
Brigade in No Man's Land from German shelling, which had been
opened up to try to dispel the gas and smoke cloud. The 8/Devonshire
suffered heavy machine-gun casualties, the wire in front of their
sector having been only partially cleared. However, the 2/Gordon
Highlanders fared better and soon pushed past the German front
line towards Gun Trench and Hulluch. On 22nd
Brigade front, as the infantry moved ahead of the gas they
were cut down in swathes, with the 1/South
Staffordshire and 2/Royal Warwicks
losing some 70% of their strength before they reached the German
positions. However, men continued to press forward and by 7.30am
the German support line had been captured. At 8.05am,
two batteries of RFA were ordered up closed behind the original
front, near Notre-Dame de Consolation - a wayside shrine. They
were firing by 9.00am. By 8.45am
the leading men were crossing the Lens Road, just to the South
of the Vermelles-Hulluch road. There they caused much loss and
disruption to German reinforcements moving into Cite St Elie.
The support battalions of 20th Brigade, the 1/6/Gordon
Highlanders and the 2/Border,
came up with little loss, and helped launch an attack but this
was halted by heavy fire. Parties pushed forward into the northern
end of Gun Trench. Further artillery units were ordered to move
up. T Battery RHA galloped up the Vermelles road into the former
No Man's Land. By 9.30am, now reinforced
by 2/Queens, the men of 22nd Brigade
had captured the Hulluch Quarries, with patrols on the edge of
Cite St Elie itself. Further advance was found to be impossible
without further support, and the positions captured thus far at
the Quarries were consolidated. 21st Brigade moved up from
reserve in Vermelles, and split into two sets of two battalions
each ordered to advance through the positions gained so far. They
were also halted in and around Gun Trench and the Quarries, unable
to penetrate uncut wire in front of Hulluch under fire from Cite
St Elie. Divisional artillery was ordered to shell the latter
and its defences until 4.00pm.
The
9th (Scottish) Division had
to attack the formidable obstacle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt
and Fosse 8, the high location of the main enemy observation
posts looking across the whole battlefield. Preparations had included
Russian saps to close the distance to be covered, and effective
observed heavy shelling. The lead units of 26th Brigade
suffered casualties as they cleared the gas and smoke, but advanced
through well-cut wire to quickly take the front face of the Redoubt.
The 7/Seaforths reached Fosse
Trench - the rear of the redoubt - soon after 7.00am,
and pressed on towards Fosse 8. Half an hour later they were in
Corons Trench - which had been flooded by the enemy - where
they halted and reorganised. On their left the 5/Camerons
suffered from crossfire from Mad Point (just outside Auchy
on the road from Vermelles), but pushed on to Little Willie
Trench - the front face of the redoubt - and Fosse Trench
which they reached by 7.10am. By
7.45am they joined the Seaforths
in Corons Trench. The 8/Black Watch
came up from reserve to reinforce, but suffered grievous casualties
from fire from Mad Point. By now it had become clear that failure
on their left meant that the Brigade could not continue, and instead
it had to prepare against counterattack, while under continuous
enemy shellfire. Meanwhile 8/Gordon
Highlanders, moving to the South of the Dump, managed to reach
the German second line - Pekin Trench - shortly after 8.05am.
This was some 1000 yards further ahead than the units now consolidating
the trenches of the Redoubt. 27th Brigade was ordered to
support this apparent breakthrough. However its units met with
mixed fortunes. 12/Royal Scots
advanced with few losses and reached Pekin Trench by 8.45am.
11/Royal Scots lost direction
and in correcting it ran into a deep wire entanglement, where
they were caught by machine-gun fire and virtually wiped out.
10/Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
heard that Pekin Trench was already strongly held, and halted
in Fosse Alley. Four guns of No 7 Mountain Battery RGA
were ordered forward at 9.15am from
Annequin, to a position near Hohenzollern Redoubt; they came into
action at 10.30am.
The
28th Brigade, on the left of the Divisional front, ran
into serious problems before the assault even began. The gas drifted
behind them and hung in the trenches. It gave no cover across
no man's land, and German artillery opened on the front lines
that were packed with men. Gas cylinders were destroyed, releasing
even more gas into the area. Men of the 6/KOSB,
perhaps surprised at how little resistance the enemy showed while
they advanced to his uncut wire, were soon cut down in rows as
machine-guns opened up from Strong Point (a gun post in
front of Little Willie Trench) and Mad Point. Men not killed or
wounded were pinned down, and only some 70 men of the rear ranks
made it back to cover. To their left, the first rank of the 10/HLI
was annihilated by crossfire from Railway Redoubt (across the
Cambrin - La Bassee road) before it had gained 20 yards; the men
in succeeding ranks suffering similarly. Support units pushed
into the area were also hit and pinned down. At 11.15am
the Corps commander gave an order to renew the attack at 12.15pm,
and a bombardment opened up - but it was clearly too light to
be effective in destroying the defences in front of Auchy. The
9/Scottish Rifles and half of
the 11/HLI advanced as ordered, and
were shot down with considerable loss. Most men did not even reach
the German wire. At 1.30pm Brigade
halted further attack, and its survivors were reorganised for
defence of their original lines.
The
2nd Division attack along both banks
of the La Bassee canal met with no success at all, at a very heavy
cost in casualties. It's role was to create a protective flank
to enable the 9th Division on the right to move forward unimpeded
by fire or counterattack from the canal area. The ground in front
was already devastated by craters resulting from intensive mine
warfare, and included the Brickstacks and the embankments
of the Railway Triangle. On the front of 19th Brigade,
South of the canal, two large mines were blown by 173rd Tunnelling
Company, RE ten minutes before zero, which had the effect
of putting the enemy on full alert. Here too the gas blew back
into the trenches, and men fell. As the infantry advanced, they
were forced to bunch together to avoid the craters and were mown
down by concentrated machine-gun fire as they did so. The enemy
were seen to stand on their parapets in order to take advantage
of such an easy target.
By
9.00am it was clear that no progress
was going to be made, and Brigade gave orders to withdraw to the
original front lines. Men of 1/Middlesex
could not from no man's land and took whatever cover the could
until dark. Some men of the 2/Argyll
& Sutherland Highlanders occupied an empty German trench,
but only 11 returned at night, the rest having been killed or
captured. On the left of this Brigade and up to the canal bank
was 6th Brigade. Here an officer of the RE thought that
the wind conditions were so poor for the gas he would not take
responsibility for it's release. Brigade ordered him to continue,
but it was 6.00am before the order
came through, ten minutes behind timetable. Two mines were exploded
by 170th Tunnelling Company RE, adding to the confusion. The cloud
was so dense that it incapacitated 130 men of the 2/South
Staffordshire before they could begin to advance. The leading
waves of the 1/King's found the
wire uncut, and the advance did not progress beyond the far lip
of the new craters before being brought to a standstill, except
for a party of the South Staffords who edged along the canal towpath
to the edge of Embankment Redoubt where they were held
off by German grenades.
The
Divisional artillery renewed the bombardment at 9.00am for half
an hour, but the battalion commandes on the spot advised that
the German strongpoints were still plainly operating. At 9.45am
19th and 6th Brigades halted all further efforts to move forward.
North
of the canal, 5th Brigade attacked in two 'prongs', one
along the canal and one in front of Givenchy. At the canal,
while gas drifted across from teh South and caused casualties
among the attackers, it quickly became clear that 6th Brigade
was not suppressing Embankment Redoubt. The planned capture by
the 1/9th HLI of Tortoise Redoubt
was going to very difficult while this was the case. The leading
platoons were annihilated, and the attack called off.
The
Givenchy attack was to act as a diversion, and was launched half
an hour in advance of the main attack. At first, the advancing
battalions moved easily past well-cut wire and into the German
front trench - which they found evacuated. Approaching the second
line they were assailed by machine-gun fire and forced to take
cover. Shortly after, they were counter-attacked and were among
the first units this day to discover that German grenades were
much more effective than British ones when it came to close-quarter
fighting. By 9.40am the survivors
of the 2/HLI, 1st/Queens
and 2/Ox & Bucks were back
in their original trench, having lost around 950 men in the process
of achieving nothing positive.
|
7.00am
: weather reports are not greatly favourable, but indicate a chance
of a good wind for the release of gas in the morning of 25th.