47th (London) Division continued to consolidate the positions it had won at the Double Crassier and Loos Crassier, and was ready as ordered to meet any counter-attack that might be delivered from the South.

15th (Scottish) Division was in some difficulty, despite having succeeded in capturing Loos itself. Men were helplessly pinned down on the forward slope of Hill 70, and the artillery support that had been called for since 10.50am was only just beginning to happen. The enemy made a determined attempt - having reinforced this area - to envelop the troops lying out in the open and to force them towards the second German line. A larger effort was made by the enemy at noon, initially near the Dynamitiere buildings near Loos, but having an energising effect on all German troops of 178 Regiment in the area of Cite St Laurent, who rushed forward and with great gallantry recaptured the height of Hill 70.

Noon. The French Tenth Army opens it's bombardment South Of Lens. 12.45am the French infantry attack - six hours after the British - between Angres and Arras.

German commanders prepare all available reserves to meet this threat, and further efforts to counterattack against the British are halted. They consolidate the hard-won position on Hill 70.

46th Brigade sends forward it's last battalion, the 6/Camerons, to support the left flank of the Division, which was exposed and weak due to the failure of the 1st Division to advance. By 12.30am they have established a line from Chalk Pit Wood to Chalet Wood, with machine-gun posts on the Lens - La Bassee road. 45th Brigade sent two battalions into Loos with a view to recapturing Hill 70, but without artillery support, and under constant German fire this ambition was impractical. They dug in at Loos. Supplies to this area were most difficult, the roads being blocked by a chaos of dead men and horsrs, and destroyed vehicles.

3.00pm 8/East Yorkshires and 10/Yorkshire of 62nd Brigade, 21st Division, are ordered forward towards Loos, to reinforce the units of 15th Division and if necessary retake Hill 70. After coming under shrapnel fire as they marched in column of fours - which destroyed their transport - these battalions lost direction and ran into intensive machine gun fire from the Southern end of Chalk Pit Copse, sustaining very heavy casualties. Other reserves of 21st Division - expected by Division to have been available at 10.30am - finally arrived at 7.30pm, and were clearly exhausted. They were ordered to reinforce the line between Hill 70 and Puits 14 bis. Around 8.30pm, the remnants of the first waves that had attacked in the morning were finally relieved on the slopes on Hill 70.

Nightfall therefore saw both Divisions in this sector in scratch positions between the old German first and second lines, consolidating their position. The enemy was in possession once again of the dominant height of Hill 70. A German attack in the night against the 7/Royal Scots Fusiliers, on the Eastern side of the Loos Crassier was repulsed.

The attack of 1st Division had met with such intensive enemy fire that by 10.55am it was effectively halted. By 1.15pm, it had been decided at Divisional HQ to leave only a screen of men holding their existing positions, and to move remaining men of 2nd Brigade (reinforced now by 1/Gloucesters) South to exploit 15th Division's success and attack the enemy from the flank and rear. 2/Welch, coming up in support at 11.00am, crossed no man's land unobserved and managed to arrive in Gun Trench with few losses. They expected to find the 2/Royal Munster Fusiliers there, but the latter had suffered heavy casualties. The Welch moved to their right, into the valley behind where the enemy was so stoutly defending against the attacks of 2nd Brigade. At this time, the enemy launched a counter-attack against 1st Brigade, but it was easily repulsed. By 2.30pm the Welch approached the Lone Tree - Hulluch track. The Germans - 400 men of 157th Regiment - now found themselves almost surrounded and surrendered. 2nd Brigade and the units that had been attached were now able to advance, but losses were such that only 1,500 men were able to do so. By 5.20pm they had reached the Lens road near Bois Hugo, in touch with 15th Division, where they dug in.

By nightfall, although 2nd Brigade was in touch with 15th Division and 1st Brigade with 7th Division, there was a gap in the line of some 1500 yards between them (although the significance of this does not appear to have concerned 1st Divisional HQ and it was not reported to IV Corps). There were insufficient men of the Division left to fill the gap, following the terrible losses that this formation suffered in the day.

At 12.40am First Army ordered the reserve 3rd Cavalry Division to advance through the infantry; the Divisional CO, Major-General Briggs had by now ascertained that the actual situation was not as favourable as Army believed, and he informed Haig that he would wait until it was. 2.35pm sees Haig ordering the two reserve infantry Divisions of XI Corps to push forward at once between Hulluch and Cite St Auguste, to secure the passages of the Haute Deule Canal. The Corps and Divisional HQ's were given no indication that the enemy was anything but defeated and breaking. It was not until 5.00pm that these orders were given to the attacking Brigades. An hour later, not all battalions were in position. At least one experienced such delay that the men went without a meal of any kind before going into battle. By now it was getting dark. First Army ordered the Brigades not to advance beyond the Lens-La Bassee road that night, but these amended orders did not reach the forward units until 2.00am - by which time many of their men were dead.

7th Division had halted in and around Gun Trench and the Quarries after it's initial advance, 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. Unfortunately observers reported that the damage done was not sufficient to justify continuing the attack. At 7.05pm orders were received from I Corps to consolidate.

The attack of 9th (Scottish) Division had by mid-morning succeeded in reaching and occupying the enemy trench network around the Hohenzollern Redoubt and Fosse 8, and also Pekin Trench. At 1.00pm, the 73rd Brigade of 24th Division was ordered to reinforce Fosse 8, as it was believed that any loss of position here would seriously endanger the troops ar Pekin Trench. In addition, six field batteries RFA were ordered forward to positions South-West of the Redoubt, where they came into action at 4.30pm. During the afternoon, the garrison of Pekin Trench came under heavy shellfire, and German infantry began a bombing attack, starting at the Haisnes-Auchy road and working Southwards while others worked North from Cite Trench. Despite being reinforced by the 6/Royal Scots Fusiliers, the superiority of German grenades soon told, and the position was gradually retaken. By 5.00pm, half of it had been lost, and the remaining men were ordered to withdraw in the dark. Unfortunately many returned as far as the original German front line, leaving a very confused picture around Fosse Alley, which became the new British front line. The advanced field batteries were ordered back to the positions they had left earlier in the day.

Therefore by nightfall the Division held a more or less continuous line from North of the Hulluch Quarries, where they were in touch with 7th Division, to the Fosse 8 dump, round the Corons to Pekin, and with a left flank thrown back facing Madagascar.

I Corps staff were not dissatisfied with their days work: the advance of 7th and 9th Division had in many areas broken through, and a good Division moving up from reserve had every chance of pushing through the second German line and beyond. They had been led to expect such a reinforcement, and believe that it was required as early as 9.00am.

By 9.45am 19th and 6th Brigades of 2nd Division had halted all further efforts to move forward, after suffering heavy losses and ailing to break into the German positions. The survivors of the 5th Brigade were also back in their original trench at that time. This front settled down to an uneasy period of consolidation.

The reserve 21st and 24th Divisions moved by a night march into the Loos valley. Progress was slow and exhausting (and these units had been on the move constantly for several days already). Staff were unfamiliar with the ground, communication trenches were flooded and packed with men. Roads and tracks were jammed with transport going in both directions. There were few bridges across shattered fore trenches, and wire was still stretched across wide areas. Men were carrying extra supplies, equipment, rations and ammunition. At 1.20am, the Brigadiers of 24th Division met to consider their actions for the next morning. The Guards Division suffered similar disruption on moving up, arriving at their billets in Noeux les Mines and Houchin at 8.00pm only to find them already occupied.

The opportunities that had existed from mid-morning to noon has been lost. Insufficient men had been available to exploit the areas where the assaulting Brigades had broken into the enemy's trench systems. Strong German resistance in their second line had brought further advance to a halt, despite their attaentions being drawn to the very heavy French attack a few miles to the South. The waether had closed in, and it was raining very heavily.

First Army HQ had a very incomplete picture of the front-line sitaution, especially the losses suffered. It was unaware that the Germans had reinforced the area, and uninformed as to the progress and intentions of the French Tenth Army some way to the South. Believing that the infantry had broken through the area south of Hulluch, plans were made to continue the push forward of the reserves, to exploit the situation. (As we have seen, however, the reserves were deeply fatigued and were already being pushed piecemeal into various areas to shore up the already-disjointed British defences). Orders were sent out at 11.30pm for a general renewal of the attack at 11.00am on 26th September.