Battle of Loos

battle of loos

THE DEAD LYING FIVE DEEP

Opposite the Hohenzollern Redoubt, 26th Brigade, consisting

of the 5th Cameron Highlanders and 7th Seaforth Highlanders,

supported by 8th Black Watch and 8th Gordon Highlanders, would

also encounter significant resistance. Lochiel’s 5th Camerons and

the 8th Black Watch came under close machine gun fire from the

left flank and suffered heavy casualties. Private James Laidlaw,

5th Cameron Highlanders, a native of Penpont in Dumfriesshire,

wrote a short account of the action.

‘We lost heavily during the advance. When we started we were

1,100 strong. We returned with 261. So that will give you

an idea of what we had to face. It was a terrible scene on

the battlefield. The noise of the shells bursting and the

cries of the wounded were terrible to listen to. A trench

we occupied on our left flank had been strongly protected

with barbed wire entanglements, and scores of our brave

Camerons were slain here... In some places the dead were

lying five deep – Camerons on the top of Germans and Germans

on the top of Camerons. It was awful to march over the

bodies of our own comrades, but we had to go on.’

Private Robert Blelock, 8th Black Watch, writing to friends

and family in Perth, recalled that at the moment his battalion

advanced ‘it seemed as if hell had been let loose’.

THE BIG ADVANCE

Meanwhile, on the right, 7th Seaforth Highlanders and 8th Gordon

Highlanders made steady progress. Describing ‘the big advance’,

a Glencaple soldier remarked on how the 8th Gordons ‘pushed

forward to gain more ground, and went as if on parade’.

Within an hour, 7th Seaforth Highlanders had negotiated the

southern part of the Hohenzollern Redoubt and captured all its

objectives. However, this came at a high price. In consolidating

the captured trenches, 7th Seaforths were ‘exposed to a murderous

fire from the enemy’s guns’, and ‘the behaviour of the men was

worthy of the very highest praise’.