20 / 44
18
battle of loos
HILL 70
Further south, 15th (Scottish) Division had orders:
‘to advance nearly five
miles, taking two villages
and at least three
well-fortified trench
systems... a difficult
task even for
well-seasoned troops’.
22
The Division’s objectives included Loos village and Hill 70, a
natural feature, which, although only seventy metres above sea
level, dominated the battlefield. Chlorine gas was discharged at
5.50 a.m. in support of the infantry assault scheduled to start
at 6.30 a.m.
Gas had proven to be a less than reliable weapon,
but
15th (Scottish) Division were slightly more fortunate than
most with the wind blowing in more or less the correct
direction, carrying the gas towards the German lines.
23
Still, it caused confusion in the leading ranks of 46th Brigade,
on the left of 15th (Scottish) Division’s allotted front.
22 J. Stewart and J. Buchan, The Fifteenth (Scottish) Division
1914-1919 (Edinburgh, 1926), 28.
23 G. Corrigan, Loos 1915: The Unwanted Battle (Stroud, 2006) 69.
24 People’s Journal, Saturday, 27 November 1915, 1.