The Battle of Loos September 25th-October 10th 1915
As the British part of Third Battle of Artois and Second Battle of Champagne, the Battle of Loos cost the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 48,367 casualties in the main attack and they suffered 10,880 more in the subsidiary attack, a total of 59,247 losses of the 285,107 British casualties on the Western Front in 1915.
At Batemans, the East Sussex country home of Rudyard Kipling,on a date near the 100th Anniversary of the battle, The Rifles undertook training exercises to recreate the section advance (rush) infantry attacks employed by the BEF.
The battle was the first occasion the British used poison gas(Chlorine) on the Western Front. Attacking divisions were given, by late war standards,only the basic training for the use of the new tube hoods (PH), however some of the more experienced soldiers thought it worhwhile to roll these hoods up for better vision during the latter stages of the attack.
