The battle of Loos was the last and greatest of Britain's offensives on the Western Front in 1915. Along with Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and the defensive battle of Second Ypres, the other British battles in France and Belgium that year, Loos has been largely forgotten between the drama of 1914 and the 'spectaculars' at the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele in 1917.

That is hugely unfair. The pre war BEF met it's end at First Ypres in late 1914 and Kitchener's Army of volunteers took up the struggle at the Somme. But Loos was the battle that largely disposed of the army in the middle - that composed of a few of the original veterans, the Territorial Army recruits, and the first wave of volunteers. And they acquitted themselves brilliantly. The first day, September 25th, saw the British rupture the German lines and achieve a respectable advance. On the 26th, however, the problems which were to become so familiar - a failure of command and control, the inability to move reserves to exploit successes quickly enough - became apparent and the offensive bogged down.

This book is a good memorial to those men. In 1975, [a:Philip Warner|345182|Philip Warner|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] advertised in the Telegraph for survivors of the battle to contact him with memories, letters, or diaries. After a brief overview, Warner lets these men, fighting, in many cases, to rescue those days from memory, speak for themselves.
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This is an oral history written in the 1970's drawing from the disappearing generation of British veterans from the Great War. The Battle of Loos has particular meaning for me because my grandfather was a Royal Artillery gunner at this action.

Loos was a terrible slamming match fought under very wet conditions with the British poorly employing chlorine gas for he first time (the wind blew it back in their faces.) It seemed only to add to the general misery of the conditions.

I did not find this book to be easy sledding. Dunno why, maybe its just the Wordsworth format. Warner gives a quick overview of the battle, and then focuses on the experiences of individual divisions. It sometimes seems a bit clunky.

Some of the accounts were quite compelling. Captain Wyllie's account from the 9th (Highland) Division, Royal Scots Fusiliers was incredibly good.

The book suffers a bit from being only from the British perspective. I think there is definitely room for some German accounts. ( )