The most remarkable success of the day was obtained by the 15th Division. Let me remind you that this division consisted of Scottish soldiers, and that they lay in front of the Loos Redoubt. The 44th Brigade of this division was to make its thrust direct at the village; the 46th Brigade, on the left, was to sweep round and enter it on the north side; while the 45th Brigade was held in reserve. We will now follow the fortunes of the 9th Black Watch and the 8th Seaforths of the 44th Brigade. They were now about to assault the village; the 7th Camerons were in support, and the 10th Gordons were to follow on.
Do you remember the great gas attack of the Germans at the Second Battle of Ypres? You will remember what a shock of horror went through the civilized world when the Germans resorted to this foul weapon. We had never dreamed of sending clouds of poisoned gas against our enemies, but now we were forced to pay them back in their own coin. Many people at home thought that we ought to refrain from using gas, but our generals thought otherwise, and in times of warfare their word is law. But the gas which we were now about to use was not poisoned. It was far less hurtful than that of the Germans. Men who breathed it were rendered insensible for a time; they were neither killed nor subjected to horrible tortures. We also used, for the first time in this battle, clouds of smoke to screen our advance.
At ten minutes to six on the morning of 25th September the nozzles of the gas cylinders in front of our trenches were opened, and the men watched anxiously as the whitish cloud moved slowly upwards towards the German lines near the crown of the slope. A very light wind blew from the south-west, and in the hollow where Loos stands formed an eddy which blew back the gas on to the 46th Brigade. Our men were wearing their gas helmets, but for a moment the choking cloud caused them to hesitate, whereupon Piper Daniel Laidlaw climbed the parapet and played a march that put new heart into his comrades. You will learn on a later page that he received the Victoria Cross for this fine deed.
The Highlanders saw before them the line of green-gray sandbags which they had watched through their periscopes day by day for months past. The parapets of the enemy, which had so long barred their way, were soon to be the starting-point for their advance. Now the great guns got to work, and in less than half an hour the barrier was crushed and pounded into ruin. The wire was blown into a million fragments, and the parapets were utterly destroyed. The strong redoubt of Loos was raked fore and aft, and the German trenches were full of dead.
At 6.30 the whistles blew; the Highlanders scrambled over the parapets, and with a rush dashed into the wrecked trenches. At five minutes past seven the whole of the German first line position, several trenches deep, was in their hands. Even in the first rush many men were mown down by the machine guns which desperate Germans had hidden in deep dug-outs and had brought into play when the bombardment ceased. But nothing could stay the Scots. On they went, cheering and singing, through the reeking cloud of gas and smoke, and in a few minutes were rushing down the slope towards Loos. The entanglements of the reserve line had been broken in many places, but here and there patches of uncut wire remained, and the Black Watch had to cut them under heavy fire. The ground was carpeted with their dead, but they did not waver; they swarmed over the reserve line, and at twenty minutes to eight, an hour and ten minutes after they had left their trenches, they were shooting and stabbing and hurling bombs in the four rambling streets and in the gardens and enclosures of Loos, along with their comrades of the 47th Division, who had entered from the south. One Cameron sergeant was seen with a machine gun on his shoulder, pouring a stream of bullets into window after window. The 46th Brigade was rapidly closing in from the north. Two and a half hours after the advance began, Loos was clear of the enemy.
A Scottish Highlander rescuing a French Girl in the Village of Loos.
Many moving incidents took place when the British entered Loos. Many of the inhabitants, who had been living in the cellars, came out to heap blessings on the head of their deliverers. A Highlander is here seen carrying a fainting French girl into a place of safety.
The Highlanders, however, were not content. It was their business not only to take Loos, but to capture the broad down marked on the map as Hill 70, and some of them believed that when it was won supports would follow them, and they were to push on as far as they could. The remnants of the Highland Brigade, with Camerons and Gordons leading, now rushed up the western slope of Hill 70, and were at once met by a fierce fire. The Germans came out of their trenches as if to attack, and at the sight the Highlanders streamed up the hill like hares, the green tartans of the Gordons mingling with those of the Camerons. They were fired at from front and flank, but on they swept, carrying all before them, and by nine in the morning they were on the summit of the hill.