Front Forum: discussing The Great War 1914-18

Please discuss this article on the WFA's website: The Battle of Loos 1915.

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Disappointing rehash. Much of the content has been disputed on this forum but all the debate seems to have passed the author by. Anyone interested in Loos should read Nick Lloyd's, " Loos, 1915" for himself.

Hi Tom

Many thanks for your comment and reference to Nick Lloyd's book.

I should remind everyone that the article is a summary of the talk given by Nick to the Yorkshire Branch meeting.

The article summariser is not necessarily assumed to have read the debate on this forum.

Kind regards

David

i have no real coment on the article, but would agree that Nick Lloyd's work on this battle is bar far above the rest (but I still rate as always the OH).
matt

Peter Palmer's summary of Nick Lloyd's talk nicely outlines the difficulties faced by some of the New Armies at Loos - although I am not sure what it says about the tactical and strategic realities of war and the Battle of Loos in its wider context. Nick Lloyd's own work probably speaks best for itself here.

Regards
Dave

Nick Lloyd's book is by far (IMO) the best operational account of Loos, to date. That may be as its one of a very few but none the less it stands heads above others for its research, regardless if you can debate his own interpretation of the evidence.

As Matt indicates the OH is a good one to read of this and the OH material compiled by Edmonds et al shows how he altered the OH from the evidence he received from those that were there. Much of Forestier-Walker's notes do appear to have been taken at face value and put in to the OH.

Nick is no lover of Haig, so do not go looking for his defence from this volume, but then for my money Haig carries some of the burden for the way 21st and 24th divisions made their way to the front. By Haig I mean of course 1st Army. After the war even Maurice a Haig supporter was mindful of the fact that 1st army did little to help advancing troops across the back areas and wished he had done more to instruct them to do so, or at the least done it himself.

Regards