Loos
46th (North Midland) Division
The Division was a permanent Territorial Division that had been created by the reforms of 1908. All of its units were immediately mobilised in August 1914 and by 8th March 1915 it became the first such Division to arrive on the Continent in its entirety.
It took part in the German attack at Hooge on the 30th July — when the Germans used flame throwers — and then remained in the Ypres salient until being ordered to Loos.
It replaced the Guards Division during the night before the attack; the relief finally being completed at 0600 hours. The officers and NCOs were therefore given less than twelve hours to comprehend the ground they were required to fight over. A desire by their commander, Major General Edward Stuart-Wortley, to carry out the attack by means of a trench by trench, grenade battle, was overruled. They would charge like everyone else.
Hohenzollern Redoubt
The situation for the 137th Brigade, on the right of the Division, was that half of the 1/5th Bn South Staffordshire Regiment was holding the British half of Big Willie Trench (That is the eastern end — away from the redoubt).
The remaining half together with all of the 1/5th Bn North Staffordshire Regiment were required to advance across the open ground; cross over Big Willie Trench; then Dump Trench; skirt the southern side of the Dump and finally capture Fosse Alley on the far side. Behind each of these units, half of the respective 6th battalions would follow, moving up to Big Willie Trench.
The gas discharge proved to be ineffective as it merely hung in the craters out in the open ground of no man’s land. That it had been released signalled to the Germans that an attack was about to be launched.
The Staffords left their trenches at five minutes before Zero and were assailed by a hail of bullets coming from machine gun positions all around them. The North Staffords suffered five hundred casualties and the South Staffs were almost wiped out before reaching the other half of the battalion in the Big Willie Trench. Any that then tried to continue the advance became casualties.
On the left the 138th Brigade’s plan was to cross the Hohenzollern Redoubt and then take up a position in the Corons on the north side of the Dump — the Dump was not being directly assaulted by either Brigade.
Their preparations were drama filled when a German shell fell on some of the gas cylinders in the British line. Corporal James Dawson of the 187th Company RE got out of the trench and directed the gathered infantry away from the affected area before lugging the cylinders over the parapet and rolling them away to a safe distance before holing them with rounds from his pistol. For his calmness under fire and quick thinking, Dawson was awarded the Victoria Cross.
The 1/5th Bn Leicestershire Regiment led on the right with the 1/5th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment on the left. They were supported by the 1/4th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment. 1/1st Bn Monmouthshire Regiment; the Divisional Pioneer battalion, would bring forward the supplies necessary to consolidate the new positions.
They attack commenced at Zero plus five (1405 hours) assuming that by then their right flank would be covered by the 137th Brigade.
Dreadful casualties were suffered crossing the redoubt as the Germans on the Dump and at the Mad Point redoubt to their left cut them down. Some managed to get as far as Fosse Trench and even beyond, but their position was quite untenable.
As night began to fall the decision was taken to pull out of the eastern face of the Redoubt and dig a new trench (designated The Chord) just behind it. An attempt by the Germans to reach the western face of the redoubt was beaten off by Sherwood Foresters of 139th Brigade (Who had been in reserve).
Captain Charles Vickers of the 1/7th Bn Sherwood Foresters would be awarded the Victoria Cross for his stand at one of the barriers in the face of numerous German attacks.
The Division had lost 3,763 officers and men as casualties in the space of an afternoon and almost all of them had occurred within the first ten minutes of going over the top. Once more the telling lack of a good supply of grenades had cost the British dear. A Division had been as good as destroyed for no gain. It is ironic that the Division would only have fully recovered from its mauling by the 1st July 1916: the Battle of the Somme.