Footsteps of the fallen

The Corpsefield - part 2


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Our second visit to the battlefield looks at the events of the 25/26 September 1915, where 75,000 men of the BEF advanced behind a curtain of poison gas in an attempt to break the German line once and for all.

In the town of Loos itself, men of the Scottish division made incredible progress and found themselves on the top of Hill 70 overlooking the open plains towards Lens.  Sadly the lack of reserves in this sector didn't allow this to be exploited.

The rest of the battlefield was an ebb and flow of success and failure, with areas of great advances being made, tempered by the annihilation of thousands of soldiers by well sighted German machine guns. Despite the initial success, the Germans called the fields around Loos "Das Liechenfeld von Loos" or The Corpsefield of Loos, and when the offensive finally ended, over 60,000 men were killed, wounded or missing. 

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Footsteps of the fallenBy Matt Dixon