The Explorers' Club, № CDLXIV

Operation AXIOM: The World War—The Third Battle of Artois, Part I
25 September-14 October 1915: The Battle of Loos—initial British gains were not exploited & eventually retaken by the Germans due to a lack of reserves (fresh troops) & artillery shells; Loos saw the first British use of poison gas of the war & the first tactical aerial bombing in history.









Commentary: When we think of the Great War of 1914-1918, of ranks of infantry climbing out of trenches & advancing across open ground under constant machine gun fire toward coils of barbed wire, with clouds of poison gas hanging over the whole bloody affair, we are thinking of the Battle of Loos. All the elements were in place, except for the British Brodie helmet & the German Stahlhelm, which wouldn't be introduced 'til 1916. (Wayback Machine: The Explorers' Club, № CXII, 2009.)

Lest we forget.