ck and which was now reoccupied by them. As a matter of fact,
the screening gas clouds hindered rather than helped the attack. The
Scottish division was exhausted, but if fresh troops had come up and a
fresh attack had been delivered against the Germans, who were
gathering all their men in the Douai region, the German front would
undoubtedly have been pierced like cardboard. Brigade "X" had made a
path, and if only reenforcements had arrived without delay the path
would have become a highroad--would have become the whole of Douai
plain. Not until nightfall were the reserves forthcoming. It is
evident that, in this first day, advantage was not taken of the
results achieved.

Though long-range fighting was incessantly kept up around Loos,
nothing of importance happened till October 8, 1915, when the Germans,
after an intense bombardment with shells of all calibers, launched a
violent attack on Loos and made desperate efforts to recapture their
lost positions. The main efforts were directed against the chalk pit
north of Hill 70, and between Hulluch and the Hohenzollern redoubt. In
the chalk pit attack, the Germans assembled behind some woods which
lay from 300 to 500 yards from the British trenches. Between these
woods and the British line the attacking force was mown down by
combined rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire, not a man getting
within forty yards of the trenches.

Farther to the south, between Hulluch and the quarries, the attack was
also repelled, the British securing a German trench west of Cite St.
Elie. The Germans did succeed in penetrating the British front in the
southern communication trench of the Hohenzollern redoubt, but were
shortly after expelled again by British bombers.

British flying men played an important part in the Battle of Loos and
in the preparations that preceded it. Troops and guns had to be moved
at night so that the German aeroplanes might not note the
concentration. Hence it was decided that British aeros should warn off
the German flyers by day. They probably outnumbered the German
machines by eight to one. As the attack proceeded a flock of
aeroplanes was cutting circles and dipping and turning over the battle
field as if in an exhibition of airmanship. They appeared to be
disconnected from the battle, but no participants were more busy or
intent than they. All the panorama of action was beneath them; they
alone could really "see" the battle if they chose. But each aviator
s