WE SHOULD HAVE WON — so believed Sir Douglas Haig, the future Commander-in-Chief in the west, as he and his staff tried desperately to puzzle out what had gone wrong during the Battle of Loos.
NEWS OF THE execution of Edith Cavell dominated the week’s news in the west. All the ingredients of martyrology were there — an undefended woman, of attested faith and almost inhuman courage, felled by a volley of rifle fire in a German shooting range in occupied Brussels.
THE FALL-OUT FROM the Battle of Loos was bitter. Shorn of spin, it had been a strategic failure and the occasion for huge allied losses.
The numbers of those Britons killed, wounded, captured, missing has been given as 48,367 with a further 10,880 lost at Aubers Ridge. In…
IT DEPENDS UPON what you mean by normal. According to most official records, this was a pretty normal week — no great offensives, no final victory or defeat. The big event at least on the western front, was the visit to the troops paid by King George V. Intense ardour for all matters royal was an authentic…