Germans at Loos, September 1915

From The Other Trench: The WW1 Diary and Photos of a German Officer, by Alexander Pfeifer and Philipp Cross (True Perspective Press, 2024), Kindle pp. 100-101:

Those were once again some bad days, and there is still no end in sight yet. We were horribly barraged for four days and nights, and our entire position was destroyed. Then came the most horrifying — an English gas attack yesterday morning. The entire area was covered for kilometres with a thick, white mist of gas. We would have suffocated if we hadn’t had gas masks. Then came the English assault which was brilliantly repelled. This was followed by another artillery bombardment with heavy 15cm guns, and then another assault which was nevertheless repelled also. The Scottish, the ‘King’s Own Scottish Borderers’, had a terrifying number of casualties. 400 to 500 lie dead and wounded in front of my company section alone. We captured roughly 40 Scots and looted one machine gun and one bagpipe. The Scots, who emerged in thick heaps from the gas mist in front of us, were greeted by an insane hail of bullets from rifles and machine guns.

In response to our red flares, our artillery then released a rapid fire, and it sounded very frightening how the shells of the field guns swept in layers close over our heads and into the assaulting columns; and how the shells of our heavy artillery rushed high above us, to then explode at the back in the trenches stuffed with English reserves. What we can see ahead of us in terms of the dead is only a small part of the English losses. Just what might it look like in their assault starting positions? Our men did brilliantly. I am unwounded, but Lieutenant von Baumbach was killed early yesterday morning, meaning I am now the commander of this sector that was most heavily attacked. It is relatively calm today. The Scottish have probably had enough.

Note: The Germans during this war often refer to the British as ‘English’, regardless of their background....

Idyllic peace this morning. There was ridiculous artillery fire again in the afternoon, which was followed by another gas attack at half past 6 in the evening. The gas was transparent but much sharper this time. I am still very sick from it. The expected English assault did not materialise though. They are probably still tired of us from the day before yesterday. On the other hand, they attacked Infantry-Regiment 16 to the right of us but were smoothly beaten back. To our left, terrible battles have been raging since yesterday. A sergeant from a Bavarian regiment, who fetched grenades from us, said that he has been involved right from the start of the war, including Ypres, but he has never seen so many dead English as he has here. Our entire Front from Neuve Chapelle up to Loos-Vermelles is being attacked by frightening numbers of English. They have lost at least 10,000 men in two days.