LOOS

Just south of Ploegsteert, rural Flanders gives way to industrial northern France. At one time, this region was at the heart of France's coal-mining industry, the vast pyramid-like spoil-heaps from the mine excavations still dominating the landscape. It was here that the British Army launched its first major offensive on the Western Front at Neuve Chapelle in 1915 and where, in September 1915, poison gas was first used in retaliation for the German chemical attack at Ypres.

 

Among the casualties buried near Loos is Lieutenant John Kipling whose story was immortalised in 'My Boy Jack'. The British Memorial to the Missing at Loos lists over 20,000 men with no known grave, representing around half the casualties from the battle. A large number of Scots were killed while attempting to capture strong-points such as Hill 70. The cosmopolitan nature of the war on the Western Front can be further seen with memorials and cemeteries to Australian, Indian and Portuguese soldiers who fell in the area.