DRAFT - John Lucas Miller and the Battle of Loos - written by Ross Mackay

-

John Lucas MILLER

 

• Born:  8 May 1878
• Rank:  Private
• Service No.:  S/14018
• Unit:  Queen’s Own (7th) Cameron Highlanders (CO - I think - Lt Colonel JW Sandilands), 44th Brigade (Brigadier General M G Wilkinson), 15th (Scottish) Division (Major General FWN MacCracken), IV Corps (Lt General Sir H Rawlinson), 1st Army (General Haig), BEF  (C-in-C Field Marshal French). 
• Landed in France (Boulogne) 9 Jul 15
• Enlisted:  ???????
• Killed in action 25 September 1915 (first day of the Battle of Loos)
• Medals:  1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

 

The 7th Cameron Highlanders started the Battle of Loos with 20 officers and 827 men and 24hrs later the roll call was 4 officers and 75 men.

 

According to Alan Clark (in his book “The Donkeys”, Introductory Note, page 1), “In the first two hours of the Battle of Loos more British soldiers died than the total number of casualties in all three services on both sides on D-Day 1944”.  

 

Loos Memorial (Panel 119 to 124) forms the side & back of Dud Corner Cemetery, commemorating over 20,000 soldiers with no known grave (including JLM) who died in the area of the River Lys to Grenay and to Loos-en-Gohelle.  

 

Loos (Loos-en-Gohelle) is a village to the north of the road from Lens to Bethune. From Lens, take the N43 towards Bethune. Arriving at Loos, turn right at CWGC sign post. The cemetery is about 1 km from Loos Church in the southern part of the village. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOOS​

​​​

Date/s:  25 to 28 September 1915

 

Location:  Northern France - 2km SW of Lille

 

 

Units involved:  British 1st Army (General Haig)


The Battle of Loos (25 to 28 September 1915) formed a part of the wider Artois-Loos Offensive conducted by the French and British in autumn 1915.

 

The Loos offensive began on 25 September following a four-day artillery bombardment in which 250,000 shells were fired, and was called off in failure on 28 September.  Presided over by Douglas Haig, the British committed six divisions to the attack.  Haig was persuaded to launch the Loos offensive despite serious misgivings.  He was much concerned at both a marked shortage in available shells (sparking the shell shortage scandal in Britain in 1915), and at the fatigued state of his troops; he was further concerned at the nature of the difficult terrain that would need to be crossed.  All considered, he favoured a delay before commencing an offensive at Loos, while these concerns were addressed.  Set against these concerns however was the reality that the British enjoyed massive numerical supremacy against their German opposition at Loos, in places of 7 to 1.  

 

Once the preliminary artillery bombardment had concluded, Haig's battle plans called for the release of 5,100 cylinders of chlorine gas (140 tons) from the British front line.  The quantity of gas used was designed to entirely overcome the primitive state of German gas mask design in use at the time.  Unfortunately, the release of gas was not without mixed results.  In places the wind blew the gas back into the British trenches, resulting in 2,632 British gas casualties, although only seven actually died.  

 

Battle of Loos, continued:

 

Haig's strategy involved the deployment of I and IV Corps (JLM) in the gap between Loos and the La Bassee Canal, while II and III Corps formed diversionary attacks. The southern section of Haig's attack, conducted by IV Corps (JLM), made significant progress on the first day of the battle, somewhat to Haig's surprise, capturing Loos and moving onwards towards Lens.  However, supply problems, and a need for reserves brought the advance to a halt at the end of the first day (JLM was killed on this – first – day). By day two, 26 September, the British no longer had the benefit of a preliminary artillery bombardment.  Advancing towards the Germans that afternoon without covering fire, they were decimated by repeated machine gun fire, the Germans astonished that the attack had been launched without adequate cover.  

 

The British failure at Loos contributed to French's replacement by Haig as Commander-in-Chief at the close of 1915.  

 

According to Alan Clark (in his book “The Donkeys”, Introductory Note, page 1), “In the first two hours of the Battle of Loos more British soldiers died than the total number of casualties in all three services on both sides on D-Day 1944”. 

 

Family member:  Private John Lucas MILLER – 7th Bn Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders - (Anne’s grandfather) was killed on the first day of the battle.  At Loos Memorial in the Dud Corner War Cemetery, he is listed as “one of the missing” (one of 20,000).  The cemetery is on the D943, near the village of Loos-en-Gohellebetween Lens and Bethune.

 

Casualties:  60,000 British killed (and 26,000 Germans killed).  The British entered the battle with 6 Divisions, against 3 German Divisions.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
                                     Family  Headstones in Ireland. The Smith and Cloney families in  Swords, Co. Dublin, Church of Ireland churchyard.          James Smith and Frances  Bryan were married in 1849. The marriage was registered in Ratoath, Meath, Ireland. Frances was one of six daughters of Lydia and Walter Bryan whose home was Baltrasna, in Ashbourne, Meath. The family story says that Walter built a home for Frances and James at Greenfields, on Seatown Road, Swords, Co. Dublin. James and Frances were my second great-grandparents. Their eldest son was John William, father of my grandmother,  Victoria Alice Maud Smith, known as Alice.  There are two Smith headstones located in the Swords Church of Ireland  churchyard. They are found toward the back of the cemetery on the left, when facing the church.  One h...
Read more

Family places of interest around Swords, Co. Dublin.

-
Image
 1.   Greenfields, the home of James and Frances Smith (neé) Bryan. My mother told me she understood that Frances’s father built the house at Greenfields for her. The house is on a townland called Greenfields and it appears that the Smith property was the only one on this townland. As her father, Walter Bryan had a large land holding at Ashbourne, in Meath, I imagine that his contribution was of a financial nature, not a practical one.  The house still exists but, when last visited, was named Annsbrook House and is located on Seatown Road, a little way from Swords main street.  Some years ago, we knocked on the door, and were invited in for a tour. A friend of those people had created a a small painting of what the artist thought the house would have looked like when it was first built. James and Frances had ten or eleven children (the records are a little confusing).   At least one c hild died just after birth and several of the boys died by their 40s.  T...
Read more
-
Image
PLACES OF INTEREST IN TIPPERARY ...  THE TILERY, SOLOBEGHEAD OR SOLOHEAD, LISHENNAMALAUSA, CO. TIPPERARY -   William McDowell was born about 1814, said to have occurred  in the area of Jerritzpass, now in Northern Ireland..  Land owned by the Duke of Derby, also known as Lord Stanley.  The land across the road from the house. This is where the clay for the tiles were taken from.  This is the house that it seems William built or had built at the place that is known as The Tilery. Opposite are the fields where the clay was taken from to make the "tiles" (apparently more like clay drainage pipes that were laid deep in the ground to drain the water from the very well fields.  TIPPERARY TOWN - HOUSES Photo from 2008. This is St Michael's Street (previously Nelson Street).  St Michael's Church can be seen at the end of the street. Houses numbered 60 to 65 were listed in William's will as being left to each of his daughters or their children and grandch...
Read more