Crosshouse at War

Crosshouse Parish Church.

How did it start?

I was browsing through YouTube and found a video that brought me to tears. It was called "Stand To, Crosshouse, Loos, 1915." The song, Stand To, was sung by Bob Fox as the names of all the fallen from the village of Crosshouse were read aloud.

After I had watched it, I wondered why I hadn’t been taught about the Battle of Loos.

I studied history at higher level. I was taught about the Somme. Passchendaele, Ypres, Mons, Gallipoli, but there was no mention of Loos.

After some extensive research, I knew I had to write about it. I love history, but I am not a historian, so what could I bring to the table, so to speak?

I decided to write a short piece about a front-line soldier’s thoughts and feelings that day on the 25^th of September, in 1915. I created fictitious diary entries written by two brothers. Most of what was written was motivated after listening to the BBC 4 Dan Snow podcast, Voices of World War One: Battle of Loos.

I had often asked about and listened to my grandmother talk about everyday life in Crosshouse during World War Two. I often thought about my great-grandparents, Maggie and Jim Heron, who endured two world wars along with the rest of the country. It is mind blowing.  

 Crosshouse at War was born.

Then, I decided that a veterans' charity should benefit from the book and that all proceeds from it would be donated. I had recently found out about Erskine Veterans Charity and signed up to support them. They would be ideal candidates, I thought. After all, they do not receive a penny from the annual Poppy Appeal held every year here in the UK.

I began corresponding with a lovely lady called Susan C M Hamilton, Communications Officer at Erskine, to find out how to go about it, and she agreed to write the preface on behalf of the charity. She read the book first, I hasten to add!

I was invited to Erskine and enjoyed a tour of the facilities and was amazed by the size of the place.There are workshops for art classes, woodwork, even, a genealogy class. There is a gym, recreation rooms and a relaxation room, which had the most amazing aroma of lavender and other essential oils. Many items made by the veterans in the art, pottery, and woodwork classes are for sale. There was such a lovely atmosphere. Everywhere I went, I saw contented, well cared for veterans and their families.

Some veterans are given self-contained flats, and are provided with support to naturalise, socialise and recuperate before they go back out into the big wide world alone. There are councillors and even staff who can assist with claiming the correct benefits.

A Scottish innovation that changed lives.

Susan told me about the story of the Erskine Leg. During WWI, prosthetic limbs were heavy, painful, and often unusable. In 1916, at the newly founded Erskine Hospital, Scottish surgeons, engineers, and craftsmen came together to change that.

 Their breakthrough became known as the Erskine Leg. It was lighter, better balanced, and far more comfortable than anything used before. Instead of forcing the body to adapt to the limb, the Erskine team designed the limb to adapt to the body, custom- made for each veteran, a revolutionary idea at the time. Eventually, the prosthetic limbs were made with absolute precision by veterans themselves.

I will return to this awe-inspiring place, filled with smiling faces and kind hearts. Most of the staff I spoke to have worked there for years!

Next time, I hope I will be able to chat with more of the veterans to whom we owe so very much. Thank you to each one of you out there, not just in Erskine.

The following is taken from the end of Crosshouse at War.

“Loos -en-Gohelle, was a coal mining village near the town of Lens.

 Crosshouse was also a predominantly coal mining village, it is situated near the town of Kilmarnock.

Both villages are linked by the men and families who suffered the worst the Great War could throw at them.

 The Battle of Loos was where, for the first time, the British had used chlorine gas as a weapon against the enemy and the first battle using Lord Horatio Kitchener’s so called new army, consisting mostly of volunteers, who had only been training since August 1914.

 Loos, as it is more commonly known, is situated in French Flanders, an industrial area of coal mines and mining villages.

In 1915, the village was attacked and held by German troops.  The terrain was flat, apart from slag heaps and colliery towers.

  One famous landmark, lifting gear by the main pit, stood about 150 feet tall. It was referred to as Tower Bridge by British soldiers, and it could be seen clearly in the distance as they awaited battle instructions.

I listened to ‘Voices of the First World War’, a BBC podcast by Dan Snow, and many men recalled seeing this tower.

British troops were deployed to attack the strong German defences to support French offensives in the south. Half of the 72 battalions in the Battle of Loos belonged to Scottish regiments. Apologies to all the other regiments that were involved in this bloody battle, but I have chosen to focus on the Scottish regiments.

“The scene of the coming conflict was not a picturesque one…the open plain was dotted with squalid little red- brick villages and ugly mine works”

Newman Flower 1916

Battle of Loos, 1915

‘A great deal of nonsense has been written about Loos. The real tragedy of that battle was its nearness to complete success. Most of us who reached the crest of Hill 70, and survived, were firmly convinced that we had broken through on that Sunday, 26th September 1915. There seemed to be nothing ahead of us, but an unoccupied and incomplete trench system. The only two things that prevented our advancing into the suburbs of Lens were, firstly, the exhaustion of the "Jocks" themselves (for they had undergone a bellyful of marching and fighting that day) and, secondly, the flanking fire of numerous German machine-guns, which swept that bare hill from some factory buildings in Cite St. Auguste to the south of us. All that we needed was more artillery ammunition to blast those clearly located machine guns, plus some fresh infantry to take over from the weary and depleted "Jocks." But, alas, neither ammunition nor reinforcements were immediately available, and the great opportunity passed.’

Major-General Richard Hilton, Forward Observation Officer

Out of almost 10,000 British soldiers, 8,246 were killed or wounded in three hours during the Battle of Loos.

Sources.

‘The Forgotten Battle ‘by Patrick Macgill,

‘The Unwanted Battle. Loos 1915 by Gordon Corrigan 2018, Sharpe Books)

“The disproportionate number of Scots who went over the top at 6.30 am on September 25, 1915, ensured Loos would be remembered as a Scottish battle.”

Dr. Derek Patrick, University of St Andrews

‘Field of Corpses’

“Never had the machine-gunners such straightforward work to do nor done it so unceasingly. The men stood on the fire step, some even on the parapets, and fired exultantly into the mass of men advancing across the open grassland. As the entire field of fire was covered with the enemy's infantry the effect was devastating, and they could be seen falling in hundreds

German Regimental Diarist, after the Battle of Loos.

Chemical Warfare.

The Battle of Loos was the first battle of WW1 in which the British would use demoralising and deadly gas as a weapon.

Four months before the Battle of Loos took place, Germany had used gas as a weapon, causing the Allies to complain bitterly, declaring that it was banned. The Hague Convention of 1907 did ban using artillery shells to dispense gas, but it did not mention or ban the use of gas cylinders.

Sir John French called the use of gas ‘a cynical and barbarous disregard of the well-known usages of civilised war’.

The British went on to develop more effective and horrid gases and ways to deliver them, going on to launch almost twice as many gas attacks as Germany.

When chlorine contacts moisture in the nose, eyes, and lungs, it turns into an acid that burns, blinds, and blisters. It destroys the lungs, and victims drown in their own body fluids. Those who did not die would go on to suffer lifelong lung problems.

In the early days before gas masks, soldiers had to make do with socks or rags soaked in their own urine to protect themselves against the effects of the gas. A Canadian artillery officer was horrified to see men ‘literally coughing their lungs out’ later to ‘roll about like mad dogs in their death agonies. A Canadian medical officer suggested using fabric soaked with water, baking soda, and urine. The ammonia in the urine reacted with chlorine to reduce the effects. By the 6th of June, British and Canadian soldiers were issued with the first gas mask designed by Captain Cluny Macpherson of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment. His next mask, which had eyepieces and an exhalation valve, was nick-named ‘the goggle-eyed bugger with the tit by Captains Robert Graves and JC Dunn of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

‘If a whiff of gas you smell, Bang your gong like bloody hell,On with your googly, up with your gun ready to meet the bloody Hun’.

The British smoke helmet, also known as the hypo helmet, became available in July 1915. It was not popular. It covered the head and neck and was tucked into the collar of the soldier’s tunic. The material was impregnated with hyposulphite which removed chlorine from the air in the helmet. It was effective, but because it was hot and made it difficult to see and hear, many didn’t use it.

It was determined by the British that 9,000 cylinders would be required, but there were only 4,000 available, and so it was decided that smoke and gas would be released intermittently.

Canisters of chlorine gas, provided by special units of the Royal Engineers, were stacked up at the ready in the British trenches. The plan was for the gas and smoke to be released at Zero Hour before the men were sent over the top’ in two columns, leaving reserves to follow on later. The time of Zero-hour would depend on the wind direction. A gas attack could only be successful if there was a wind blowing in the direction of the German trenches.

Sir Douglas Haig felt that if the wind were against them and gas could not be used, that the attack should be postponed. However, the French were determined to go ahead come what may on the 25th of September, and General Haig did not receive support from Sir John French, although Sir John agreed to an abridged plan if it was not possible to use gas.

At 5 am on the 25th, General Haig checked the wind direction himself and gave the go-ahead to continue with the original plan.

Many soldiers were carrying pickaxes, shovels, and sandbags as well as guns so that they could alter the direction of enemy trenches once they had captured them. The men were told that once the order to advance was given, anyone retreating or caught being a shirker would be shot.

The battalions consisted of regular soldiers, the territorial army, and an army of volunteers and reservists which became known as Kitchener’s army, named after the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, who planned to use the mostly untrained, and unprepared men in a major battle for the first time during the war.

Throughout the country, men had volunteered in large numbers, patriotism was running high, and Kitchener’s face stared out of posters declaring that ‘Your Country Needs You' Almost every town and village in Scotland was affected by the battle of Loos. Seventy-two battalions, half of which belonged to Scottish regiments, were involved. Scottish divisions made the main attacks, with battalions from every Scottish regiment fighting in the battle. Dundee’s 4th Black Watch, also known as ‘Dundee’s Own’, suffered one of the highest casualty rates in the country, but the heavy losses affected families and loved ones not only in Dundee but also in Aberdeenshire, Lanarkshire, Perthshire, Fife, Stirlingshire, and Ayrshire.

Sir John French resigned ‘under pressure’ in late 1915 and was succeeded by General Douglas Haig, who went on to become Field Marshall.

“I saw some rats running from under the dead men’s greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured,

and from the yawning mouth leaped a rat.

Author unknown.”

Jacqueline Heron Wray

June 2026.

https://amzn.eu/d/00fateWL