Through the first year of the First World War, Allied strategy had relied upon a series of small-scale assaults, which in reality achieved little or no ground gained. The Battle of Loos was to be different. Kitchener’s Army was deployed in strength for the first time and an ambitious plan aimed to take ground over a 20-mile front.

However, the battlefield was not the Allies’ ideal site and the battle plans did not account for the lack of ammunition and artillery. It was the attempt to overcome some of these shortcomings that would put this battle firmly in the history books, as the British deployed poison gas for the first time, hoping to confuse and overwhelm the German positions.

With facts and stats that explore both sides of the conflict, as well as the innovations brought to this battle, The Battle of Loos, 1915 analyses the key strategies at play, studies the lasting legacy of this battle on the rest of the war and explores the myth of the Footballer of Loos – an iconic image of the First World War to this day.

PETER DOYLE specialises in the understanding of military terrain, with special reference to the two world wars. A member of the British Commission of Military History, and co-secretary of the Parliamentary All Party War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group, he is the author of a number of works of military history.