John McCallion

Killed in Action on the 27/09/1915 on the 3rd day of the Battle of Loos

John and the Battalion arrived at Le Havre on the 17/08/1915 and were part of the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division. The Battle of Loos, 25th September - 15th October 1915 : The first genuinely large scale British offensive action but once again only in a supporting role to a larger French attack in the Third Battle of Artois. British appeals that the ground over which they were being called upon to advance was wholly unsuitable were rejected. The battle is historically noteworthy for the first British use of poison gas. John was Killed in Action on the 3rd day of the Battle (41 days after arriving in France) - Hulluch area : At 4.40pm, under cover of a thick smoke screen, 2nd Guards Brigade advanced to Chalk Pit Wood and the Chalk Pit. A further advance to the buildings at Puits 14 bis was halted by machine-gun fire from Bois Hugo. Overall situation at nightfall : The forward British positions across the battlefield are by now thinly held. The units that had attacked on the 25th are exhausted and the reserves scattered. The vital positions at Fosse 8, the Quarries and Hill 70 have all been lost. German strength was increasing as the failure of French Tenth Army fails to occupy their reserves. It was time to regroup and rethink. The Big Push had broken into the enemy positions, but not through them. John was 1 of 99 men from the Coatbridge Memorial who fell during and from injuries from the Battle of Loos. John joined the Irish Guards using the alias JOHN McCALLUM and this is how he is listed on the Loos Memorial and CWGC. John is listed as JOSEPH on the Coatbridge Memorial. Also remembered on the Gartsherrie Works (as MCCULLION) and St. Johns Church Rolls of Honour and at the Family Plot in Dunboe, Co. Londonderry x 2 (see photos) and in the St. Augustine's Parish (book) Roll of Honour. See photos for John's Medal Index Card x 2, his Newspaper clippings x 3, his name on the Loos Memorial, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Loos Memorial Panel List, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls, John's Pension Records x 3 and the Irish Guards Cap Badge.