Editing Western Front (World War I) (section)

=== Autumn offensive ===

In September 1915 the entente launched another offensive, with the French [[Third Battle of Artois]], [[Second Battle of Champagne]] and the British at Loos. The French had spent the summer preparing for this action, with the British assuming control of more of the front to release French troops for the attack. The bombardment, which had been carefully targeted by means of [[aerial photography]],{{sfn|Bailey|2004|p=245}} began on 22 September. The main French assault was launched on 25 September and, at first, made good progress in spite of surviving wire entanglements and machine gun posts. Rather than retreating, the Germans adopted a new [[defence-in-depth]] scheme that consisted of a series of defensive zones and positions with a depth of up to {{convert|5|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip}}.{{sfn|Samuels|1995|pp=168–171}}

On 25 September, the British began the [[Battle of Loos]], part of the Third Battle of Artois, which was meant to supplement the larger Champagne attack. The attack was preceded by a four-day artillery bombardment of 250,000 shells and a release of 5,100 cylinders of chlorine gas.{{sfn|Palazzo|2000|p=66}}{{sfn|Hartesveldt|2005|p=17}} The attack involved two corps in the main assault and two corps performing diversionary attacks at Ypres. The British suffered heavy losses, especially due to machine gun fire during the attack and made only limited gains before they ran out of shells. A renewal of the attack on 13 October fared little better.{{sfn|Warner|2000|pp=4–31}} In December, French was replaced by General [[Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig|Douglas Haig]] as commander of the British forces.{{sfn|Wiest|2005|p=xvii}}