Loss of the Kink Salient

Loss of the Kink Salient
Part of Local operations December 1915 – June 1916 Western Front, First World War
Lens–La Bassée area
Date 11–14 May 1916 Location Loos-en-Gohelle, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France 50°27′30″N 02°47′39″E / 50.45833°N 2.79417°E / 50.45833; 2.79417 Result German victory
Belligerents
Germany	Britain
Commanders and leaders
General Erich von Falkenhayn	Douglas Haig
Strength
2 battalions	2 battalions
Casualties and losses
71 (incomplete)	935 135 taken prisoner
the Kink (Loos) class=notpageimage| Loos is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France

The Loss of the Kink Salient occurred during a local attack on 11 May 1916, by the 3rd Bavarian Division on the positions of the 15th (Scottish) Division. The attack took place at the west end of the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Loos, on the Western Front during the First World War. An unprecedented bombardment demolished the British front line, then specially trained German assault units rushed the survivors and captured the British front line and the second line of defence; British tunnellers were trapped in their galleries and taken prisoner.

Hasty counter-attacks by the British were repulsed amidst the darkness, smoke and dust, which left British artillery observers unable to see the front line. The British guns continued to fire on the German front line long after the German raiders had crossed no man's land but an organised counter-attack at 9:30 p.m. was conducted with artillery support. The counter-attack made progress at Hussar Horn in the early hours of 12 May but was abandoned. A final attempt to recapture the lost ground on 14 May was defeated and the British consolidated a new line further back, on ground less exposed than the Kink.