On 26 September 1915 twelve British battalions – a strength of almost 10,000 men – were ordered to attack German positions at Loos in north-east France.

In the three-and-a-half hours of the actual battle, they sustained 8,246 casualties. The Germans suffered no casualties at all.

The Donkeys is a study of the Western Front on 1915, a brilliant exposé of a key stage of the Great War, when the opposing armies were locked in trench warfare. Alan Clark scrutinizes the major battles of the year. He casts a steady and revealing light on those in High Command – French, Rawlinson, Watson and Haig among them – whose orders resulted in the virtual destruction of the old professional British Army.

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