Source: File: Military
Artist drawing of the Battle of Delville Wood, The Somme. July 1916.
See an original image at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delville_Wood_Battle_July_1916.jpg>
[Accessed 28 July 2016]
i
Another commune
in the Somme
To have strategic
value, Longueval -
Whose western
edge connected
To a tract of woodland
- Delville
Wood - high trees in one kilometre
Square of
hornbeam and beech.
Longueval village
marked a cross
Roads, west to
Montauban, east
To Ginchy and
north to Flers -
By battle's
baptism the systematic
Networks took on
British streets;
Piccadilly Strand
and Rotten Row.
To name just a few
- but to capture
This sector,
Trones Wood would
Have to be gained,
with its south
Approach - a neglected
pear shape
Collection of
trees, was a tumble
Of undergrowth
and fallen trunks.
Artillery hacked
away at Trones,
That by 9th July
was briefly taken
By 17th
Manchesters - whose
Advance was
hampered in need
To wear gas masks
in rain - but
Counter artillery
forced them out.
Trones saw
attacks and counter
Attacks - then
orders were gained
In capture of a German
officer -
To frustrate
their intentions after
Days of
exhaustive fighting, an
Order was given
to get it done.
Target date was
midnight 13 July -
From before dawn
a plan to make
Gain was to enter
north to south,
Securing eastern
edge as they
Went - despite confusion in dark,
Their progress
was successful.
Lt Colonel
Maxwell led support
From 8 a.m. to
come across mix
Of men in Trones -
recently lost
And isolated by
previous attacks,
Men reformed together
into some
Formation, into an
east west line.
In a sweeping action
they began
To sweep the wood
northwards -
With orders to
shoot at anything
That might hide
snipers - making
A successful
operation till stopped,
By enemy machine
gun positions.
Situated by a
light railway through
The middle of a
wood, Maxwell took
A party on a
stealth tactic - taking
The Germans down
and gaining
A machine-gun -
then by 9.30 a.m.
Trones was cleared of enemy hold.
Trones was cleared of enemy hold.
While not a rapid
capture, Trones
Wood opened up
the way to village
Of Longueval and
in turn Delville
Wood, attached to
Scottish Division
The job was given
to South Africans
1st infantry
brigade, date 16 July.
ii
Veteran of Zulu
and Boar Wars,
Brigadier General
Henry Lukin
Was given the
order to 'take wood
At all costs' - with
a shifting time
To zero hour from
5 p.m. to 7p.m.
Then 5 a.m. on 15
July, it began.
Prior to daylight,
3 battalions
Edged from
Montauban, led by
Lt-Col Tanner -
initially matters
Went well - the
wood had been
Heavily shelled
and in wrecked
Nature, no tree was untouched.
Nature, no tree was untouched.
Root systems had
been exposed,
As South Africans
progressed
Between blackened
stumps - with
Minimal
resistance a southern
Part was gained,
up to Prince's
Street - by 7
a.m. all was well.
To secure the
northern edge two
Companies moved,
followed
By battalions in
north east fan -
At noon Tanner
reported that
With exception of
northwestern
Edge, Delville
wood was in hand.
In the normal
securing of ground
Were orders to
dig trenches, but
The Germans had
not given in -
To provide a continual
bombs
Of all calibers - interspersed with
Gas, casualties
began to grow.
The ease of
digging trenches
Was not possible,
amid fallen
Trees and exposed
roots, so
Little more than
scraped areas
Were made - the
early progress
Dispersed as
situation changed.
From the afternoon's beginning, on
Northeast edge, an
allied battalion
Was thrown back,
having lost all
Their officers -
by 3 p.m. reserves
Of Bavarian
infantry attempted
To make a return to Delville wood.
Though they were
driven back,
Other German
forces had massed
North of the wood - as Tanner
Asked for
reinforcements - Scottish
Infantry were sent
as runners,
Taking messages
back and forth.
Tanner was
ordered by Lukin
To dig in,
despite their fatigue -
Expected shelling
by Germans
Of gas and high caliber
filled
The darkness; renewed orders
Were to recapture
at any cost.
At the midnight hour
Germans
Embarked on their
task, only
To be driven back
from 50 yard
Mark, by machine
and artillery
Fire - in their
displeasure German
Artillery sent
400 shells a minute.
iii
Casualties were
massing higher,
As bodies began
to pile in shell
Holes - in places
four deep - rain
Water and blood
lapped about -
Beneath shattered
tree stumps,
Survivors had to lay on corpses.
16th July and
gone midday came
'At all cost
order' again, for Lukin
To take Delville
Wood north west,
To meet the
attack brigade from
Longueval - yet
they were trapped
In an orchard at
the village's north.
South
African troops were depleted;
Dead lay atop the
dead, moulding
Together in
enlarged blackened
Shapes of wet and
heat - masks
Of men shimmering,
as the Very
Lights made folly
of their faces.
Survivors pulled
back, to huddle
Amid unmoving
passive shapes,
As they were
pushed back to lay
In their first
positions - wounded,
Tanner was moved out, replaced
By Lieutenant-Colonel Thackeray.
Still the
Germans retaliated in
Maintaining
their own order 'at all
Costs' - the 17th
July played out
In the dark - 3rd
Guard Division
Behind a creeping
barrage, made
It to Princes and Buchanan streets.
Black against
black, of fat bloated
Flies, flew as clouds in disturbance
Of bodies they
inhabited - massed
From forms on
which they feasted;
More immaculately
conceived flies
Formed on the
rotting flesh heaps.
In being driven
back from their
Line, regrouping
South African
Troops were then
observed,
To received
another barrage.
Under this the German
troops
Penetrated the
South Africans.
The northwest
flank felt the fury,
In hand to hand
combat - amid
The melee of
cursing encounters
Knives and fists
flayed out - hand
Bombs blasting
amid groups,
Using rifles to
deflect and hit out.
Wounds in variety
of severity
Inflicted -
flaying out in either
'Kill or be killed' - a South African
Hold then sank in
desperation,
As Germans came in
directions
From east, north and
northwest.
Such close encounters
viciously
Brief, would leave
further dead
Amid Delville Wood - forces
Came with 3rd
division, whose
Attack via
Longueval from south
West, offered some
slight relief.
In further replayed
hours came
German attacks and
South African
Attempts to stand
their ground -
Pushed back into
hours of 18 July,
Formed a sunrise
bombardment,
Mixed with
heaving deluges of rain.
Earth and physical remnants were
Thrown around, as 76th Brigade
Forced South
Africans backwards,
Further south under serious
artillery;
Regaining some ground, as
limited
German withdrawals regrouped.
In the afternoon
hour of 3.15 p.m.
German troops appeared
from
Eastern directions
into Delville
And Longueval, as
their reserves
Struck west, along
the village's
Ginchy road at
South Africans.
Dug in the Eastern
side the 3rd
African regiment
aimed small
Arms at their
advance, to halt
Their attempt - tactics
of German
Divisions sought
to recapture
Delville,
advancing by Flers road.
The northern
perimeter of the South
African line was
shoved southwards
To resurge with
hand to hand battle -
South Africans
now found selves
Forced into small
isolated groups -
Cut off from any capable
support.
Replay after
replay occurred -
Regiment 153 made
their play,
To take South
Africans from their
Rear - with many
killed the rest
Were captured - with
Germans
From southwest
Scots attacked.
Seaforth Black
Watch Cameron
Highlanders failed
in charging
Delville Wood -
sometimes
The front became
the rear - for
Groups picked on
each other,
By blur of
confused uncertainty.
Minutes of hours
of days saw
Little change, as
each side still
Sent forces into
the wood, where
The dead piled up;
their blood
Drained into
waterlogged craters,
In shattered remnants
of a wood.
A dark stained patch
of earth
Where one last
tree witnessed
The demise of fellow
hornbeams.
Rooted, the stubborn
bark held
Onto bullet heads,
singed in grief;
A single witness
to desperation.
By Jamie Mann.
Source: File: Delville Wood. Available at: <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/battles-of-world-war-one/delville-wood/>
[Accessed 28 July 2016]
Source: File: Battle of Delville Wood. Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Delville_Wood> [Accessed 28 July 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 28 July 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1DelvilleWood
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