Poem ~ Devils Work In Delville Wood - Friday, 28 July 1916 - Sunday, 30 July 1916

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]

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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). 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1DelvilleWood

Poem ~ Aussies at Pozieres - Monday, 24 July 1916 - Wednesday, 26 July 1916

Source: File: "Gibraltar" bunker, Pozières, in late August. A fatigue party laden with sandbags heads for the fighting at Mouquet Farm.  See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pozières#/media/File:Gibraltar_bunker_Pozieres_(AWM_EZ0098).jpg> [Accessed 24 July 2016]

Amid the failed objectives of 1 July 1916,

Stood the small French village of Pozieres -

Not yet to be forgotten - delayed scheduled

Full-on attacks would resurge by mid month.

Situated on another Somme ridge, this

Village lay on the road between Bapaume

And Albert - houses clustered about one

Long straight road with a lone windmill.

Once a Roman way was deserted

In the presence of armies, that made

This their demarcation - here atop

Rolling ground lay the highest point.

This was where Pozieres windmill that

Caught high winds, to become Hill 60;

Just the slightest point of height could

Provide the advantage for artillery fire.

The German line had sliced the Somme

From Longueval, Bazentin Le Petite,

Over that ridge and behind Pozieres -

Intentions were for British to move east.

With this, Thiepval and Pozieres would

Prove too much for Germans to hold -

With focus on grounds between those

Communes of Ginchy and Guillemonth.

Along with High and Delville woods

An increased pressure would allow

A gain of Pozieres - by steady steps,

The fourth army made initial advance.

Over five days, 13 to 17 July, no gain

Was made, only high casualties, during

This the work of artillery pounded

The deserted French village into ruins.

Two attempts to take Pozieres trench

In a system from west to south failed -

While east attempts up the Old Geman

Lines also failed; a rethink was needed.

Decisions could have no hesitations,

General Rawlinson would send

Six divisions from south and north,

Down Guillemont and Albert road.

Initially scheduled for day 18 July,

Postponement took this to evening

Of 22 July, by two Generals situations;

Gough reserves, Walkers Australians.

In position of holding the road since

Before July, Lt General Gough known

As a 'thruster,' told M-General Walker

To attack Pozieres during coming night.

Leading the Australians after Gallipoli,

Walker locked horns - that his attack

Would happen only after preparations -

So a launch set in hours from 22-23 July.

Three stages to happen in half hours -

Minutes of the clock, to see 1st divisions

Of Australians form south, while from

West, South Midland division would move.

Pozieres took another bombardment,

To include tear and phosgene gas -

German 117th Infantry shells beat time,

As Australian brigades made preparations.

1st and 3rds behind artillery wall edged

Into No Mans land - as the shield lifted,

They rushed outwards to gain Pozieres

Trench in the south - onto a second stage.

Australians crept out through remnants

Of back gardens, to join with stage three

Down into Albert Road - while garrisons

Of Germans then moved east and north.

With matching moves and gains, words

On white paper set out a night attack -

Despite confusion over beaten ground,

German resistance came from old line.

An 18-year-old officer, Ian Fraser arrived

From Sandhurst to Somme, in admittance

Of fear from his age in leading others - his

Terror brewed in bombardment not to fail.

Then they moved with intermittent fear

Between bursts, as they were forced

To crawl under snipers fire - on northside

Of Pozieres Fraser led a bomb attack.

At some random point, a German rifle

Shot - intentional of specific target or

Not, knocked Fraser to the ground;

A bullet had passed through his head.

The small missile did its deed that

Destroyed both eyes - others acted

To dress him - Fraser even chatted

With his commander as they walked.

Later he recalled how he was laid

On a market type barrow, wheeled

Along for apparent miles down a shell

Damaged road - none of which he saw.

Some doctor gave him an injection, to

Write an indelible cross upon his fore-

Head. quizzed why? 'Oh just a sign that
You had anti-tetanus' - he lay still, blind.

A Chaplain of the Gloucesters, Dominic

Devas, appropriately at Crucifix Corner

Dressing station, saw tremendous howls

Of bombardment puckering night into light.

Devas assisted through the dark hours

As wounded gathered under the crucifix

Arms, until a fresh summer morning broke -
At Aveluy he gave mass to passing soldiers.

Das Blockhaus to be known as Gibraltar,

Was a bunker on the western side, which

Australians reached - lying thick with dead

Of the enemy, as wounded still piled up.

On the ground of the windmill lay concrete

Gibraltar, which found had new purpose

As HQ for 7th and 8th Australians - amid

The first, Private Bourke stepped inside.

Cake boxes lay in a corner, with an address

Written by a child - while evidence of a coat

Bloodied with shrapnel of a German wearer;

Saddened Bourke dwelt on the child's gifts.

By this date 23 July, Australian prospectors

Out on the road captured various Germans,

As some kind of hold was made on Pozieres -

The only gain on that date of German focus.

With all communication process hampered,

Only by the early morning of 24 July, gave

Realization that Pozieres was captured -

Attacks elsewhere faded, looking to Pozieres.

Continual but not intense, IV German corps

rearmed their guns, targeting head on Sausage

Valley towards Casualty Corner - thereafter

Called Dead Mans Road - for counter attacks.

By Jamie Mann.

Richardson, M., 2015. Eyewitness On The Somme 1916. Pen and Sword Books. Ch. 3

Source: File: Battle of Pozières. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pozières> [Accessed 19 July 2016]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 19 July 2016). 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1 Pozieres