by Ian Uys
“Entering the wood, just over the sunken road near Longueval, a particularly vicious salvo of shells exploded next to us. We ducked into a large shell-hole and as I got up to go on, I felt as though a mule had kicked me and fell to the ground.
“I had been hit in the thigh by the nosecap of a 5.9 inch shell. I don’t remember hearing the burst of the shell that hit me. A four inch hole appeared in my left thigh, breaking my leg.
“As I sat up abruptly, I saw the nosecap next to me and tried to pick it up. It was still very hot and I dropped it. Geordie immediately pulled out my field dressing, carried inside my tunic; this bandage fitted nicely into the hole in my leg. I tried to stand up but found it impossible.
“Geordie left me there and took the message into the wood. I learned later he delivered it to a corporal and returning from the wood was killed. We had both taken off our gas masks when I was hit.
“I left my rifle and haversack in the nearby shell hole and crawled towards the sunken road. In spite of the shelling, gas, and rain, I fell asleep, completely exhausted. I cannot recollect any pain from the wound at that time.
“The day I was wounded, Sgt Vic Hunt was blown several feet into the air and landed in a muddy shell-hole. The shell killed four men with him, one of them being literally blown to pieces. If Vic had not been there, this chap would have been posted missing.”
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Sergeant P J Neille went out time and again under the heaviest fire repairing and examining the wire. He was slightly wounded but carried on. His courage and coolness having a marked effect on his men.
Chapter 9 — The Bitter-enders
Wednesday 19th
At dawn on the 19th the 1st and 2nd Companies of the l/52nd German Regiment advanced from the north-west into the eastern part of the wood, where they took five officers and 195 men of the ‘3 Sudafrikanischer Regiment’ prisoner. With their ammunition exhausted, the survivors of the 3rd SAI on the eastern and southern flanks of the wood were compelled to surrender. In addition the Germans released 17 men of the 153rd Regiment.
At 7 am troops of the British 53rd Brigade were placed under Gen Furse’s command and rushed to Longueval to halt the enemy’s advance. The 8th Norfolks made the attack too late to take advantage of the British barrage and with no time for a reconnaissance or food. The German snipers ignored the first line of infantry, then inflicted heavy casualties on the supporting troops.
Thackeray’s garrison fired into the flank of the retreating Germans, thereby assisting the Norfolks to gain the line of Princes Street by midday.
The Germans brought up a new division, the 8th of the 4th (Magdeburg) Corps and made repeated attacks on Thackeray at Princes Street.
Heavy fighting continued and the 11/52nd were subjected to heavy artillery fire. Both other battalions of the 52nd were deployed at this time from the southern part of Longueval but not into Delville Wood.
That afternoon the German 26th Regiment and most of the 52nd Regiment faced Thackeray in an 5-shaped front around Princes and Buchanan streets. The 107th Reserve Infantry Regiment had come around the wood to take up positions 100 yards south of the Ginchy road.
The Germans reinforced the wood and the other battalions of the 53rd Brigade made little headway against them later in the day. Artillery fire once more destroyed the signal wires.
In “The Big Push” R Gardner intimates that the South Africans were abandoned. “… someone seems to have forgotten the South Africans — or perhaps it was true that Empire troops always got the dirty jobs, because the British politicians would not have to answer to Empire politicians for their conduct.
“The South Africans’ life in Delville Wood had been hell on earth. Their machine-guns were eventually all knocked out, so when the Germans counter-attacked they had to stand up in the trenches and fire with rifles, an unusual procedure on the Somme. When they were taken prisoner many of them were shot.”
General Furse had asked the 53rd Brigade to relieve Thackeray but for some unknown reason they failed to do so. On the night of the 19th the 9th Division was relieved, the 26th Brigade initially withdrew to Carnoy and the 27th to Talus Boise. General Furse handed over the command of the section on the morning of the 20th to the GOC of the 3rd Division.
Thackeray and his small party clung to the south-west corner of the wood against overwhelming odds. German bombers and snipers came forward to be followed by mass attacks on three sides. Two wounded officers remained with Thackeray, Lieut Garnet Green of the 2nd and Lieut Edward Phillips of the 3rd SAI (attached to the light trench mortar battery).
The small “band of brothers” were shelled and sniped at throughout the day. By his personal example Thackeray kept their morale up. Though bone-weary and worn down by the continual fighting, they nevertheless rallied each time he called for it and threw back the attacking enemy.
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Lukin’s report on the day’s events was terse.
“Throughout the 19th the heavy shelling of the wood continued.
“The Norfolk, Berkshires and Royal Welsh Fusiliers attacked, but the enemy snipers, who were in the wood in force, allowed the first line to go through and sniped the second and third lines very heavily.
“During the advance of the Norfolks, Lieut-Colonel Thackeray’s men were enabled to severely punish the enemy on the flank.”
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During the day the men of the TMB helped to repulse three enemy counter-attacks. They threw bombs freely and with great success.
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Gordon Forbes found his new role as infantryman extremely unpleasant. “Lying in trenches all day, with heaps of dead men all round us. Norfolks came up and charged through wood (Delville Wood) clearing the Bosches out and took a number of prisoners. No food and water all day except some musty iron rations, and waiting to be relieved by Suffolks. Hope to blazes they come soon. Have been shelled and whizzbanged all day and covered from head to foot with mud and wet. Next war I’ll send cigs and socks to lonely soldiers. I have had enough.”
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Kenneth Earp of Rondebosch was hit by shrapnel on his birthday. “The topics of the day (later at hospital) were our narrow escapes. I had a particularly lucky one when a shell burst between five of us. Two were killed, two wounded and as for myself I got shrapnel through the boot. How I got out alive seems a miracle. The casualty list tells its own story. Our boys fought well and stuck to their posts. The Germans charged us twice when I was there with bombs, etc., but we got our backs up on each occasion and let them have it hot.
“I was nearly gassed at Montauban with gas-and tear-shells. The experience was an awful one. One’s throat got sore and water came out of the eyes as if one had had ammonia thrown in them. I cannot describe the battlefield. It was too hideous …
“Three of Jagger’s men were among the wounded to my knowledge, including my half-section, Harvey Robson … There is only one man left of my stokes gun team out of five. Three out of the four trench mortar officers were killed.”
*
Captain Patterson began mopping up.
“SA Brigade left Montauban and I spent day in organising search party and trying to find out what happened to guns. Almost impossible to do anything in the way of search work on account of shell fire. Collected five guns and a few men that were left and got news of all the others except four. Reported to the 26th Brigade in the evening and found they were being relieved.”
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The weary troops were suffering terribly from thirst. Padre Hill did everything possible to alleviate their plight.
“July 19. I returned (from Delville Wood) and found water short, so watched my opportunity and filled all cans, escaping snipers.”
This incident, simply narrated by Hill, was more fully told by Sir Philip Gibbs in Realities of War (1944):
“There was no water except at a well at Longueval, under fire of German snipers, who picked off our men when they crawled down like wild dogs with their tongues lolling out. There was one German officer there in a
shell-hole not far from the well, who sat with his revolver handy, and he was a dead shot. But he did not shoot the padre. Something in the face and figure of that chaplain, his disregard of the bullets snapping about him, the upright, fearless way in which he crossed that way of death, held back the trigger-finger of the German officer, and he let him pass.
“He passed many times, untouched by bullets or machine-gun fire, and he went into bad places, pits of horror, carrying hot tea which he made from the well-water for men in agony. The padre in question was Father Eustace Hill, C R, of St John’s College.”
Padre Hill initially had some difficulty in deciding how to bury the dead. “… While wondering how to dig a grave to hold all the 12 lying about the aid post a terrific shell fell in the garden amidst the rose trees. Clods of earth went up and left a cavern into which I easily pulled all, and took the burial service throwing in rose leaves at ‘ashes to ashes’.
“A German soldier we dressed but he died. The other we had carried on a stretcher. Buried on 19/20 July 1916. In huge shell-hole (made on 19th by big barrage) by SAI dressing-station in Longueval — 50 yards from big church and cemetery just by red brick coach-house with rose garden. These men left dead when doctors left. Living carried away. Dying left. V Adams died in a horse-hair chair. He was an old St J C (Old Johannian).”
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Private William Robert Peggs, 18, was an apprentice engineer from Green Point, Cape Town. After the stark desert campaign he found the attractions of Marseilles irresistible, so went AWOL, however was soon arrested by the police. It was very nearly his last “fling”.
At Delville Wood Will Peggs was hit by shrapnel in the neck. He later wrote to a friend describing what followed.
“I suppose you will have heard that I caught a packet — right in the neck, too, just below the ear. It did not strike me at first that I had been hit, but I started to bleed like a stuck pig, so I asked a chap to tie some bandage round it, and then made my way to the dressing-station.
“It was quite an exciting journey, too. I fell in with a few Jocks, and as we were going through the wood two of us were blown to bits. Trees were falling all round us, likewise shells. One shell dropped about 10 yards from us (I think it was a coalbox) and buried six of us, myself included.
“It was ten minutes before we were all dug out. We had a bit of a rest then; we were too dazed to bother about the shells. We had not gone 20 yards on when others and myself were buried again. Oh! it was a lovely sensation — I don’t think! It did not take them so long this time to root us out. From here to our support trenches nothing occurred.
“Our supports were catching it hot; Fritz had the range to an inch, and every shell was killing, wounding or burying them. A shell burst quite close to me and sent me off with shell-shock. I remember being taken down to a dug-out, one of the deep ones, some 30 or 40 feet deep, that the Germans had made; they are past masters at this game.
“I must have ‘gone off’ for two hours as it was nearly four o’clock before I came to. I had not been awake five minutes when the order ‘stand to’ came, so an officer told me to make my way to the dressing-station. He put on a fresh bandage before I went, as the old one was saturated with blood.
“The dressing-station was over a mile from here, so I started to run as fast as I could, but seeing that I had had no sleep for three nights and no food for two days, not to mention my wound, loss of blood, and shock, you can imagine how fast I ran. On the way I felt as though the whole German artillery were trying their best to blot me out; that was hell to me, and it lasted for half an hour, until I arrived at the dressing-station.”
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Charlie Ingram, 20, later recalled his impressions of taking and holding the wood.
“At 3.30 am on the morning of Saturday, 15 July 1916, we went over the top and attacked the wood. It was a ding-dong fight. Attack and counter-attack from all angles.
“It was great fun potting German snipers who had been sniping from tree tops. At times shells were falling at the rate of 400 per minute besides continuous machine-gun and rifle fire plus tear-and chlorine-gas. It was estimated that 100,000 shells fell in the wood during the five nights and six days that we were there.
“Apart from shells, etc., it often rained to the discomfort of the troops but it also was a blessing in that we got water from the shell holes. On account of the terrific shelling by the Germans, rations and water could not be brought up. We survived on our rations and rations from the men killed.
“What was originally a beautiful wood of about 154 acres of lovely trees and undergrowth was now a mass of shell craters and tree stumps and corpses. Only one tree was not completely destroyed and that was riddled with shrapnel and machine-gun bullets. Not a square foot of ground had not been bombed and the only reason some of us survived was that we moved around.”
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Cyril Barnes recalled that after four days of shelling they could see right through the wood.
“I had the impression that the ground was honeycombed with shell-holes … your feet sank in at least six inches — the ground was so ploughed up.
“Word was passed down from Capt Jowett (A Coy) to retire. Capt Jowett was killed after giving word to retire. When we returned there was a lot of sniping. Freddie Wendell and G J van Niekerk of Pretoria were with me.
“We retired half-way through the wood and came across support trenches manned shoulder to shoulder by troops. We then went to the HQ of the brigade. The first roll-call was answered by 30 of the 200 men of C Coy’s full strength.”
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Corporal Doitsh had a rude awakening at 3 am.
“I was met with the spectacle of a number of Germans entering the trench in which I was lying, with picks and shovels; and seeing the dead officer, they began to examine the corpse and remove it to the parapet. They then began to dig, and were evidently going to take up their position in the trench.
“I felt a bit uneasy. I had my head covered up under the sheet, but they must have noticed me, as they began talking to themselves in German, and advanced towards me. I thought it was time to show myself, and I do not know who received the greater fright, they or myself. They evidently expected to find a corpse under the sheet, and when I exposed myself they seemed to get a shock.
“As a matter of fact, a few of them jumped over the top as if they had had a start. They pulled me out, and I saw a few hundred of them, who seemed to have just arrived, as they were starting to take off their packs. They appeared to be a fresh lot, as their uniforms were spotless, and they had evidently not occupied trenches (probably the newly arrived 52nd Regt).
“A big bully, whom I took to be a sergeant-major, came towards me, and said in broken English: ‘Here is a swine Englander.’ He ordered one of his men to fetch an officer. A very important-looking man came along, whom I took to be a general.
“He said he would get two men, when it got lighter, to take me over to their lines and get me fixed up. I told him I would be glad if he would let two of his men help me to get near my own lines, and I would then crawl along on my back the rest of the way. He replied: ‘Oh, no, you are my prisoner.’ Our artillery at this time was firing heavily, and their stretcher-men were very busy.
“It was quite a scene to watch the Huns trying to dodge the shells. I forgot about all danger to myself; I suppose I was getting used to it. Their continual cry for the ‘sanitats’, which is the German for stretcher-bearers, kept these individuals quite busy.
“They placed me behind a tree, with a burly German to guard me. He kept on moving his arm, which made me a bit suspicious; but looks are deceptive, however, for after a while he offered me the only piece of bread he had in his haversack. I remained with him until it was properly light, when some of our boys were brought towards me under a German escort. I asked the guard over me if he were a Saxon, as he seemed too good to be a Prussian. He replied: ‘We are Prussians.’ Up to now they had not put their trench threat into practice — namely, to skin and burn alive the fi
rst South African they caught. We took it that they meant this as a way of revenge for South West Africa.
“With the thought of these fiends putting into execution their threat, of skinning and burning alive the first South African that fell into their hands, running through my burning brain, my foot hanging to my leg by a thread of skin which I tied into the remaining portion of the limb with the aid of a puttee, the rain pouring down heavily, my lot was not a happy one.
“The want of food and water did not add enjoyment to my position, and the thoughts of home and family made me one of the most depressed of beings.
“In this condition of despair, I saw coming towards me about seven other South Africans whom the Germans had captured farther back in the woods, escorted by three Germans. I felt somewhat relieved when they reached the spot where I lay.
“By the expressions they wore it would be hard to decide which of us looked the happiest. An officer came upon the scene, and ordered our removal to their lines. The wretched journey there now set in.”
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Lance-Corporal Robinson, and Privates Fred Hampson and Billy Yeo were miraculously still alive and together. Hampson recalled their being told to withdraw.
“Towards the evening we found ourselves mixed up with some strange troops. We found that these people had come up to relieve us. A young officer from one of the Scottish regiments — there were very few South Africans left — approached the three of us and said to me, ‘Who are you? Are you South Africans?’
“When I said, ‘Yes’, he said, ‘You poor buggers! Get out of it. We’ve come to relieve you.’ We didn’t need to be told twice.
“Rations had been out of the question and we’d been surviving on emergency rations and from what we could take from dead men’s kits. And we hadn’t slept for days; you dozed standing up. We found a ration dump behind the lines stocked with bread, cheese and tea. Oh — and rum. We imbibed not quite judiciously and slept the sleep of the gods.”
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Private Johann Otto of St James couldn’t understand how he had survived when so many of his friends were dead.