Legends – The Battlefields of The Somme

[Manonthefence]

Mudge

I posted my Somme pictures. I'm sure no-one would mind one more thread.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Post away Mudge!
Love to see them.
Jerry

[michaelharadon]

Post 'em, please, Mudge. It'll be a good thing for a lot of us.

[Matt Sharkey]

When were the WW1 memorials built? After WW1 or after WW2?

[Manonthefence]

Mostly in between the wars, some were built just after the Second World War and as you will read, some as recently as the 80s

[Manonthefence]

The Woods – Mametz
The story of the southern sector of the Somme Battlefields will always be remembered by the Horseshoe of woods. We visited 3 of these on our visit Mametz High Wood and Delville
Mametz Wood will always be linked with the 38th Welsh Division. After an initial half hearted attack on the 7th July a more concerted effort to take the woods was launched. This was the largest wood and contained a battalion of the crack Lehr Regiment. As with all woods on the Somme, it was very dense.

This is a view of the woods taken from just below the 38th Welsh Division Memorial, facing the direction of attack.


The memorial itself was erected as late as 1986, what else could it be but a Dragon, standing defiantly facing the woods.


A view with the woods beyond


The track to the memorial and onwards is just a farm track, it was the main supply route for the battle and thousands of men marched into battle along it. From the main road to the memorial it was known as Happy Valley, onwards it became known as Death Valley. We continued along it and this is a view of our next objective taken from the road on Death Valley


Flatiron Copse Cemetery (named for the small piece of woodland in front of it) has headstones made of soft granite rather than the normal Portland Stone. It was the site of a dressing station and now contains 1522 men (after concentration burials).

It is notable for the burial of Corporal E Dwyer VC who won his VC at Hill 60 near Ypres (which I visted last year, more of that anon). He was killed near Guillemont in September 1916.


We moved onwards towards Longueval and stopped at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery. It stands directly on Longueval Ridge and its rear wall is on the line of the main German trench which was captured by the 12th Royal Scots and 9th Scottish Rifles on 14th July.


The Cemetery contains the New Zealand missing memorial, containing the names of 1205 men. It was from this cemetery that the body of an Unknown New Zealand soldier was taken for re-burial at the New Zealand National War Memorial.


Standing at the entrance to the Cemetery there is one thing that dominates the landscape, High Wood.

[Manonthefence]

The Hell that was High Wood.

Standing on the highest ground in the area, High Wood dominates its surroundings. Not because it’s the largest wood in the area its more because of what it holds. It was attacked by two battalions of the 7th Division and the 2nd Queens (the West Surreys) and the 1st South Staffords along with the 7th Dragoon Guards and the Deccan Horse. They wee repulsed by heavy machine gun fire and the Germans moved in force to defend it. Many of the bodies remain in the wood.
It is a dense foreboding wood (how I imagined Mirkwood to be in Tolkiens book The Hobbit). Its private property and visitors are not welcome.

It is however possible to walk around the edge of the wood and there are several memorials. Among them was a special one for our party, the 47th London Division Memorial, for it was where we laid a wreath to the memory of Captain Sidney Wheater, 24th Battalion the London Regt who was killed on 15th September 1916.




We also passed the memorial for the Cameron Highlanders.


A little further on, and easy to miss, is the crater of two mines blown under a German Trench here in early September. Its unique as it’s the only crater on the Somme that is filled with water.


On our walk, we were followed round by a beautiful Swallow Tailed butterfly, he was quite persistent and didn’t leave us until we entered the shade on the far side of the woods. Here is our guide resting on a thistle. Apt considering the number of Scots who still lie here.


There are more ominous aspects as well, this barb wire stake was sticking just above ground level. Who knows what lies below it.


It looks just like a stone, but its resting on a yellow sweet wrapper for a reason. This still live Mills Bomb is awaiting collection my the Bomb Disposal teams.


On this far side of the woods, its possible to see the floor of the wood and how disturbed it still is by the shelling.


High Wood still holds its Men within its grasp, it always will.

Across the road from High Wood is the London Cemetery and Extension.




It contains not only burials from the Great War but also the beginning and the End of the Second World War as well as several allied airmen.


It is watched over by a furry guard. A Stoat who lives under the arch and keeps the place mouse free.


We headed now to Delville Wood but not before we searched out a private memorial to 2nd Lt George Marsden-Smedley who died here but his body was never found. It is in a field to the north of the Combles to Albert Road behind a farm in the fields. It took some finding but it was worth it. He was 19 Years old when he died.


This is the view of Delville Woods from the Longueval Road Cemetery. A small cemetery of 171 burials, local legend says it is built on the site where Julius Caesar addressed one of his Legions before the invasion of Gaul.


Delville Wood is where the South African Brigade (attached to the 9th Scottish). They were instructed to take and hold Delville Woods at all costs.
It is now owned by South Africa and is the site of the South African National memorial. Which is both a memorial and museum. Its stunning!




There is a map of the horseshoe of woods


As an aside, those of you who read my report of my trip to Ypres last year will remember that I found a relative on the Menin Gate. There is a book of remembrance inside the door to the memorial, its quite a thick book , but whose name do you think was at the bottom of the open page?

Private W B Blacow, of the 2nd South African Inf, from Morecambe in Lancashire.

Its possible to walk around the woods, they are quite beautiful on a summers day. How much of a contrast was the day of our visit to 1916.


There is a single tree surviving from the original wood,( which was blasted during the battle)


In the woods as with many others, trenches and defences remain.




It was in the trench below, opposite the monument above that the 4 of us sat for a while and put the world to rights. Just us 4 and the South Africans. What did we discuss? Well what was said in the wood, stays in the wood.


Our tour guide was, yet again, a butterfly. This time a Red Admiral who didn’t want to stop and pose. If I was superstitious then I would think it meant something!

As I said, the South Africans were told to capture and hold the woods at any cost. Of the 3153 Officers and men who began the attack on 14th July. 143 walked out on the 20th. They “own” the woods now.

Finally a portrait of the travellers.


Going back to the day 1, on our journey to Serre we drove from the English Front Line to Beaumont Hamel. It took us 30 seconds. On day 2 it took us 10 minutes to walk it. In 1916 it took them 3 months to fight it!
Thanks for reading, I hope its been interesting.

[Mossie]

This body density map really brings it home to you the scale of loss. Scarcely a single family remained untouched by that war.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glosters/2 ... 237480463/

[RMAllnutt]

Thanks very much for the amazingly detailed and poignant posting Nick... I learned a lot. Not least of which was the rather unsavory end (to perhaps an unsavory character - Harry Lauder's son) who is a distant relative of mine. One of my other relatives was lost in the Great War too, my grandfather's uncle, Lt.T.H.Buswell. He was shot down and killed while flying an RE-8 in 52 Squadron, RFC during combat with Richtofen's flying circus of all things. Really terrific posting Nick... as always.

All the best,
Richard

[JägerMarty]

Great pics again!
would love to see Mudge's BoBulge pics too

[Pat Carry]

Great stuff! As one looks at these photos of what is now quiet farmland, its difficult to imagne this was the scene of 4 years of shelling, bloodshed and unspeakable human suffering.

[p51]

GREAT shots, thanks for posting them. In 1988, I visited Ypres and it gave me a totally different perspective on that war. I’ll never forget seeing the grave of a RFC pilot who was only 18 when he was killed, the same age I was at that time. The whole town of Ypres was utterly flattened and completely rebuilt after the war, and signs leading into town in many languages warned not to pick up the unexploded shells thrown into ditches by the local farmers (who still dig them up daily) as they were dumped their for the local EOD unit to pick up when the pile gets high enough.
My grandfather fought in the Argonne in 1918 with the US Army (field artillery) but never talked about it to my father. Someday I’d like to visit the areas he was at. Thankfully, my brother’s family (who lived in Germany at the time) and my parents got to visit that area a few years ago.

[Steve S]

TIming on this thread is perfect as I am just starting to Read Martin Gilberts Book "the Somme". really interesting to see some of the places mentioned and the memorials to groups I am reaing about.

THANKS