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.
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