South Africa's WarMemorial, France
Ghosts still haunt Delville Wood where a massacre took place.
121 Officers and 3032 other ranks walked into the woods. Six days later, two officers and 140 other ranks walked out. The numbers still shock.
Delville Wood, France:
Everywhere on The Sommethere are visible reminders of the war men called The Great War, the war to end all wars. Outlines of trenches can be seen on the neatly ploughed fields, the chalk that curves across the landscape a reminder of how the men dug deep into the earth to escape the horror, like burrowing animals.
A legacy of war resurfaces daily, sometimes to destroy, sometimes merely to frighten. Outside a thatched barn are stacked shell-cases, the fruit of a few seasons' ploughing in the nearby field.
The Somme in most people's mind is transfixed in the amber of July 1st, 1916, when in the bombardment along an eighteen mile front 60,000 men lost their lives. To South Africans it can be narrowed down further, to the six days July 15th-20th when in the uninterrupted and intense fighting for Delville Wood, the 154 acres of trees and scrubland became a byword for valour. It was a six-day massacre of nearly 2,500 young men..
Stand on the edge of the clearing and try to imagine it is gunsmoke that drifts across the land, not mist. Then imagine the early-morning 'Stand-To' and young men peering through the grey curtain of mist towards the trees.
Site of the South Africans' most famous World War I battle, the wood was an important objective for both sides in the engagement that lasted from dawn on 15th July until July 20th, 1916. Whoever held Delville Wood controlled the area, because from here the two strategic spots of Ginchy and High Wood could be kept under surveillance.
In the early hours of Friday 14th July, the 1st South African Brigade that attacked Longueval and Delville Wood numbered 121 Officers and 3032 other ranks. Six days later Col. Edward Thackery marched out with two wounded officers and 140 other ranks. Hand to hand fighting amid the demented sounds of trees erupting from the earth as shells pulverised the ground made the place a hell on earth from that first dawn on the 15th. On the 16th, the first V.C. was awarded to a South African soldier - Pte. Faulds of the 1st Battalion.
The once beautiful Bois d'Elville was totally destroyed in those five days as were the bodies that lay dead and dying. Of those that died, only 142 were recovered and given a proper burial, and only 77 of these could be given a name. They are buried in the tiny cemetery on the opposite side of the road.
Nothing remains of the former dense wood except a single hornbeam. A new wood was planted after the war, yet these new trees still seem to brood and hold menace. It is not difficult to imagine the screams of the five-nines and the thud of exploding shells, and to see ghostly figures flitting from tree to tree. There is a stillness in the air, a feeling of pain and desolation, and despite the trees, few birds sing
In this sad area where so many died, the South African National Memorial is sited, recalling the sacrifice of 25,000 African volunteers who fought in the wars. Lining the path to the Memorial and Museum is a double row of oak trees grown from acorns brought from Stellenbosch.
Based on the design of Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope, this beautiful building is remarkable chiefly for the engraved glass window depicting Delville Wood after the battle, and the striking set of bronze panels featuring the work of four prominent South African artists, Danie de Jager, Mike Edwards, Tienie Pritchard and Jo Roos. These depict South Africa's involvement in World Wars I and II and the Korean War, but the largest, and the panel before which you find most people standing in silence, shows a group of soldiers leaving Delville Wood after six days of hell.
It is a monument not just to heroism but to a loss of innocence. The numbers still shock. Over three thousand men walked into that wood. One hundred and forty two walked out.
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