Page 34 - History of War - Issue 30-16

SOMME
1916 2016
THE WELSH DIVISION

STORMS MAMETZ WOOD

7-12 JULY 1916
Set among the dense trees in the Albert sector, this i erce i ve-day clash

came to deine Wales’s role in the campaign and the war

lthough the irst day of the campaign around the wood was incorporated within the highly trained and entrenched professionals
was meant to be the breakthrough that general battle for Albert but it was considered equipped with mortars and machine guns.
Awould help end the war, it turned into strategically important, especially for attacking The attack on the wood began at 8.30am on
an apocalyptic nightmare. Into this bloodletting the German second line in the area. It was vital 7 July but the advance stalled 200-300 yards
came 20,000 men of the 38th Welsh Division that the wood be taken before the next stage short of the trees and another attack at 11am
who were assembled on the front line near of the battle could begin, but any attacking also failed. The war poet Siegfried Sassoon
Mametz Wood, a forested area that would soon army would have to move down a slope before was an ofi cer in the 2nd Battalion, Royal
become a new killing ground. advancing uphill in the open to reach the trees. Welch Fusiliers and described the ominous
It was located in the Albert sector of the When the Welsh Division moved up they were approach to the wood as, “looming on the
battleield, positioned between the German irst ordered to prepare to capture Mametz Wood opposite slope… a dense wood of old trees
and second lines around Mametz, Fricourt and on 5 July, but the odds were not in their favour. and undergrowth… a menacing wall of gloom.”
Bazentin le Petit Wood. It was the largest wood The division (which was mainly Welsh but also A third attack was ordered but it was called
that the British and Germans would ight over in contained English, Scottish and Canadian off thanks to wet conditions and cut telephone
the whole battle and its expanse covered 220 troops) was made up of largely untested lines. The division ended the day having gained
acres, a mile in width and length, with trees volunteers who would be confronting the elite no ground but suffered 180 fatalities.
that were between 30-45 feet high. The ighting Lehr Infantry Regiment of Prussian Guards – The i rst real test of the division’s volunteers
had been a complete failure. The British
“THE WELSH FELT THEY WERE BEING VIEWED BADLY BECAUSE OF commander-in-chief, Douglas Haig, blamed the
division for not advancing “with determination
THE INITIAL ATTACKS AND BECAME DETERMINED TO TAKE MAMETZ to attack”. He replaced Major General Ivor
Philipps with Herbert Watts as the divisional
WOOD, BUT THEY ALSO KNEW MANY WOULD DIE IN THE ATTEMPT” commander and ordered a new attack to
begin at 4.15am on 10 July. The Welsh felt

‘The Welsh at Mametz Wood’ by Christopher Williams.
This painting was commissioned by the Welsh
Secretary of State for War, David Lloyd George, and
was studied from a soldier’s eyewitness account

34