The battle of Mametz Wood: the story of the Welsh (Photo Blog)

Mametz Wood - The 38th Welsh Division Memorial and the hammerhead shaped part of Mametz wood, looming on the horizon.  ​The soldiers had to cross this no man’s land in order to attack the German positions in the wood. 

The Red Welsh Dragon watching over the men
​who lay buried in the grounds of Mametz wood.

Up to Mametz

A couple of weeks ago I stood near the Red Welsh dragon and overlooked Mametz wood, the scene of bitter fighting in July 1916. 
​

It still felt like a dark place, like some kind of sleeping beast. Here, right before my eyes, the souls of many young lives were taken.​
​

During my research I discovered that there were famous poets and writers with Welsh roots amongst the soldiers who fought here.
​

The ones who drew my attention were Captain Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, who wrote his memories in “Up to Mametz" and  Private David Jones, who is famous for his work "In Parenthesis".
​

I kept their words in mind as I walked and drove through the area around the wood, discovering the stories behind the battle.

Breaking resistance

On the 1st of July - the first day of the Somme offensive - the village of Mametz was taken by the 7th division. Nevertheless Mametz wood was still defended by the Germans. 
​

The attacks on the wood in the days afterwards failed and plans were made for a final attack on the  7th of July. The 7th division had many casualties and was replaced by the 38th Welsh division. ​​Artillery on the wood was intensified in order to break the German resistance and to cut the barbwire before the wood. 

As Llewelyn Wyn Griffith wrote in “Up to Mametz":

"It all sounded so simple" 

In the morning of july the 7th, the Soldiers of the 16th (Welsh), 10th and 11th Battalion  (South Wales Borderers) waited in heavy rain. Their goal was to attack “ The Hammerhead” named after the hammerhead shaped part of Mametz wood.  
​

The signal came and the artillery stopped. The battalions walked heavy packed towards the wood,  without being protected by the planned smoke curtain. They were easy targets for the German soldiers of the Lehr regiment, who were defending the wood and its trenches. 
​

While the heavy clay sticked on the Welshmen’s boots and glued them to the earth, the Germans opened fire from their positions in Mametz wood, along with enfilade fire coming from other positions like Flatiron Wood. The Welsh were swept away by the burning led. Another attack took place the same day, but with the same disastrous result. ​
​

16 Battalion War Diary - 7 July 1916

8.30am. Battalion, under orders, drawn up on their own side of slope facing Mametz Wood in lines of platoons with a 2 platoon  frontage.
11/S.W.B. in support. 10.S.W.B. in reserve.
Our Artillery ceased firing at wood at 8.30am and first lines of battalion proceeded over the crest of the slope but came instantly under heavy machine gun frontal fire from Mamtez Wood and enfilade fire from Flatiron Copse and Sabot Copse and the German second system, which ran between Mametz Wood and Bazentin Le Petit. 
Battalion suffered heavily and had to withdraw to their own side of crest.
Battalion made two more attacks, but position was much too exposed for any hope of success and orders were received to cease operation. 
11/S.W.B. attempted to approach the wood through a gulley running between Caterpillar Wood and slope mentioned above but machine gun fire drove them back. 
​Our losses: 6 officers killed, 6 wounded, 268 other ranks killed, missing and wounded.
Weather very wet, this adding greatly to exhaustion of troops.
Battalion received orders to return to their bivouac.
​Moved off at 10.30pm. Arrived 4am 8th

Source: thanks to a member of the Great War Forum
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php 

Source: https://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/remembering-the-battle-of-mametz-wood

Panoramic view over the Queens Nullah and Mametz wood.
​This picture is taken a at the rear of the Dantzig Alley British Cemetery (near the seat-shaped memorial).

The Queens Nullah. 
2nd Queens occupied this position on the 1st of July in 1916 and gave cover to the troops
​during the battle of Mametz Wood. "Nullah" is the Indian name for a (dried up) watercourse.

One of the men who fought during the battle of Mametz wood was the poet David Jones. ​After the war, he described an experience he had while taking shelter behind the Queens Nullah:

As they waited, machine-gun fire striking the lip of the nullah dusted them in chalk-powder. A man beside Jones yelled in his ear, 'Two minutes to go' and he passed it on. As anxiety reached its peak, he noticed, on the white earth beneath his face, insects indifferent to the war and to his fear. Briefly in the smothering sound of gunfire, he heard on his right one of the most moving things he would ever hear, the 14th Battalion singing in Welsh 'Jesu lover of my soul'. Faintly, over unmodulated thundering drum-fire, he heard the shrill whistle and saw the lieutenant of his platoon, R G Rees, wave them forward. Along with the others in his company, he clambered up the chalky slope and over the top, fear vanishing in activity and confusion.

David Jones:  Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet
​- by Thomas Dilworth

There were more corpses than men

Mametz wood was finally taken on July the 12th 1916 but its capture was paid with the dead of many young man. At the end of the battle, the Welsh division had lost about 4000 men, either killed or wounded.

‘Equipment, ammunition rolls of barbed wire, tins of food, gas helmets, and rifles were lying about everywhere. There were more corpses than men, but there were worse sights than corpses. Limbs and mutilated trunks, here and there a detached head, forming splashes of red against the green leaves, and as if in advertisment of the horror of our way of life and death, and of our crucifixion of youth, one tree held in its branches a leg, with its torn flesh hanging down over a spray of leaf. 

as Llewelyn Wyn Griffith wrote in “Up to Mametz"

Flatiron Copse Cemetery, at the end of Mametz Wood. 

Flatiron Copse Cemetery is situated near Mametz Wood. The ground was taken on July 14 1916, ​and first used as an advanced dressing station. 
​

Three pair of brothers are buried here, side by side: the Tregaskis brothers, the Hardwidge brothers and the Philby brothers. 
​

Arthur and Leonard Tregaskis had both been farming in Canada before the outbreak of war, but returned together to enlist. They joined the 38th Welsh Division. 
​They were both to die on the same day. Accounts of the battle described that as one brother fell, the other was wounded going to his aid, and together they died. They now lay side by side in Flatiron Copse Cemetery.
​

Alas, this is an age so mean
  That everyman is made a Lord,
  For all authority's absurd
When God himself fades from the scene.

As quick as God is shown the door
  Out come the cannons and the sword:
  Hate on hate on brother poured
And scored the deepest on the poor.

The harps that once could help our pain
  Hang silent, to the willows pinned.
  The cry of battle fills the wind
And blood of lads--it falls like rain

 Rhyfel (War)  - Ellis Humprey Evans (Hedd Wyn)
Poetic English interpretation by Louis Flint Ceci

Source: http://www.lgac.org/poetry/HeddWynPoems.html

Join us in remembering the men who fought and died

​Today Mametz Wood still bares the scars of its tragic history. The trenches and craters are silent witnesses of what happened here a hundred years ago, the ground being one with the bodies of the fallen from both sides. 
​

Remember them while visiting Mametz and its surrounding fields. 
​

Please reply and let us know if you have any relatives who fought during this battle.
​

​Thank you for sharing our blogpost!
​

Sources
'Up To Mametz’ by Llewelyn Wyn Griffiths
David Jones:  Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet - by Thomas Dilworth
http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.be/2016/07/welsh-hymns-at-mametz-wood.html
http://www.inthefootsteps.com/welsh-somme-Mametz-Wood.html
http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/flatiron-copse-cemetery.html
https://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/remembering-the-battle-of-mametz-wood/
http://www.lgac.org/poetry/HeddWynPoems.html
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php
​

---

About our Blog

---

We take you along our photographic journey through the World War battlefields in Belgium and France. 
​In remembrance of these World Wars, we will highlight every month a specific event, battle, region or regiment. ​

July 2017

---

In July, we honor the men who fought and died during the battle of the Somme.  
Follow our blog and discover how we tell the stories behind our pictures of Beaumont-Hamel, Mametz wood, Delville wood and Pozières.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme  (map edited)