The Cambria Daily Leader

THE FIGHT AT MAMETZ WOOD. n A Full Narrative of Welsh Gallantry. y By a Soldier of the 38th. XOTE.—The full narrative of the fight in 1916, when the 38th (Welsh) Division took Marnetz Wood, has never been rela-cd. Below we print, from the pen of a soldier who took part, a vivid story of the great battlc-the first, wz hope, of a scries in which the epic story will be related in all its phases. In the darkness of the early hours of December 1st, l'Jl.i, the first battalions of the 38th Division marched out of Win- chester.1 Nine days later they received their introduction to trench warfare at Laventie and Neuve Ohapelle with the Guards' IHvision, with whom a year and a half afterwards they fought side by side on the rilkem Kidgc. Un 5th January, 191fi. the Welsh Division fir"t held a sec- of the line an their own at Hichebourg. For the next few months their history is connected with places, since become famous. from Frauquipeart to the Brick- fields at UivenchyiLa Bassee). Training. The 38th Division for a long time was not split up, and its constitution was the same when at last" on the night of June 10th, it was withdrawn from the Laventie line, a.s when exactly eix months earlier it first kiw the trenches, or when it did divisional training on the Hampshire Downs. Then* followed days of marching south through pleasant country and colliery districts, through the rejfions of divisional rest they had not seen before, each (iiv leaving tire line farther behind until they arrived in the St. I'ol area, where the serious training tor the !?omme was to bttrii* 'j Divisional training came to au end, and j St. Pol wae left behind during nights of inarching in the rain now toinnds th-e line, past miles of ammunition and supply tvagons, marches iiiat ended sometimes in villages that had never eeen English troops before. Mach night brought the constant distant roar of the guns nearer, and ooca- tionaliy individuals would get into touch with thf) tremor's who were waiting cloee up for the day of the attack. July I, 1916. July 1st was a glorious sunny day. The 38th were behind the 8th Army Corps, and about nine o'clock they &aw the first string of ambulances laden with dust-covered men of the 4th a.nd 29th Divisions of Gal- lipoii fame—Ulstermen, Newfoundland, South AY ales Borderers, and Monmouths, while all day walking cases and prisonero arrived ai the clearing station and cages. From the wounded tiiey heard ta!e,s of ) disaster—of Gorumecourt, Beaumont liarnel, and apvarently impregnable Thiepval. j Soon they were night marching 6outh j ngnin, pact streams of wagons moving up HIHl ambulances coming down, and all night long the fky was a constant flicker of shrapnel, with here and there the steady stream of a Verer.light, until in I the early hours of July 4th they arrived | wet through at Treux. Treux had gone dry. Madame was \ery eorrv, but every- thing had been consumed by preceding divisions, and all road transport, was monopolised by the Army. The rain eased off, and that evening a. train left with j troops going back laden with c-ouvenirs of the fight. Hie atmosphere was one of vic- tory. The Germane had b-peii driven out of Fricourt, Mametz, and Montauban, and the powerful enemy trench system in that quarter was ours. It was there that the 'l!bt were to play their part, when in the morning the flying column came to an vrid. and they moved up to go into action. The 38th relieved the 7th Division on famous ground. Driven out of their front line .the enemy had put. up a stiff resis- tance in Danzig Alley and i'ommiers' R& doubt before being forced into )1ametz Wood. In one corner of the famous com- munication trench a machine-gunner had ma-de a stand", and taken a heavy toll of the attackers as they advanced up the elope from the village below. On the far eide the ground was covered with the bodies of Germans killed in their flight, find the trench was littered with ammuni- tion and titles. The 2nd Hoyal Irish had held a trench in the wood. but had been forced to retire; end when the ;isth Division arrived the 1st E.W.Fue. were holding White Tremh wit.h a 6-unken road between them and the « ood. Mametz Wood. Danzig Alley and White. Trench were dug in the chalk, Fommier's Redoubt and Fritz Trench in sticky clay, and dur- ing the days that followed heavy rains made these trenches anything but plea- }Hnt. Here the Welsh waited for five days, and from Danzig Alley on the Fri- day (July 7) witnessed the attempts to take Quadrangle Support and Contal- i muison, whilst in front of Alametz Wood was being enacted in the rain and mud a tragedy which was to be felt all over the eastern end of South Wales. In conjunction with attacks on their right and left two battalions of the 115th Brigade-the 1(itli (Cardiff City) Batt. WeJh Regt. and 10th (G went) Batt. South Wales Borderers—made a frontal attack on Mametz Wood. They a civ a need out of the sunken road on to the strip of ground in front of the wood until they suddenly .1!,Iltle under a devastating fire from the German trench, where the machine-gun- ners and ritleluen had the rise of the ground ancf the tcieen of the shrubs in their favour. The attacking battalions f "ere at last forced to stop. Unable to ad- vance, and unwilling to retire, they lag- down in the open and took what cover they could in the sodden ground, :i any using their steel helmets as a shield. There they stayed, being sniped at from the trench and the tops of trees, until the uttack was abandoned. That, evening a brigade of another divi- sion made an unavailing attack on the wood. Still it rained, and in the dull atino- •nhere Mametz Wood, which had already coat dearly, assumed a more sinister as- pect. It was known to be the largest and thickest wood in the Somme district, and it had defied repeated attacks. By day .ts black bulk seemed to offer an impene- trable front, whilst by night lit up with tlhrapnel and H.E. it seemed impossible that anyone could live there. On Saturday the weather improved, and .,n Sunday part of the division was with- drawn to the hollow for a rest. Thevsun was warm, and the ground dried rapidly.' Everything was favourable for an attack, when that evening an order was cent, round drawing attention to the deMs of other Welsh battalion6 in the battle, and stat- tng that in the morning it would be left !o the 38th Division to decide whether the name of the Welsh Division was to live in lii-tory. It has figured on more than one tfluriou.- field since then, but this was the blooding of the .Welsh Division. The Attack Starts, 1 Shortly after midnight the troops for the front line of the attack began tu pass down to White Trench. Then the barrage dropped on Marnetz Wood. The bom- bardment. had been continuously heavy, but now it was terrifying in its intensity. Soon the Germans were searching for our guns and raking the trenches down which the supports had to pa^s. The din was deafening. The Germans were to be driven out of the wood that day, if they had to be burned out, and waiting along- side a special brigade of K.E.'s, v ho were shaking the earth and lighting up the front of the wood with the terrific ex- plosions of their aerial torpedoes, wac a French brigade ready to turn on the enemy rtheir own fiendish flammenwerfer. This, however, 'the success of the first assault ren dered unnecessary. The attack was from the iciiil, kith the 114th (Welsh) Brigade on the right, and the 113th (Hoyal Welsh Fusiliers* Brigade under Brigadier-General (row Major- General) Pryee Da vies, V.C., D.S.O., on the left, the battalion* for the first line being the ]:!th (2nd Rliondda) Batt. Welsh Regt. on the right, the lith (Swansea) EDit. W elsh Regt. ill the cc-ntre, and the 10th Batt. Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the left. It was a dismal morning, and the light was still dull when the line went over. The 16th R.W.F. were in position in I the sunken road about 3.(1 a.m., and whiled sway flie trying hour before the attack with banter and snatches of song. Their colonel had come in to lead the attack. A regular cavalry officer, who had been a prominent figure in polo circles in days of peace, ( ol. Garden was a striking figure known, throughout the whole brigade. Immaculately dressed, cane in hand, hi.s appearance had now a reassuring in- fluence. Someone had struck up Aber- vstv- vih as the moment of going over drew near. When the siugitig Rad finished Col. Carden called for silence, and add pos- ing the men he was about to lead into the wood that had been the grave of many lip said: Boys, make your peace with.God! [The words are taken from a letter writ- ten soon after the action.] We are going: to take that position, and soiue of us won't come back. but we are going to take it. This," tying hict handkerchief to his sti"k. will show you whore 1. am." Then with a few instructions as to .1 slight change of direction he waved his stick and said: "Come on" He was hit. al most: immediately, but refusing assist- ance he rose and encouraging hrs men iruide another dash at the trench before he was hit a second time and fell dead, Local Battalions. In spite of the fierce bombardment the enemy had not left their trefich. just in- side the wood, and the lfith now without their colonel and several officen werp practically held when they were caught up in the waves of the Mth (Carnarvon and Anglesey) Batt. R. W.F. and the loth (London Welsh) Batt. R. W.F., and the whole lot, breaking through a hail of bul- lets and bombs in which it seemed im- possible for men to live, fell on the Cier- mane with their bnyoret?. The defenders had no intention of giving up the wood. About an hour before the attack they had been reinforced by a division who had been tejit there to a quiet sector for a I rest from the Verdun front, and had brought with them their brand new kits, which were now trampled under foot in a furious bomb and bayonet struggle. The Lewie gunners, advancing with their guns, had received clo-se attention from the snipers, but one gunner, who had been firing from the shoulder all the way, now stood on the parapet pumping bullets into any who attempted to get away into the wovQ. Everywhere the enemy had clung to his front line, but the Swansea Battalion in the centre went through without a check, one officer taking a machine-gun single- handed. The 2nd Rhondda's entered the wood, but had to be reinforced by the 15th (Carmarthen) Batt. "h 1irg1,. and unn the 10th Ost Khundda's.) Batt. W^sh were in the light. IIn the Wood. Every alternate tree in Mameiz Wood appeared to he blown up, and yet it v.-as an impenetrable tangle 01 standing trees, prostrate trees, roots and branches, and dense undergrowth as high as a man's head. To ketl) it sense of direction was (impossible. The odds were all on the de- lenders. who could be expected to know what paths there were, but the Welsh followed them ever\ where. They bombed the trenches that ran round each eide of the wood until the Germans had to break for the open, where they were shot down by the machine guiti in White Trench nnd Caterpillar" Trench, or try to find a *ay through the undergrowth, where our I men followed over the bodies of British troops who had been killed in the first i occupation, and un'ouried German?, j Sometimes they had to struggle through j the clinging branches with rifle and bayonet above "their heads; until tliei I. chance came, and againct 3D extra etiif thicket a solitary corpse or v.ourided map would tell a tale of single com bat. The wood rang with thp noise of rifle and bomb, the shouts of men and Capt. Hag- gard's slogan: Stick it Welsh!" Snipers posted amongst the branches caught many a pursuer, and one Swansea battalion man limping baek said he had been blown out of a trench by a small hand-mine. The movement of the troops amongst the trees up a cloud y of acrid dust, dpMosi- t°d on t'ne leaves through the exnlosriort of « that made some believe they weVe being gassed. Men following each new enemy they started and the shouts of their comrades found themselves fiphting on battalion fronts far from their own. until at lncf tho drive across thp wood was rt:r1rh!"cL ,h I' l' wi; 11 a .hod, ojvm ^pace in front, the line righted itself. The a'cb aticp now showed sijrns of being held up by the fire frotti Wood Smnwrt Trench, and an arm of the wood that went off to the If ft. At (;,11) thp 13 th R.W.F. were moved up, and they cleared the trench, but persistent sniping and fire was kept up from the wood, and tiie' enemy attempted a eountor-attaek ?rer reached the h??tijy forme^ )ire. A halt, ?a<? called at. this point, and the bat- talit)n T-h?ch had become mixed in the first rush were reformed. The Afternoon. Tn the afternoon the" advance was re- sumed. and a body of Gern?'n? between £ 0 and a )M &tronK -the ?<<:r?''n that had caused* the trouble to the left flank laid down thpir anil's to the 13th Royal Weltdi Fusiliers. That afternoon the wood was cleared on the left beyond lh»> railway, Mid our men reached the fields Ul tlte fat- side, but owing to the German resistance on the right they had unce more to with- draw into the wood. Meanwhile below the wood a diminish- j in? army ?f stretcher-bearers ? af perform- in^v wondertul feats ol endurance and | gallantry m an attempt to deal with an | ever-growing crowd of wounded. Over the rkljfe which is surmounted by White Trench they went time after time, chooeing this route, which offered no cover from the barrage, as being the shortest route ,to Queen"* Nullah, where the aid poists. were placed. About three o'clock a shell dropped right into Queen's Nullah and destroyed the nth R.W.F. aid post, kill- ing the battalion doctor and killing or wounding six of thp bearers. The bravery with which be.rrer parties carried out the tremendous task of searching for and evacuating the wounded from Marnetz Wood—a task which called for nerve and stamina beyond the usual withont the pxcitement of the figbter-was beyond praise. The Germans had begun to shell the captured portion of the wood, and to the other sound's of the battle was added the tærin. 8plitting n?ife of fallen timber, j and big trees crashed to earth amongst the adYH\cing h-oop. The Division had already C3,ptured the strongest defences, a large howitzer which lay near the central drir, about three hundred prisoners and a number f)f I machine-guns; but an old chateau on the right, was causing trouble, and the enemy was bringing a heavy fire to bear from a trench on a ridge beyond. Nisht fell, and the morning saw very liftle change if1 th» position. The wiod was practically all captured, hut- they couldn't get out on to L the farther side. After more shelling the 1.15th Brigade were put into the attack, and they made fame progress, but did not clear the place, and every hour spent in it meant casualty up-'>n casua-lty. };v«>rytime a platoon re- formed there was a tale of death and wound* to tell, added to which was the strain of moving a place where one could spe no distance ahe-nd. and the prospect of a second night such as tbe firpt to be spent in a wood already drenched with Welsh blood. The Second Day. I Gr:l'di7t.)11l' n1'P on :ne second afternoon with the heaviest bar- rage tjiey put down so far. The battalions resting around the Central Drive were heavily battered, and one *hell put out of action 'the colonel of the 13th JK.W.F. (Lieut.-Col. O. S. Flower), who died of his wounds th" ne.Ti day. the second-in-com- mand. the adjutant. and a couple of run- ners, To add to th" effect of the. enemy'6 fire some of our own light shells would now and then catch t.he top of a high tree and explode prematurely. The experiences of two men of different brigades will give tome idea of what the ? \vns likp. (.'np fighting in the wojl was like. One bomber of the Heth Brigade, wounded in the arm during a dug-out tight in the ad- vance on the r.econd diy, i-nacle off for what 1}p thought was bis rear, when he suddenly found himself eontr<~T;ed bv a dresping-station and a man with a red c.rofcss brassard on hie arm, but the dug- £ Mt was a German one, and the mntl a member of the German Medical Corps— not our own R.A.M.C. He then, knew til ;if, he had been making rapid strides into German territory far ahead of oar own front line. The German motioned him down five steps and dressed his wounds. There he 6a,t amongst German wounded speculating as to the nationality ot the hospital he would eventually retveh, when he heard the shout- ol our men advancing [ and pacing beyond the dressing-station. He called to them, and left them to search the dug-out whilst he this time took the right direction. Another man of the Carmarthen Bat- talion was lying helpless with a shattered leg when an enemy patrol came up to him, but, seeing he would be a. rather awk- ward prisoner to remove. pae4eed on. A little later a Welvli patrol came by, and he told them of the first one, which they set out to ilnll. They must have missed it, for the Germans again passed him mak- ing for their own line. Whilst he was lying there a figure crept up and levelling a rifle ordered him to hold up his hands. He was getting used to being captured by this time. and obeyed as well as he could, but the German, seeing his helples* con- dition. was overjoyed, and throwing away his rifle, explained in broken English that he wished to be taken prisoner. He pro- ceeded to prove his amicable intentions by dressing his helpless captor's wound*, and, giving him cigarette-, settled down to await the return of the Welsh patrol who removed captor and captive. Relieved. That night the attack was resumed, "cut the 38th Division had suffered so heavily that towards midnight a relieving divi- sion wa* sent in, and whåt was left of the Welsh Division withdrew. To thoso in the action the losses of course appeared far heavier than they really were, but they must have amounted to at lee.é one out'of everv three men who entered on jlie morning of July 10 and the following day. The Welsh Division has eince captured Marnetz Wood a 6econd time, but the wood of July 10, 1916, is no more, and the present stretch of shattered tree 6tuiiips gives no idea of what that first struggle cost the young manhood of Wales.