Heroes of Delville Wood remembered

The service is held every year to pay tribute to the members of the First South African Infantry Brigade who entered Delville Wood, in France, during World War One, with orders to defend it at all costs.

This they did, entering the wood on July 14, 1916, but the costs were high.

The 121 officers and 3 032 men who entered the wood withstood continuous waves of German attacks and were subjected to savage artillery fire.

The southern sector of the wood was quickly cleared of Germans.

The officer overseeing the attack reported back to his headquarters in the evening of July 15, that all of the wood had been taken except the northwest, near the town of Longueval.

In fact, the South Africans were in a very precarious position as they faced over 7 000 Germans. The artillery shelling had pushed over trees and exposed their roots. This made it very difficult to dig trenches.

The South Africans were not only up against a larger force, but had to survive in trenches that had little depth and gave minimal protection, especially against German artillery attacks.

The terrain all but dictated that most of the combat within the wood was hand-to-hand fighting and casualties were high.

The terrain would have made it difficult to move the wounded back to a medical station but, such was the ferocity of the fighting that for every one South African wounded, four were killed.

The South Africans fought within the wood until July 19, when they were relieved.

Their casualties were some of the worst seen on the Western Front.

Throughout poor weather (it rained often) and enemy artillery fire, which reached a crescendo of 400 shells a minute, the surrounding landscape was transformed into a mess of broken, stumpy tree roots and massive shell holes.

Mud and rainwater covered the bodies of South African and German forces alike — many bodies remain in the wood today.