“We will remember them”
FAIRLAND - There are those who claim the past doesn't matter. "Look to the future," they say. "Forget the past. History is boring." Then there are those those who say the sacrifices of our ancestors are why we are here today.
Some of the goriest, most bloody battles in history were fought in the region of the river Somme in France, where the Western Front stood against the German army in World War 1.
In the battle of Delville Wood, the First South African Infantry Brigade, comprising of 121 officers and 3 052 other ranks (including volunteers from Southern Rhodesia) were ordered to capture said wood from the Germans on 14 July 1916. They were also supposed to secure and hold the wood.
Six days later Colonel Edward Thackery marched out with the survivors, now consisting of two wounded officers and 140 other ranks.
“…Delville Wood had disintegrated into a shattered wasteland of shattered trees, charred and burning stumps, craters thick with mud and blood, and corpses, corpses everywhere. In places they were piled four feet deep. Worst of all was the lowing of the wounded. It sounded like a cattle ring at the spring fair…”. Ian Uys’ book Delville Wood describes these vivid images retained by a German officer after the chaos of this battle.
The Battle of Delville Wood is particularly important to South Africans. It was the South African First Infantry’s first major engagement in the First World War. The casualties sustained by this brigade in this battle were catastrophic: army units were then considered incapable of combat when casualties reached 30%. Our brave boys suffered losses of 80% and yet they managed to hold the wood as ordered.
“When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today.” These words are inscribed on the famous allied war memorial commemorating the First World War in Kohima Allied war cemetery, ascribed to English classicist John Maxwell Edmonds.
This year the annual Delville Wood Memorial Parade will be held in Johannesburg on Sunday, 13 July. A monument to this battle lies in the Garden of Remembrance at the Moth Ottesloe Cottages in Fairland, and the memorial will take place there at 10am.
Join in to honour the memory of those who paid the supreme sacrifice, and remember those who laid down their lives for our tomorrow.
