July sees the centenary of arguably the bloodiest battle ever fought by South Africans in the First World War, Delville Wood (The Devil’s Wood).
This monumental clash of arms was a small part of the big Somme Offensive of 1916, in which the South African Infantry Brigade kept the German Sixth Army at bay for five days and six nights. It also saw the first Victoria Cross won by a South African soldier, Private Mannie Faulds, in the Great War.
Men of this district and 12 from the town of Dundee paid the supreme price in this clash of arms. A great memorial parade is planned for July 17, which is exactly a 100 years after the battle. The inauguration of the War Memorial Precinct at Talana will also coincide with this event, in which all men of the district who fought in the various conflicts South Africa engaged in, will be honoured and immortalised.

Men became irritable cynics, fighting like automatons, and even the rats took refuge with the humans, who killed the invading rodents with trenching tools

Pam McFadden of Talana Museum and local historian and author, Pat Rundgren, are working hard to ensure that the parade will attract Moth veterans from around KZN and others to Dundee on that weekend. “We want to finally realise the idea that the local Moths had some years ago and bring the Glencoe War Memorial to the Dundee Cenotaph. Sadly, the Glencoe memorial is in a rather neglected part of town and with Transnet about to demolish the adjacent railway institute hall, we fear that this may expose the memorial to even more vandalism.”
Memorable events that come to mind are the tragedy of the SS Mendi, and the great slaughter in that wood outside Longueval. The conflicts of the Second World War, Korea and the various clashes of the Border War will be included here. Research is also being done to ascertain if any local people participated in the Vietnam conflict.
The Memorial Precinct will certainly enhance Dundee’s reputation as a battlefields town.
Delville Wood slaughter
This offensive, fought during the summer of 1916 in a landscape of stunted trees and dead bodies, was a gruesome symphony of artillery duels, where the big guns registered on anything that moved, to the tune of 400 shells a minute in Delville Wood.
Thousands of tons of metal rained down on this sliver of French earth around the Ancre and the Somme rivers, turning it into layer upon layer of detritus. Men became irritable cynics, fighting like automatons, and even the rats took refuge with the humans, who killed the invading rodents with trenching tools. It was said that the rats in Flanders grew fat on a diet of human flesh.

Crushed bodies of soldiers were later found amidst the splinters

These artillery duels flattened dugouts again and again and the ground shook as if struck by earthquakes, burying their occupants. Crushed bodies of soldiers were later found amidst the splinters. The Somme was a surreal world where men lived among the reek of putrefaction and the sweet smell of gas. For the South Africans a task was quickly found.

The village of Longueval and the adjoining Delville Wood was considered to be an obstacle to the British advance and the South Africans were ordered to take it and hold it at all costs. The southern part of the wood fell in less than two hours, and all but the northern quarter of the wood was taken in their second assault.
A total of 121 officers and 3 032 men of the 1st South African Infantry Brigade marched into Delville Wood on July 15, 1916. The next five days and six nights they were subjected to continuous artillery bombardment. The South Africans held the most difficult position on the British front in the Somme sector. They were assaulted from three sides by crack German divisions, but they held out until they were relieved on July 20. (See upcoming issues for more on this remarkable battle).