DELVILLE WOOD
This is a photograph of the grove of trees leading to the entrance to the South African Memorial at Delville Wood. All but one of the original trees was replaced and this can be seen today just behind and to the left of the memorial.
The South African Brigade suffered tremendous casualties in the fighting in this wood in the period 14th to 18th July 1916. Some 3300 Officers and Other Ranks became casualties of which 766 were killed or later died of their wounds.
A majority of the Brigade was of Anglo-British origin although some 15% came from Afrikaner stock.
The remains of trenches and shell holes can still be seen in the wood today. From time to time stormy weather brings down some of the trees and amongst their exposed roots it is not unusual to find ammunition and weapons. When the Memorial’s Visitors’ car park was being constructed, a large number of boxes of Mills bombs were found and had to be removed before work could proceed. However, this is not too unusual on the Somme battlefield, for as ploughing of the fields proceeds an "iron harvest" of bombs and shells, many of them "live", regularly comes to the surface. Alas, it also results in the death and wounding of those who behave foolishly in attempting to salvage and sell some of the metal.
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