July 15, 1916 - Fight for Delville Wood

Pictured - South African and German soldiers at close quarters. Contemporary pen and charcoal newspaper drawing.



The Battle of Bazentin Ridge which began on July 14 developed quickly into a number of smaller engagements for control of small villages and copses of woods that had been heavily fortified by the Germans. The fight for Delville Wood, one of these battles, began on July 15. Although confined to small area, it was no less fierce for it: the battle lasted fifteen days and by the time it ended had resulted in over 2,000 South African casualties.

The 3,000 strong South African Brigade spearheaded the attack. Hugh Boustead was a soldier who took part: “We moved forward through an orchard in single file, led by the platoon officer. Smith, the Second Lieutenant, got through but the next seven who followed him were shot dead in a circle of a few yards, picked off by clean shooting without a murmur.”

On the second night of the battle, Boustead wrote, “We nearly suffered complete annihilation from our own “steel football” - circular bombs with a long stick on which the charge is propelled. They went on pitching among us for hours on end, curiously causing no causalities, but they added to our terror.”

Boustead, like most others, got almost no sleep during his part in the battle. On the third day he went forward with a small party to drive the Germans out of Waterlot Farm. “Three of us spent the afternoon there,” he wrote. “There were already six South African Scottish lying dead in their firing places ahead of us, but we were able to effect quite a good shoot on the Germans moving from Waterlot and after a number of hits they stopped.” Boustead was wounded later that day and evacuated the battlefield. “My main relief was a chance to get some sleep. For five days and nights we had hardly slept at all and at times I was conscious of a longing to get hit anywhere to be able to sleep.”

