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Among those who attended Turbi Hills Shellhole’s wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the Battle of Delville Wood was Mr Ron Rose (left). Rose is the oldest member of the local MOTHs and the shellhole’s only surviving veteran of the Second World War.

Delville Wood - Remember their fallen brothers in arms

Date: 23 July 2017 By: Andries van Zyl

Sunday, 16 July, saw the 101st anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in human history. It was also the day on which a special service was held at the Moths’ Turbi Hills Shellhole in Louis Trichardt to commemorate the Battle of Delville Wood.

Between 1 July and 18 November 1916, more than one million men were wounded or killed on the banks of the river Somme in France. Among the soldiers killed and injured were more than 2 400 South Africans who fought for control over a small piece of land in the northeast of France, called Delville Wood.

The attack on Delville Wood was just one part of the Battle of the Somme, the Haig’s infamous “Great Push” to end the war on the Western Front. With the exception of the French, the attacks by Allied Soldiers across the Somme front were a failure in the short and long term.

Delville Wood had to be cleared of German forces dug in there as they would have represented a major danger to the rear of the Allied forces once they had moved on from the area and towards the German’s “Switch Line”. The planning, however, assumed that the Battle of the Somme would be a success.

The attack at Delville Wood started on 15 July 1916. Just over 3 000 men from the South African 1st Infantry Brigade were tasked with clearing the wood and were ordered to take the wood “at all cost!” As with many attacks, the wood was heavily shelled by Allied artillery before infantry troops went in.

The southern sector of the wood was quickly cleared of Germans. The officer overseeing the attack, Tanner, reported back to his headquarters in the evening of the 15th 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. However, such was the ferocity of the fighting that for every South African wounded, four were killed. The South Africans fought within the wood until 19 July when they were finally relieved. Of the 3 155 South African men and officers who marched into the wood, only 755 walked out again. “Every semblance of a trench seemed full of dead-sodden, squelchy, swollen bodies. Fortunately, the blackening faces were invisible except when Verey lights lit up the indescribable scene. Not a tree stood in that wood,” remarked one of the soldiers who fought at Delville Wood and survived.

“They shall wait upon you, Lord, and shall renew their strengths, they shall mount up with wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. They shall grow not old as we are left to grow old, age shall not weary them nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them…”

With these words from the prayer of the Moths (Memorable Order of Tin Hats), Old Bill Alan Odendaal of the Turbi Hills Shellhole paid tribute to the thousands of brave South Africans who marched towards certain death during this battle. Past Leonie Meyfarth of the AFM Church, who conducted the memorial service, added to this, saying that these men had exhibited exceptional heroism and character …  men who, in the face of certain death, stood steadfast in their belief.

Apart from the local Moths, other special guests who attended the memorial service to lay wreaths included the officer commanding of AFB Makhado, Brig-Gen André Barends, his second-in-command at the base, Col Pine Pienaar, and representatives of several local service organisations, including the local Rotarians and Freemasons.

One special guest on the day was Mr Ron Rose, who will be celebrating his 89th birthday on 27 August. Rose is the oldest member of the local MOTHs and the shellhole’s only surviving veteran of the Second World War.

Rose started his military career at the unbelievably young age of 15 as an air cadet in England. He fondly remembers being asked if he would like to take a short flight in a Lancaster bomber and if he knew how to handle a machine gun? Rose enthusiastically said yes and off he went in the Lancaster.

A couple of hours later, however, Rose became suspicious as to why the “short” flight was taking so long? It was at this stage that he was informed that the plane was actually on a bombing run halfway into Germany! Following this “short” trip into Germany, Rose joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) a day after his birthday on 28 August 1945 as a tailgunner in the Lancaster. Tailgunners had the lowest survival rate of RAF aircrews, with an average life expectancy of just four missions. Despite joining the RAF near the end of the war, Rose served in the occupation of Germany from 1945 until 1948 and was also involved in the reconstruction of bombed air fields.

For more information about the MOTHs of the Turbi Hills Shellhole, phone Old Bill Alan Odendaal at Tel 083 660 2472. Membership of the MOTHs is open to all members of the public who served their country in an official capacity in the armed forces.

 
 
 

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

 
 

More photos... 

A military artist's drawing of the Battle of Delville Wood, July 1916.

A special wreath-laying service was held at the Moths’ Turbi Hills Shellhole in Louis Trichardt to commemorate the Battle of Delville Wood on Sunday, 16 July. Pictured at the event are, from left to right, Col Pine Pienaar (AFB Makhado), Brig-Gen André Barends (officer commanding AFB Makhado), Dennis Smith (Rotary Louis Trichardt) and MOTHs' Old Bill Alan Odendaal and Ron Rose.

Members of the Turbi Hills Shellhole in Louis Trichardt paid tribute to the thousands of South African soldiers who died at the Battle of Delville Wood during the First World War. A special wreath-laying ceremony for them took place on 16 July at the shellhole in Louis Trichardt.

Old Bill Alan Odendaal (right) busy reading out the Moth prayer at the ceremony. In front of him stand (from left to right) AFB Makhado’s chaplain Christophe Barends, Col Pine Pienaar and the officer commanding of AFB Makhado, Brig-Gen André Barends.

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