Moths remember the fallen at Delville Wood

Date: 19 July 2018 By: Andries van Zyl

“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 Memorable Order of Tin Hats, the Moths of the Turbi Hills Shellhole in Louis Trichardt paid tribute to the thousands of brave South Africans who marched towards certain death during the Battle of the Somme.

Sunday, 15 July, saw the 102^nd anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in human history. 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 Germans’ “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 more than 3 000 men from the South African 1^st 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 15^th 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 more than 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 enemies 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.

Apart from the local Moths, other special guests who attended the memorial service to lay wreaths included Col Jacobs on behalf of the officer commanding of AFB Makhado, Brig-Gen André Barends, Moth Ron Rose (in remembrance of all British and Allied soldiers who lost their lives in and around Delville Wood), Old Bill Alan Odendaal (on behalf of Turbi Hills Shellhole and on behalf of all South African Forces who lost their lives in and around Delville Wood), Moth Johan Cronje (on behalf of MESCA), Lt-Col Francois Van Zyl (on behalf of the South African Air Force Association), Lt-Col D M Wilson (on behalf of the Officer Commanding 2 Squadron), Lt-Col C Leeson (on behalf of 85 Combat Flying School), Mr Charles Leach (on behalf of Lt Tim Kleinenberg), Mr André Müller (on behalf of the local Rotarians), Mr Marius Gilfillian (on behalf of Zoutpansberg Skirmishes Group) and Moth Iain Purdon (on behalf of the Louis Trichardt Chamber of Commerce).

“The MOTHs of Turbi Hills Shellhole would like to express their gratitude to all who braved the cold and attended the Delville Wood Day parade that took place on 15 July 2018. A very special word of thank you to AFB Makhado for their participation in making this day a great success in remembrance of all the lives lost at Delville Wood. This was one of the most epic battles fought in the history of mankind,” said Old Bill Odendaal.

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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... 

Among the many guests who laid wreaths on Sunday to commemorate the Battle of Delville Wood was Lt-Col Craig Leeson of AFB Makhado. He laid a wreath on behalf of 85 Combat Flying School.