South African Involvement

Yes,I know that we learned about the Battle of Delville Wood battle more than a week ago, but we have not got proper,consistent internet connection, resulting to the inability to blog about this event. The battle though sparked an emotion in me that I feel that I need to express their story. By July 15th,1916, The Battle of the Somme was over 2 weeks old. British causalities just from the first day was well over 20,000. This mid-July battle,was one of the quickest,and bloodiest fight for any commonwealth army. ON July 14th, 1916,the 9th Scottish Brigade captured the village of Longueval. The next day the 2nd,3rd and 4th South African regiments were sent into the Belville woods to completely capture the German position. 3032 soldiers were sent in to "serve" their duty. By 9:00 hours,they captured the regiment. This would be the only positive note of the battle for the South Africans. On the 16th, they were unsuccessful in launching another attack to progress. The 17th and 18th, fighting and struggle continued. By the 19th, the patient Germans pushed the South African regiments out to the obscure corner of the woods. By 18:00 on July 20th, the South African brigades were relieved, only after 6 days of fighting. This day will forever be remembered as, "The Sixth Day". Out of the mentioned 3032 soldiers, only 140 would walk out of the woods. 

    This was not fight for the South African,commonwealth side. They were blindly thrown in a mass killing. They entered into an unknown, swamped forest. The Germans,who have had this position for 2 years,were on the defensive. They literally "picked"off the young South Africans one-by-one as they crawled through the wretched swamp of Belville.

  Today though,these men are respected with the Belville memorial and museum. It is a disgrace what these men were put through. Now,this memorial sits on the edge of the same forest where thousands of South Africans died. Within the museum, artwork is showcased,displaying the grim realities that these young men went through. The artwork perfectly reveals the emotion that was prevalent in mid-July,1916. Surrounding the memorial is the forest. The land in which these men died on,is now green and full of life. It is a rich forest,that has no comparisons to what it was almost 100 years ago. The site,I believe did an astonishing job in representing and preserving these soldiers,honorable history. 

                                                            -Jordan Harris.