High Wood by Michael Harrison

Author:Michael Harrison [Harrison, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War I, Reference, Atlases; Gazetteers & Maps, Europe, General
ISBN: 9781473873681
Google: wrLNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-06-30T00:18:27+00:00

The effect of the machine gun barrage was annihilating. Counter attacks endeavouring to re-take the ground lost were broken up whilst being concentrated East of Flers Ridge and High Wood.

Ernst Jünger, a German officer who survived and published his memoirs, tells of one particularly annoying British machine gunner (unfortunately, not dated) who regularly caused streams of bullets to descend vertically from out of the sky; ‘there was no point in trying to duck behind walls.’

Heilly, 10.20pm: Situation Report, 33rd Division report they have gained the whole of their objective and are in touch with the left of 14th Division.

The 14th Division would report on the 25th that they had cleared Delville Wood and were in touch with 33rd Division. At last, for the British, their momentous efforts and sacrifice were showing signs of success. Equipment failures still dogged operations, but communications had held allowing commanders to actually command. As for the Germans, their officers discovered that their own troops had taken to using shell holes instead of the trenches which were receiving a constant battering from the Royal Artillery. This unofficial tactic was double-edged, it was extremely difficult for the British to locate enemy troops so concealed, but in turn the Germans lost immediate command of their troops.

British gains in High Wood were constantly counter-attacked; August saw German attacks in the wood launched on the 12th, 17th, 18th and 19th of the month. The British soldiers who withstood, and most often beat off these attacks, are often portrayed as downtrodden sheep-like creatures driven to their inevitable deaths by a cruel and sadistic officer class. In an organisation as large as the BEF the law of averages would throw up some who would conform to the misconception, but the real figures are almost infinitesimal. British officers were taught to look after the needs of their men first and their own a long way second; had this not been the case, the BEF would not have ultimately triumphed.

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