Notes

INTRODUCTION

1Martin Gilbert, Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, London: John Murray, 2006, p. xvii.

2Ibid., p. 24.

CHAPTER 1: THE BIRTH OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BRIGADE

1From http://africanhistory.about.com/od/glossarya2/g/Afrikaner-Rebellion.htm.

2H.L. Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’, Military History Journal 10 (5), June 1997.

3Ibid.

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

6Letter from Captain Trevitt to a Mrs Wood of Trentham, UK, published in the Long Eaton Advertiser, 16 July 1915.

7Max Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, London: Ebury Press, 2002, pp. 16–17.

8Ibid., pp. 14–15.

9Sir Charles Preston Crewe fought in the Ninth Frontier War between 1878 and 1879, and the Basutoland War between 1880 and 1881. He held the office of member of the legislative assembly (MLA) (Cape of Good Hope) between 1899 and 1910. He gained the rank of brigadier-general in the service of the South African Defence Force. He was invested as a Companion, Order of the Bath and was decorated with the award of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officers’ Decoration. He fought in the Boer War between 1900 and 1902. He held the office of colonial secretary of the Cape of Good Hope between 1904 and 1907, and the office of secretary for agriculture (Cape of Good Hope) between 1907 and 1908. He was invested as a Knight Commander, Order of St Michael and St George. He held the office of MLA (Union of South Africa) between 1910 and 1919, for East London. He fought in the First World War, in East Africa. He was chief owner of the East London Daily Despatch and the Queenstown Daily Representative.

10Written on the flyleaf of a copy of the book. Ian Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’, Military History Journal 7 (2), December 1986.

11Dawson served in India and Malaya from 1893 to 1897 and in Robert’s Horse during the Boer War. He became inspector of the Orange River Colony Police in 1908 and commanded the 4th South African Mounted Rifles in the South-West Africa campaign. Tanner joined the Natal Carbineers in 1893, and served in the Boer War and in the Bambatha Zulu Rebellion in 1906, and in the South-West Africa campaign as a major in the Union Defence Force. Thackeray was an interesting character. He left for America in 1886, where he spent four years as a cowboy before joining the East Surrey Regiment in 1890. Two years later he became a corporal in the 11th Hussars, serving in India in the Chitral Campaign. He then came to South Africa where he served in the Matabeleland campaign and the Boer War (with the Southern Rhodesian Volunteers and Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts). After the war he joined the South African Constabulary and then the Union Defence Force, serving in the South-West Africa campaign as chief staff officer. Jones served with the Welsh Regiment in the Boer War and as brigade-major to the 1st Infantry Brigade in South-West Africa.

12Ian Uys, Delville Wood, Germiston: I. Uys Publishers, 1983, p. 10.

13Ibid.

14Anton Ludwig August von Mackensen (b. 6 December 1849; d. 8 November 1945), born August Mackensen, became one of the German Empire’s most prominent military leaders. After the armistice, Mackensen was interned for a year. He retired from the German Army in 1920 and was made a Prussian state councillor in 1933 by Hermann Göring. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_von_Mackensen.

15John Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1920, pp. 23–25.

16Ibid.

17General Sir William Eliot Peyton, KCB, KCVO, CB, DSO, was born on 7 May 1866. He joined the 7th Dragoon Guards in 1885, becoming a major in 1899, major-general in 1914, lieutenant-general in 1921 and general in 1927. He commanded the 15th Hussars from 1903 to 1907. He served in the Sudan and in South Africa, and commanded the Meerut Cavalry Brigade from 1908 to 1912. At Gallipoli he commanded the 2nd Mounted Brigade, and the 40th Division in France and Flanders, from June 1918 to March 1919. He was military secretary to the secretary of state for war (1922–26) and commander in chief, Scottish Command, from 1926 to 1930, when he retired.

18Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 32–35.

19Uys, Delville Wood, p. 15.

20Ibid., p. 16.

21A year later the Grand Senussi, who had been living in the Siwa Oasis, made an attempt to shift his quarters. Major-General Watson, who then commanded the Western Frontier Force, sent a column of armoured cars, which on 3 February 1917 broke up his camp, drove him into the outer deserts and destroyed for good any little military prestige that remained to him.

22Ian Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, Johannesburg: I. Uys Publishers, 1991, pp. 12–13.

23Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 41–42.

CHAPTER 2: BERNAFAY AND TRÔNES WOODS

1Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

2Ibid.

3Ibid.

4General Sir Walter Norris Congreve, VC, KCB, MVO, DL (b. 20 November 1862; d. 28 February 1927) was a British Army captain in the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) during the Second Anglo-Boer War when he was awarded his Victoria Cross. On 15 December 1899 at the Battle of Colenso, Captain Congreve and several others saved two guns of the 14th and 66th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery, when the detachments serving the guns had all become casualties or been driven from their guns.

5Peter Digby, Pyramids and Poppies: The 1st SA Infantry Brigade in Libya, France and Flanders 1915–1919, Benoni: Ashanti Publishing, 1993, p. 112; and J. Ewing, The History of the 9th (Scottish) Division 1914–1919, London: John Murray, 1921, p. 96.

6Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 45.

7The Battle of Verdun was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 between the German and French armies on the Western Front, on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France.

8Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 45.

9Ibid., p. 46.

10Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, pp. 14–15.

11The north-central area of the Somme was the terrain of a series of battles during World War I, which took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on either side of the river.

12Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 17.

13Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

14Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 47–48.

15Ibid., p. 50.

16‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

17Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 51–52; see also R. Cornwell, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’, Militaria 7 (2), 1977, pp. 21–22.

18John Masefield, The Old Front Line, New York: Macmillan, 1917, pp. 25–26.

19In The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front (Cape Town: Cape Times Ltd, 1918), his name is given as Leonard Louis Arrons. According to the Delville Wood Roll of Honour, however, his name is Louis Leonard Aarons.

20Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, Cape Town: Cape Times Ltd, 1918, p. 19.

21‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, recorded by Walter Giddy on 9 July 1916, http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm. Giddy was born at Barkly East in 1895, the third son of Henry Richard Giddy and Catherine Octavia Dicks/Giddy, and attended Dale College in King William’s Town. He volunteered for overseas military service in 1915 and served in the 2nd South African Infantry Regiment. He survived the Battle of Delville Wood, but was killed in action by shrapnel on 12 April 1917 near Fampoux in France. He is commemorated by a special memorial in the Point-du-Jour Military Cemetery, Athies.

22Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 52–53.

23Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 19.

24‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm.

25Ibid.

26‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

27Ibid.

28Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 53–55.

29Ibid., pp. 55–56.

30Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

31Ibid.

32Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 57.

33Ibid., pp. 57–58.

34Ewing, The History of the 9th (Scottish) Division 1914–1919, p. 102.

CHAPTER 3: LONGUEVAL

1Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 57–58.

2Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

3‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm.

4‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

5Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 36.

6Ibid., p. 37.

7E. Solomon, Potchefstroom to Delville Wood (with the 3rd South African Infantry). Together with Some Experiences as a Prisoner of War in Germany, Johannesburg: Football & Sports Publishers, n.d., p. 61; Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 58–59; and Uys, Delville Wood, pp. 54–55.

8Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 59; and John Giles, The Somme Then and Now, Folkestone: Bailey Brothers & Swinfen, 1977, pp. 69–70.

9Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 60.

10Ibid., pp. 60–61.

11Giles, The Somme Then and Now, pp. 70–71; Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 61–62; and Uys, Delville Wood, pp. 54–56.

12Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 63.

13Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 63–65; Digby, Pyramids and Poppies: The 1st SA Infantry Brigade in Libya, France and Flanders 1915–1919, pp. 123–124; and Uys, Delville Wood, pp. 99–100.

14Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 76–77.

CHAPTER 4: DELVILLE WOOD

1Solomon, Potchefstroom to Delville Wood (with the 3rd South African Infantry). Together with Some Experiences as a Prisoner of War in Germany, p. 61.

2Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 45.

3Ibid.

4Ibid.

5Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

6Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 65.

7G.G.J. Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War’, Militaria 8 (4), 1978, p. 46; and Solomon, Potchefstroom to Delville Wood (with the 3rd South African Infantry): Together with Some Experiences as a Prisoner of War in Germany, p. 63.

8Uys, Delville Wood, p. 74.

9Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 26.

10Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 65–66.

11William Frederick Faulds (b. 1895; d. 1950) of Cradock, Eastern Cape, was awarded 11 medals during his military career. He was awarded the Military Cross for his endeavours during his unit’s retreat to Marrières Wood in March 1918. He went on to serve in the Second World War. A new conference and function facility, the Capt W F Faulds VC MC Centre, was officially opened at the South African National Museum of Military History in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, on 29 November 1995.

12Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 66.

13Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 23.

14Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 35. Private Ryan enlisted on 17 August 1915 and served in the Egyptian campaign before going to France. Following the events on 16 July, he suffered from shell-shock and was treated at a military hospital in Fulham.

15Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 66–67.

16Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 44.

17Ibid., p. 41.

18‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

19Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 67.

20Haldane was in charge of the armoured train ambushed by the Boers near Chieveley, Natal, when he was captured along with Churchill (then a war correspondent) and other troops during the Second Anglo-Boer War.

21‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

22Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 68.

23‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

24Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 68–70.

25‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

26Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

27Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 75–76.

28Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 52.

29Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

30Phillips was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. He was wounded at the Butte de Warlencourt and died on 16 October 1916. See Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’; and Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 70–71.

31Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 71.

32Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

33J.A. Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, Cape Town: Maskew Miller, 1918, p. 13.

34Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 72.

35Digby, Pyramids and Poppies: The 1st SA Infantry Brigade in Libya, France and Flanders 1915–1919, pp. 131–132.

36Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 77.

37Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

38Ibid.

39Wepener is presumably referring to the regimental sergeant-major (RSM) of the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment. The RSM of the 3rds, however, was W.K. Lawson, who survived both the battle and the war. The RSM of the 4ths, J. Cameron, was killed on 15 July, and it is probably he to whom Wepener is referring.

40Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, pp. 102–103.

41Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

42Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 106.

43Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

44Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 107.

45Ibid., pp. 113–114.

46Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 72.

47Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

48Author’s interview with William Thorne, Oudtshoorn, 1976. See ‘First Brigade survivors pay homage to the fallen’, Die Suid-Westelike Herald, no date (file H3044B).

49‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, available at http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm.

50Later a second-lieutenant, Lee, died of wounds on 9 April 1917, near Arras, and was buried in the St Nicolas British Cemetery.

51‘Letter from Frederick Charles Lee’, available at http://www.delvillewood.com/lee.htm.

52Major John William Jackson was killed on 20 July 1916. Captain Donald Ronald MacLachlan was killed on 16 July 1916. Both are commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

53Named after Jack Johnson, the American heavyweight boxer, a ‘Jack Johnson’ was the British nickname for a heavy, black German 15-cm artillery shell.

54‘Letter from Frederick Charles Lee’, available at http://www.delvillewood.com/lee.htm.

55Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 51.

56Giles, The Somme Then and Now, p. 73.

57Walter Giddy’s diary, 22 July 1916. From ‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, available at http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm.

58Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

59Ibid., p. 74.

60Bill Nasson, Springboks on the Somme: South Africa in the Great War 1914–1918, Johannesburg: Penguin, 2007, pp. 142–143; see also Mercedes-Benz Southern Africa Golf Hall of Fame Special Commemorative Edition newsletter, July 2013.

61Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 73.

62Ibid., p.78.

63Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 73; 78.

64Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

65First published in C.B. Purdom (ed.), Everyman at War: Sixty Personal Narratives of the War, London: J.M. Dent, 1930; see http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/delvillewood.htm.

CHAPTER 5: LIFE IN THE TRENCHES

1Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, p. 83.

2Ibid., p. 169.

3Gilbert, Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, p. 28.

4Tolkien was ordered to France in June 1916 with the Lancashire Fusiliers. Although initially held in reserve, he helped capture the German stronghold at Ovillers. As a battalion signalling officer, he had been in and out of the trenches for three months. In late October, the Fusiliers were sent on to Ypres but, suffering from trench fever – caused by a louse bite – Tolkien was sent to a Birmingham hospital instead. He spent the rest of the war convalescing and then training fresh troops in Staffordshire and Yorkshire. In the months before the Somme, three former school friends had become the first Middle Earth fans, but two of them, Robert Gilson and Geoffrey Bache Smith, were killed on the Western Front. See www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one; news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine; and Gilbert, Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, pp. 114, 239–240.

5J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, London: Unwin Books, 1966, Introduction.

6Masefield, The Old Front Line, pp. 23–24.

7Letter from Lieutenant John Raws to his mother, 9 July 1916. Raws was with the 23rd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, and killed in action at Pozières on 23 August 1916. He was 33 years old. Before the war he was a journalist with the Melbourne Argus. His war correspondence is held at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra (2DRL/0481).

8Masefield, The Old Front Line, pp. 23–24.

9Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 18; and G. Genis, ‘Delville Wood: Eighty years July 1916–July 1996’, Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies 26 (1), 1996, p. 10.

10G.W. Warwick, We Band of Brothers: Reminiscences from the 1st SA Infantry Brigade in the 1914–1918 War, Cape Town: Howard Timmins, 1962, p. 71; and Genis, ‘Delville Wood: Eighty years July 1916–July 1996’, p. 10.

11Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, p. 6.

12Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, pp. 28–29.

13Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, p. 13.

14Solomon, Potchefstroom to Delville Wood (with the 3rd South African Infantry). Together with some experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany, p. 66; and Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, pp. 26, 44.

15Letter from Lieutenant John Raws to his brother, 12 August 1916.

16John Simkin, First World War Encyclopedia, London: Spartacus Educational, 2012, p. 87.

17Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 39.

18Warwick, We Band of Brothers, p. 71.

19Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

20Broughton, a member of the 1st Battalion, was wounded on 17 July 1916. From Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 28.

21Ibid., p. 106.

22‘Extracts from the diary of Walter Giddy’, http://www.delvillewood.com/giddy.htm.

23Uys, ‘The South Africans at Delville Wood’.

24From ‘Extracts from Combat In and Over Delville Wood: Memoirs of Arthur Henry Betteridge’, available at http://www.delvillewood.com/betteridge.htm.

25Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, p. 12.

26Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 32.

27Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, p. 13.

28Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 49.

29Letter dated 28 July 1916. From Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 54.

30Genis, ‘Delville Wood: Eighty years July 1916–July 1996’, p. 12.

31Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, p. 53.

32Lawson, Memories of Delville Wood, p. 7.

33Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, pp. 45–46.

34Ibid., p. 242.

35Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

36Russell Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’, Military History Journal 8 (2).

37Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

38Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, pp. 242–243.

39Ibid.

40Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

41Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, p. 85. See also Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’: ‘I had never believed that rats could grow as big as large cats. They were loathsome creatures and had no fear of humans.’

42Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, p. 97.

43Ibid., p. 243.

44Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’.

45Gilbert, Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, p. 223.

46Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, pp. 95, 97.

47Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

48Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, pp. 56–57.

49Ibid., p. 169.

50Letter from Lieutenant John Raws to his mother, 20 July 1916.

CHAPTER 6: THE BUTTE DE WARLENCOURT

1Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 83–84.

2Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’, entry for 14 September 1916.

3Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 84.

4Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’.

5Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 84–85.

6Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’.

7Ibid.

8Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 85.

9Cape Times, The Story of Delville Wood Told in Letters from the Front, pp. 46–47.

10http://patrickwright.polimekanos.com/wp-content/uploads/tank_chapter-3.pdf, pp. 2–3.

11Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 87–88.

12Ibid., pp. 88–89.

13http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/history-wfa/2361-did-you-know-the-butte-de-warlencourt.html.

14Bradford was a second-lieutenant when the war began. In February 1915 he was awarded a Military Cross and in August 1916 was given command as a temporary lieutenant-colonel of the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He won his Victoria Cross after being ordered to take command of the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, and advanced towards the German lines as part of the 50th Division. Ten days after being given the command of the 186th Brigade as a brigadier-general (which, at the age of 25, made him the youngest general officer in the British Army), Bradford was killed by a stray German shell during the Battle of Cambrai on 30 November 1917.

15Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 94–95.

16Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’.

17Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 88–89.

18Ibid., pp. 96–97.

19Ibid.

20Ibid., pp. 97–98.

21W.D. Croft, Three Years with the 9th (Scottish) Division, London: John Murray, 1919, p. 84.

22Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 98–99.

23Ibid., pp. 100–101.

24Ibid., p. 102.

25Gilbert, Somme: The Heroism and Horror of War, pp. 238; 250.

CHAPTER 7: THE BATTLE OF ARRAS

1Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’, entries for 7 and 8 November 1916.

2Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 104–106.

3Barratt, ‘A South African in France 1916/1917’, entry for 9 December 1916.

4Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 108.

5Ibid., pp. 108–109.

6Alfred Mahncke, ‘Into the fire: A German officer’s impressions of the Western Front, 1917’, Military History Journal 7 (3), June 1987.

7Edwin Kiester Jnr, An Incomplete History of World War I, London: Murdoch Books, 2007, pp. 183–187.

8Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 108–114.

9Mahncke, ‘Into the fire: A German officer’s impressions of the Western Front, 1917’.

10Silberbauer, ‘Reminiscences of the First World War from the memoirs of the late Lt Col H L Silberbauer’.

11Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 114–116.

12Ibid., p. 118.

13Ibid., pp. 118–199.

14Ibid., pp. 121–122.

15Private R.W. Nelson deserves special mention here. He had carried stretchers continuously from the morning of 9 April, and was already worn out when the attack began on the 12th. He worked on steadily until he collapsed late in the evening, but refused to be relieved. After a short rest, he returned to his post and carried seven cases before the morning. See Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 126.

16Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 126–127.

CHAPTER 8: THE FINAL PUSH

1Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 128–136.

2Ibid., pp. 142–143.

3Ibid., p. 143.

4The loophole was a hole in the side of the pillbox for shooting through (similar to those in the Boer War blockhouses).

5Hewitt farmed in Natal after the war and later in Kenya. He served as a major during the Second World War. After the war he moved to Hermanus. He died in England in 1966. See Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 174.

6Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 144.

7Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 125.

8Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 145–147.

9Ibid., pp. 151–153.

10Uys, Delville Wood, p. 226.

11Tudor (b. 1871; d. 1965) was a Boer War veteran who went on to take part in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21). See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hugh_Tudor; and Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 149–150.

12Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 158–163.

13Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, pp. 1–2.

14Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 158–167.

15Ibid., pp. 169–175.

16Ibid., pp. 175–178.

17Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, p. 3.

18Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 180–182.

19Ibid., p. 184.

20Ibid., pp. 183–184.

21Ibid., pp. 185–187.

22Ibid., p. 187.

23Dawson died of enteric fever in East Africa, in October 1920. See Uys, Rollcall: The Delville Wood Story, p. 172.

24Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 187–188; and Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, p. 5.

25Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 188–189.

26Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, p. 6.

27Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 189; and Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, p. 6.

28Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, p. 190.

29Ibid., pp. 189–190.

30Michelin & Cie, The Somme Vol II, Clermont-Ferrand: Pneu Michelin, 1919, pp. 14–23.

31Frank Mitchell, ‘When Tank Fought Tank’, http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/whentankfoughttank.htm. See also C.B. Purdom (ed.), Everyman at War: Sixty Personal Narratives of the War, London: J.M. Dent, 1980.

32Giles, The Somme Then and Now, pp. 130–133.

33Lawrence, ‘Echoes of War (Part 4)’, p. 9.

34Michelin & Cie, The Somme Vol II, pp. 46–48; and Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 224–225.

35Buchan, The History of the South African Forces in France, pp. 230–255.

36Ibid., pp. 259–260.

APPENDIX VII: THE ROLE OF BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS

1J.S. Mohlamme, ‘Soldiers without reward: Africans in South Africa’s wars’, Military History Journal 10 (1), June 1995.

2Ibid.

3G. Swinney, ‘The sinking of the SS Mendi, 21 February 1917’, Military History Journal 10 (1), June 1995.

4Ibid.

5S. Horwitz, ‘The non-European war record in South Africa’, in E. Hellman (ed.), Handbook on Race Relations in South Africa, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949, pp. 537–538.

6K.W. Grundy, Soldiers Without Politics: Blacks in the South African Armed Forces, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, p. 56.