Preface

YEARS AGO I had the privilege of listening to the World War I tales of William Thorne, then an old man and one of the few South African survivors of the famous Battle of Delville Wood, when only some 750 of the 3 153 men who had entered the wood mustered when the brigade was finally relieved. He told me about the South Africans’ traumatic campaigns in Flanders and on the Somme, of the hell of Delville Wood – when he was a lad of just nineteen – and of how his brother was shot dead next to him at Gouzeaucourt. Tears flowed down his cheeks as he spoke, as he relived the horror of that time like it were yesterday.

William Thorne is just one of many South African soldiers – or Springboks, as they were called – who fought on the Somme. The Somme Chronicles is an attempt to tell their story, in their own words, using the letters they sent to family back home and the memoirs they later recorded. It is a story of long days in cold muddy trenches, of hunger and thirst, of misery and suffering, of utter exhaustion and of death. But it is also a story of survival against heavy odds, of tremendous bravery, of wilful sacrifice and of unparalleled camaraderie. It is a story of truly courageous South Africans.

Some of these soldiers appear in the cover photograph of this book. It shows them shortly before they went into Delville Wood – when there was still a wood. A special word of thanks to Colonel Piet Schoeman of Waterval-Boven for his kind permission to use it (as well as others in the photo section). The photograph originally belonged to his great-step uncle, Private Philippus P.J. Grobler (born 21 June 1895), one of the men in the group. Grobler was wounded during the battle, and in the chaos and confusion was left for dead. He was reported as missing in action, but was found by a relieving force and sent to England to recuperate. Sadly, Grobler died while returning to South Africa when the ship he was sailing on was torpedoed and sank on 12 September 1918.

A word of thanks also to the staffs of the Cape Archives, the SA Library, the Special Collections J.S. Gericke Library (Stellenbosch University), the SA Centre for the Netherlands and Flanders (SASNEV) and the Oudtshoorn Museum, and others who assisted me during my research.

This year, 2014, marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of that dreadful war, that only ended with the armistice on 11 November 1918. During those years, hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides suffered unspeakable trauma, agony and hardship. This book is dedicated to them.

CHRIS SCHOEMAN
APRIL 2014