98
The Ypres Times.
Delville Wood rendered the supply of ammunition, food and water most difficult. Little
progress was made in spite of great gallantry on the part of the officers and men, and
further attacks on the morning of the 17th met with no better success, though assisted
by the two other companies of the 1st Regiment from the direction of the Strand.
The remainder of Sunday, 17th, passed comparatively peacefully, but it was only a
lull before the storm, and at dusk the fire of the German batteries on the shell-shattered
wood increased in violence from the north, east and south-east. To add to the difficulties
of the South African Brigade Colonel Tanner was wounded during the evening and Colonel
Thackeray succeeded to the command of the troops in the wood.
The German bombardment was the prelude to a fierce German infantry attack from
the east and north.
This attack was anticipated by an attack on the northern portion of Longueval
village from the east by the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, cf the 3rd Division, during
a lull in the German bombardment. Before the attack of the Gordons could make much
headway the intensity of the German bombardment was redoubled and the village burst
into flames, while the whole wood was enveloped in the smoke and crash of the bursting
shells. The wood became a perfect inferno and well merited its nickname of the Devil's
Wood.
Strong reinforcements reached the Germans during the 16th and 17th, and nine
battalions now took part in a counter-attack which had as its objectives the German
second line position south of Longueval village and Delville Wood. The 107th Reserve
Infantry Regiment (three battalions) attacked from the east, astride the Ginchy road,
against the 3rd South African Regiment. These battalions held a trench along the
southern edge of the wood which had been well sited and had a good field of fire across the
open grass land. The advancing lines were set by machine-gun and rifle fire from the
attenuated South African line, and raked bymn artillery barrage from the supporting
British batteries. The waves of advancing Germans appeared to melt away and the
attack failed with heavy less. The 2nd South African Regiment along the northern
edge of the wood had been subjected to an even more severe bombardment, and their
trenches had suffered accordingly. Gas shell had moreover taken toll of its depleted ranks.
It was attacked by the three battalions of the 153rd Regiment from the north from the
direction of Flers. The objective of this attack was the Waterlot Farm-Longueval road.
The hollow ground a few hundred yards north of the wood, up which ran a stretch of the
road from Flers, was of material assistance to the German attack, and gave them a more
or less covered position from which to assault the battered South African trenches. After
severe losses the Germans gained a foothold in the wood and the survivors of the 2nd
Regiment were finally compelled early in the afternoon to abandon the edge of the wood
which they had so long and gallantly defended till exhaustion and a shortage of ammunition
gave the Germans the upper hand. Many of the defenders of the trenches were killed,
some were taken prisoners, the survivors falling back to Colonel Thackeray's H.Q., at the
junction of Prince's and Buchanan Streets. After reorganisation the leading German
battalion continued its advance towards the southern edge of the wood, but when it
reached Prince's Street it came under heavy fire from Colonel Thackeray's party, and
part only of the battalion reached the southern edge of the wood. When, however, the
battalion left the shelter of the wood in the direction of Waterlot Farm it was met by such
well-directed artillery fire and machine-gun fire from Longueval that it took cover again
in the wood. This German battalion lost very heavily, all its 15 officers being put out
of action. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 153rd Regiment also entered the wood, but
their losses had been so heavy that they could make no real progress. The regiment,
according to its own records, lost 38 officers and 1,300 men during this fight.
The situation was a most critical one. The Germans, by the late afternoon, were in
possession of the greater part of the wood with the exception of the south-west corner.
At dusk they made a further attack from the north and east against Prince's Street and
