Somme - Mametz Wood: Tomorrow We Must Go To Take Some Cursed Wood

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2016

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Between the 3rd and 12th of July 1916, the British struggled to capture Mametz Wood. This episode covers the grinding fight conducted almost exclusively by the 17th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	To you who'd read my songs of war, and only hear of blood and fame, I'll say, you've heard it said before, war's hell, and if you doubt the same, today I found in Mummet's Wood a certain cure for lust of blood, where, propped against a shattered trunk, and a great mess of things unclean, sat a dead
0:27.7	bosh he scowled and stunk, with clothes and face a sodden green, big bellied, spectacled,
0:36.2	crop-haired, dribbling black blood from nose and bared.
0:42.3	Lieutenant Robert Graves, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, from the book Ferrys and Fusiliers,
0:48.3	Mometz Wood, the Psalm, July 1916.
1:09.9	Hey folks, welcome to the Battles of the First World War podcast episode 12.
1:15.0	Psalm, tomorrow we must go to take some cursed wood.
1:21.0	This show is free and independent because we don't have any corporate sponsors.
1:22.9	I'd gladly take some.
1:29.3	Until then, it is so great to be back at it sharing this story with you. So let's get into the trenches.
1:33.3	Like we discussed last episode, for the British 4th Army to be ready to hit the German second position north of the River Somme,
1:42.3	three objectives would need to be cleared in order to
1:46.5	have a secure jump-off line for the third 15th and eighth corps these three objectives from east to
1:55.2	west were trones wood mammats wood and the village of Conton Maison.
2:02.6	These would need to be taken first before anything major could really have a hope of success.
2:08.6	To the north, the reserve army would be striking at Ovié as flanking support.
2:14.6	The charred and muddy ruins of Contamaison were finally seized from
2:19.4	the Germans on July 10th after a bloody struggle that at its height saw the Germans working
2:24.8	to level the village with artillery. To the east, the British blasted Throne's wood and its defenders
2:32.7	into a mix of tree stumps and bloody jelly.
2:37.0	The Tommies of the British 30th Division were largely chewed up in this fight, losing 2,000
2:43.0	men trying to gain possession of the place.
	...

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