57603: Mametz Wood

This photograph of the edge of Mametz Wood gives some idea of the density of the timber and undergrowth through which the 38th (Welsh) Division would have had to attack."
Graves, on the 14th July 1916, with the RWF 2nd Battalion, went into reserve north of Mametz Wood. Meanwhile, The battalion was detailed to go into Mametz Wood and 'bury friends'. These were the dead of the 38th (Welsh) Division in whose ranks had been many volunteers from North Wales who fell with the Royal Welch Fusilier battalions (including the 14th battalion who had taken over from Sassoon's battalion in Bottom Wood just over a week previously), in their attack on Mametz Wood on 10th-12th July."
As the nights were cold, Graves collected greatcoats for his men from dead Germans. The sight of one corpse inspired his poem, A Dead Boche.