Mametz wood

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Mametz Wood was the objective of the British 38th (Welsh) Division during the First Battle of the Somme. The attack occurred in a Northerly direction over a ridge, focussed on the German positions in the wood between 7 July and 12 July 1916. The war poet Siegfried Sassoon made a single handed attack on Mametz Wood on 4 July 1916. Most of the Welsh division was cut down by German machine gun fire from the woods.

The wood still stands today, surrounded by farmland. Overgrown shell craters and trenches can still be made out. There is a memorial to the 38th Division nearby on a rough single lane road at approximately Lat: 50:00:36N (50.0099) Lon: 2:45:02E (2.7504). This can be reached from the village of Mametz on the D64 road. The memorial takes the form of a red Welsh Dragon tearing at barbed wire on top of a 3 metre plinth.