Mametz: Soldiers Have to Fight for Every Tree, July 15, 1916

The World War

An English Opinion on the Latest Battles in the West

(Own Telegraphic Report)

English soldiers build a road through the rubble of Contalmaison,
which has been completely buried by shelling
(Illustrierte Geschichte des Weltkrieges 1914/1916)

London, July 13. The "Times" reports from France that over the last few days, the fighting at Mametz, in Trones Forest and at Contalmaison has been particularly severe. The Germans have transformed the entire route between the first and second lines into a labyrinth of communication trenches cutting into each other, exploiting every subsidence of ground and every hill.

In Mametz Wood, the enemy has laid extended barbed wire fences, set up numerous machine guns and constructed fortified positions. Although the English artillery bombarded the entire wood with the utmost intensity for several days, the soldiers still had to fight for every tree.