Expiry: 
Monday, June 6, 2016 - 00:00
 

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood, a long battle of the Somme fought between the armies of Britain and the British Empire and Germany and her Empire. It was one of the not very conclusive battles of the Somme and was fought between 15th July and 3rd September, although the British were triumphant. The war did not end until November 1918.  

Delville Wood (Bois d'Eville) lies close to the Village of Longueval in Northern France. It was a salient considered to be strategically important. It is a wooded area of 160 acres which was then planted with beech, hornbeam trees and hazel thickets. It was a wood meant for leisurely horse rides, so the trees stood either side of wide avenues. It was the South African debut in battle, and Springboks went into attack. For five days (15 July to 20 July) they fought and held the wood but at huge cost in lives and casualties, until relieved. The Springboks were decimated and the brigade lost two thirds of its strength. 750 men were dead and 1500 wounded. Victoria Crosses were won at Delville Wood. The fighting force of South Africans were all white volunteer soldiers and this fact now adds a new dimension for explanation and engagement 100 years after the battle. 

After the war, Delville Wood became the part of France claimed by South Africa as its own. How that happened is a well documented story with all its controversies. Today one walks the wood in spring, it is now planted with birch and oak trees, only one hornbeam remains, there are thick bluebells blossoming at your feet. The land is still pitted and pockmarked, there are grassed over crater holes and intermittent memorials in the wood mark events and brave deeds. The nearby war cemetery contains the remains of many young South African men who lost their lives in heroic duty; there are also the graves of other men from other countries. We see the Baker designed memorial (of the late 1920s) with its many colonial reference points for South Africa, then a white dominated emerging political Dominion. There is a South African military museum which  remembers and commemorates South African military exploits of the 20th century (created mid 1980s). It is a place of memory but also myth making, of history but also where evolving current political agendas intrude. Here the forging of new national identities and reconciliation of Afrikaner and English had the aim of uniting the country.   Now there are new South African dynamics in the politics and architecture of commemoration. But there are also some comparisons to be made. The South African experience on the Somme and its contribution to the making of national identities was matched by the experiences of the Canadians, the Australians, New Zealanders and Indians.  

This lecture will  remember the sacrifices but also reflect on the sense of place, its history and that process of reinventing history and matching interpretations at national shrines to fit new current political pressure points. Here we can see the use and the misuse of history. How do we understand the significance and history of Delville Wood today and can that seminal battle speak to our generation and our youth?  What is the role of the architect in commemoration and how has that role changed?

A new memorial is being planned for unveiling at Delville Wood in mid 2016. We pose some pertinent questions: what was Deville Wood all about, what was the legacy of Delville Wood, how did South Africa use Delville Wood to shape a national identity in the 20th century, can this sacred place now become a point of pilgrimage on a path to reconciliation, peace making, new memories and a wider commemoration? Why is a new memorial necessary and does that too become instant heritage?  

What lessons can we draw from the other new memorials on the Somme, for example at the Notre Dame De Lorette or the Irish memorial at the Messines Ridge near Ypres?

Contact Jill Snaddon for more information - jill.snaddon@gmail.com

Date - Monday 6 June 2016 Session 1 - 13h45 - 15h20 Session 2 17h30 - 19h15

Venue: Auditorium of the Ditsong Museum of Military History Erlswold Way Saxonwold

 
Category: 
Events Exhibitions Tours
 
Created
Saturday, June 4, 2016 - 12:11
 
 

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