Roll Call.
The Delville Wood Story – by Ian Uys.
(Published by Uys Publishers 1991.)
This book is one of my all time favourites, and has a special place in my book collection. My great-grandfather fought in this battle and lost his one leg. He is in the Roll Call section of the book as Private F. Brown of the Second Battalion. We still have his war medals from both wars that he fought in, as well as the rest of the family war medals.
The book is very well written and set out in perfect chronological order as the battle commenced and progressed. There are vivid eyewitness accounts in the book of South African soldiers that survived the battle. There are also quite a few photos in the book which show, among other things, how the wood was decimated by the continual artillery barrage. At the completion of the battle the battleground, which once had been a thick wood of trees, was turned into a virtual lunar landscape.
The book also contains beautiful sketches of the battle by the artist Dean Simon. At the back of the book is the actual Roll Call of the South African soldiers that fought in Delville Wood. For all people who have an interest in this story, it is a wonderful book. As I have mentioned already, I value my copy of the book very highly, and if had to get rid of most of my books, this is one of the few that I would keep.
I would also think that other books by this author concerning South African Military History, would also be well worth reading. Unfortunately they are hard to come by, and I have not come across them myself yet in the bookstores where I shop.
Nonetheless, I am very happy that I was able to come across a copy of ‘Roll Call’.
The End.
19 March 2007 – Copyright – JP Brown.
