High Wood High Wood is a small forest near Bazentin le Petit in the Somme " département " of northern France which was the scene of intense fighting for two months from 14 July to 15 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme . Background . The French name for the wood was " Bois des Foureaux " ( now called " Bois des Fourcaux " ) but to the British infantry who fought there , it was known as High Wood and , like neighbouring Delville Wood , it earned an evil reputation . The stench of rotting corpses in the wood was overwhelming in summer and it inspired E . A . MacKintosh to pen a parody of " Chalk Farm to Camberwell Green " . Actions . The British Fourth Army of Lieutenant General Henry Rawlinson first attempted to capture High Wood on 14 July 1916 during the Battle of Bazentin Ridge . Though the wood was initially abandoned by the Germans delays , confusion and hesitation meant that the British did not attempt to occupy it until the evening when two regiments of cavalry , the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 20th Deccan Horse , made the only cavalry charge of the battle . Though the cavalry gained a foothold and held out until the morning of 15 July , they were unsupported and forced to withdraw . The next attempt on the wood was made by a company of the 16th Battalion , King ' s Royal Rifle Corps , 33rd Division on 15 July but by this time the Germans had reoccupied the wood in numbers . High Wood became an anchor for the new German defensive trench line , known as the Switch Line , that connected their second defensive line near Pozières with their incomplete third defensive line east of Flers . The Switch Line ran through the northern tip of High Wood and both proved impregnable to the piecemeal attacks mounted by the Fourth Army . The 33rd Division attacked again on 20 July and managed to capture part of High Wood while the 5th Division and 7th Division attacked the Switch Line to the east . ( It was during the 7th Division ' s attack that Private Theodore Veale won the Victoria Cross . ) The next big Fourth Army assault came on the night of 22 – 23 July and on this occasion the 51st ( Highland ) Division attacked High Wood but here , as everywhere else on the Fourth Army front , they were repulsed with heavy casualties . Sergeant Bill Hay of the 1 / 9th Battalion , Royal Scots , described the attack thus : The British field gun s had difficulty supporting attacks on High Wood because they had to fire over Bazentin Ridge . The low elevation of the guns meant the shells were just skimming over the British trenches and the margin for error was small with numerous casualties from friendly fire . On 18 August the 33rd Division was called on to attack High Wood once again and failed . The division tried on 24 August between High Wood and Delville Wood and as preparation for this assault , a machine gun barrage was fired by the 100th Machine Gun Company ( 100th Brigade ) which in twelve hours fired over 1 million bullets from ten machine guns . Another failed attack was made on 3 September as part of the fighting for Guillemont . By 14 September it was estimated that the British had suffered 6 , 000 casualties in the struggle for High Wood . High Wood was captured along with the Switch Line , in the next big British offensive the Battle of Flers - Courcelette on 15 September 1916 . Success was not achieved without further blunder and sacrifice . Due to the closeness of the two front - lines the III Corps commander Lieutenant General Sir William Pulteney , decided to use the new tank instead of artillery . After two months of constant fighting High Wood was not ideal terrain for tank operations , especially these first under - developed tanks . Four tanks were allocated to High Wood but only one , " D - 13 " penetrated any distance and its presence was not decisive . The task of capturing High Wood had fallen to the 47th ( 1 / 2nd London ) Division . Their first attempt with tank support had failed but the attack resumed and after a hurricane bombardment of German positions by Stokes Mortar s , in which 750 bombs were fired in 15 minutes , High Wood was finally in British hands . The 47th Division ' s performance was considered a failure because High Wood was only one of their objectives for the day ; after four days of fighting in which the division suffered over 4 , 500 casualties , the commander Major General Charles Barter was relieved of command for " wanton waste of men " ( though prevailing opinion lays the blame with Pulteney ) . Commemoration . On the edge of High Wood is the London Cemetery and Extension . This Commonwealth cemetery was opened with the interment of 47 soldiers of the 47th Division in the days following 15 September 1916 . The men were buried in a large shell hole . The cemetery now contains the remains of some 4000 men , most being First World War casualties . High Wood is also mentioned in a poem of Siegfried Sassoon . See also . Battle of Bazentin Ridge