In mid-July the Royal Welch Fusiliers were forming up in support of an attack that had gone in on High Wood when they came under accurate artillery fire. As they withdrew down this gentle slope to escape the ferocious barrage, there were many casualties. Amongst them was the poet Robert Graves, then a captain in the RWF;

"One piece of shell went through my thigh, high up near the groin; I must have been at full stretch of my stride to escape emasculation. The wound over my eye was made by a little chip of marble, possibly from one of the Bazentin headstones. This, and a finger wound which split the bone, probably came from another shell bursting in front of me. But a piece of shell had also gone in two inches below the point of my right shoulder blade, and came out through my chest two inches above the right nipple, in a line with my collar bone"

Graves was evacuated to the old German dressing station in the corner of Mametz Wood, but his wounds were so severe that he was not expected to survive, and was laid down outside. His commanding officer duly listed him as killed in action. Siegfried Sassoon, who was in billets a short distance away, wrote this poem to the memory of his old friend when the news reached him;