Delville Wood from The Gird Trench, Guedecourt
On the 16th September 1916 the 6th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry attacked across this field, with orders to occupy the heavily defended 'Gird' trench, the main German third line. The Somersets in fact mistook a secondary trench that the Germans had dug in front of their main line for the Gird, and the attack failed, leaving the Somersets dreadfully exposed in the half dug German trench
"I went round one of the traverses, as far as I can remember, and somebody hit me on the head with a rifle butt. I was wearing a tin hat, fortunately, but it didn't do me much good. A chap came at me with a bayonet, aiming for a very critical part naturally, and I managed to push it down, I got a bayonet wound in the groin. After that I was still very dizzy, from this blow on the head presumably. I remember wresting with another German, and the next thing I saw, it appeared to me my left hand had gone. After that I was unconscious."
Lance Corporal Arnold Ridley of 6th Btn SLI.
"I went round one of the traverses, as far as I can remember, and somebody hit me on the head with a rifle butt. I was wearing a tin hat, fortunately, but it didn't do me much good. A chap came at me with a bayonet, aiming for a very critical part naturally, and I managed to push it down, I got a bayonet wound in the groin. After that I was still very dizzy, from this blow on the head presumably. I remember wresting with another German, and the next thing I saw, it appeared to me my left hand had gone. After that I was unconscious."
Lance Corporal Arnold Ridley of 6th Btn SLI.
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