As part of the battle of the Somme, the 38th or Welsh Division was detailed to attack and capture Mametz Wood, the largest wood on the whole Somme battlefront. Nearly a mile wide and over a mile deep, Mametz was made up of thick trees and dense undergrowth.

The wood was heavily fortified with machine guns, trenches and mortars and was defended by the well-trained and elite Lehr Regiment of Prussian Guards.
The 38th Division was comprised of soldiers from several Welsh regiments, young men who had been urged to enlist by the rhetoric of Lloyd George and the thought of adventure. They were amateur soldiers, full of enthusiasm and courage but, like many of Kitchener's New Army who fought on the Somme, they were poorly trained, ill-equipped and badly hampered by the tactics of their commanders.

The Battle of Mametz Wood began on 7 July 1916. The wood was intended to be taken in a matter of hours. In the event the battle lasted for five days as the Germans fiercely resisted the assaults of the Welsh Division. On the first day alone over 400 casualties were sustained.

Over the five days that the battle raged, Mametz Wood was devastated as artillery shells fell continuously on the area. Fighting was furious, with hand to hand combat in many instances, as men battled for every inch and yard of ground. The poet Robert Graves fought in the battle and, having gone back into the wood once the battle was finally over, wrote:
"It was full of dead Prussian Guards, big men, and dead Royal Welch Fusiliers and South Wales Borderers, little men. Not a single tree in the wood remained unbroken."

Casualty figures for the Welsh Division amounted to 46 officers and 556 other ranks killed. When the wounded and those listed as "missing" - men blown to pieces or buried alive by shell blasts - were counted the total number of casualties was 3,993. And that is not counting the numbers of German dead which must have been somewhat similar.

Yet despite achieving their objectives and driving the Germans back to their second line of defences, the Welsh Division was never given real recognition for its achievement. There was even an accusation that the division had failed to advance with enough spirit - in other words the men were accused of cowardice. It was an accusation that was later withdrawn but it left a sour taste in the mouths of many of the men who had seen comrades killed and mutilated in one of the most bloody battles of the whole war.