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:
" High Wood to Waterlot Farm,
All on a summer's day,
Up you get to the top of the trench
Though you're sniped at all the way.
If you've got a smoke helmet there
You'd best put it on if you could,
For the wood down by Waterlot Farm
Is a bloody high wood. "
Read more about this topic: High Wood
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