War bulletin: Mametz soldiers 'cut down like corn'

A century ago, on 8 July 1916, news spread of the first attack on Mametz Wood, but what the Welsh public did not hear was the toll on the 38th Welsh Division.

There were 400 casualties and the Cardiff and Second Gwent Battalions were caught in machine gun fire.

Men of the Welch Regiment, the South Wales Borderers and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers watched their own line advancing and, as one put it, "being cut down like corn".

The Commander in Chief Douglas Haig was furious and replaced the 38th Welsh Division's leader, Brigadier Horatio Evans.

But that was not the story being written about at home.