Diary Entry - 27th December, 1915

My day with the battery. We fired practically nothing in the morning, but a little excitement was caused by a major who came poking his nose into the gun pits. Bombardier Taylor came into the dugout at eleven fifteen and said, "There is a suspicious looking man wandering through the battery, and I saw him just going into the 17th London lines," so I telephoned the Mess and the Major and Hoyland turned out. I pointed out the man to them, and they pursued him as far as the 60 pounders, where they demanded his name and some identification mark. He turned out to be an over inquisitive Major of the Sportsman's Battalion, who are in rest, and he is billeted just to the rear of the battery and was taking his constitutional. At lunch, one or two whizbangs were in evidence and, on returning to the dugout after lunch, I was told they were bursting about 50 yards to the rear of No. 1. I had not been there long when another one came over. It burst 20 yards in front of No. 3 and drove some signallers working on the lines to cover. After that they dropped some on the crest and stopped shooting. Again, practically no shooting was done in the afternoon. Shortly after dinner had begun, the Infantry called for support, and we got the battery going in very good time, which seemed to satisfy the Infantry. I suppose we fired about 40 rounds.