Diary Entry - 5th December, 1915

Rise at six fifteen and have a cup of tea at the Mess. Then make for the O.B. A fairly clear morning, with a slight ground fog, which gets slightly worse as the morning goes on. Nothing doing before breakfast, which arrives at eight thirty. The 15th battery man, Shalborne, arrives, and we yarn till eleven, finding that we know people that neither of us thought were known to each other. At eleven fifteen the Bosch start firing on Mine Point and Wilson's Way, and we retaliate with bursts of gunfire until the O.C. arrives at eleven thirty. He takes over and fires for an hour on Hindenburg Trench, Mad Alley, Lone Farm and Railway Trench. In fact, he tickles up the main targets on our front. The Bosch is subdued by this time and everybody seems to settle down for lunch. The light gradually improves during the morning, until it is really bright and sunny by one p.m. Lunch upstairs at one, and Grant Suttie and Griffith go down to the trenches for the afternoon to fire from there. At two thirty, the Bosch begins to fire quite astray and sends shells buzzing about Wilson's Way and over the O.B. towards Cambrin. This continues for an hour, the Allies' guns replying freely. I am unable to retaliate as Suttie holds the line from the trenches. Everything quietens down towards four o'clock, when the light fades. At three, it is reported that the Bosch shelled 15th battery and have wounded a Sergeant. I retired down the La Bassée road at four twenty, unmolested, and thus on to the Mess. We have a fierce argument at dinner, mainly due to some sparkling Mosel that had been opened. The argument is still raging between the O.C., Kellagher and Siggers, when Hoyland and self retire to bed at ten pm.