Diary Entry - 11th and 12th May, 1916

As we had asked for Mead to be spared from the BAC until we go out on rest, he made a fourth man and so we at last get a day off. I spent Thursday resting, going to the wagon line in the morning, where I found the horses all looking very well with their summer coats. In the afternoon, I visited Hoyland at the guns and shortly after getting there the Colonel arrived and we stood talking on the tram way. He asked if there had been any shelling of the Corrons this time and we remarked that there had been little or no shelling since we came in around the battery. Well, no sooner had we said that than bang whiz smack, just short of the road, two very nice bursts and we saw two horsemen emerge unscathed (we did not at the time know it was Kellagher and his groom). They had gone about 20 yards when two more came over, with 75 yards increase. These both burst a few yards short of the road and so covered both riders from view, but they both emerged again. I have never seen anything so close. When they rode through the Corrons the infantry came out and cheered them. Some heavy shelling went on on the northern fringes of Grenay and I hear a battery of 60-pounders was put out of action. Friday is spent at the guns, a quiet day, with nothing to shoot with - I mean no ammunition. I forgot to add that we were supposed to shoot by aeroplane yesterday afternoon, but it was put off as light was too bad.