At three a.m. I rise and start at three forty-five, with ammunition, to the guns (6 wagons). It was quite quiet and I had no trouble. I stayed up there for an hour or so, having breakfast with Siggers and starting back about eight a.m. While at the guns, it commenced to rain and continued steadily for two hours, laying the dust nicely. Soon after lunch Siggers, Sanger, Mulman, Midge and myself set out for Albert, to have a look at the church. We luckily caught a bus each way and had a good look at the statue, which is hanging face downwards in mid-air. Then we returned, as it is the only object of interest there. Albert is a town about the same size as Bethune but has been very badly knocked about by shellfire and there are only odd civilians in the place. After tea, Siggers and I took a stroll along the Ancre and at about seven p.m., when returning, we heard a big gun firing up the valley. On enquiring what it was, we were told it was a 12-inch naval and that it was only about half a mile away, so we set off to find it. After walking for 20 minutes, we eventually discovered it, with a big crowd of Tommies admiring it from outside a barbed wire enclosure. We only saw one round fired, but it was a sight worth seeing. The gun was mounted on a huge truck on the rails and each time it fired, although the gun recoiled on its mounting, the truck also ran back about 10 yards. An engine, which is always there, pushed it up again to the firing position. Siggers and I tried to have a look at the gun, but they would not allow us inside, so we asked the engine driver if he was going our way and he answered in the affirmative, so we jumped up and took a ride almost to the wagon line.
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