Diary Entry - 2nd May, 1917

Wednesday: Another topping day, with a beautiful warm sun. We went on improving the gun position and getting the ammunition away into the ground. About eleven a.m. Colonel Newcombe Carrington and an 84th Brigade Colonel came round and seemed very pleased with the position and expressed that he was sorry he could not get Hoyland the battery but he had sent his name in to the corps and they had given it to Sandfodr of the 9th, as he was senior. The 84th Bde colonel said he wanted his battery on our right to come in to our position, but they preferred going into the open. He said they were always ringing up to say that the batter[?] who had chosen his position were being shelled to blazes but he was glad to see us there and that we were still intact under such fire. A new subaltern, Bellew, came up to us from the column and after lunch Hoyland and I went up to register the guns from the redoubt but met with great difficulty as our heavies kept sending clouds of brick dust out of Oppy, obscuring the target.