Diary Entry - 3rd January, 1918

Early in the morning a subaltern arrives with a section of the B battery 78th brigade. The Major goes to the wagon line at ten to arrange things there before he goes on the BC's course. This subaltern whose name was Godsal and who had been up at Trinity in 1912 proved a terrible talker although otherwise he seemed quite a good chap. The Major comes back about four and I go up to OP at four thirty p.m. to do till dinner when Lambkin relieves me. As I leave the Mess hear a lot of enemy fire and on breasting the crest the SOS goes up at several places but on rushing with the telephone to the wire find we are dis [?]. The artillery were quite twelve minutes before they opened fire but eventually they received the order from brigade. We found our wire was broken inside the insulation. It was rotten luck as had been firing over it about one p.m. I forgot to add that soon after breakfast the Huns came over to bomb our back areas and one was hit by our anti- aircraft, evidently a splinter put one of its engines out of action, it being a Gotha. It promptly wheeled round and made for home, planing lower and lower as it came over the brigade. Of course, we all got onto it with machine guns and rifles and gave it volleys of ammunition, without result. However it probably fired some rounds during the chaos and one bullet hit Hewitson who was standing in 15th Bty position, specator to all his men's efforts to bring the Hun down. It was a painful wound and smashed his arm. So we got him, right away, to the dressing station. The Gotha eventually fell just over the Cambrai road and received marked attention from the 41st Bde.