Diary Entry - 12th March, 1918

Go down to the Metz position which has been altered and is no longer on the Trescault Metz road but near the Havrincourt wood. Cruickers was down there and they were getting along digging cupolas down into the ground. A Hun was brought down in the morning and was claimed by the battery Lewis gunners, though an aeroplane really brought it down. Cruickers comes up in the evening, Barrett going down - the former sleeps at the guns. We take a section up to Boar Copse and fire off 200 rounds, scattering it all round the place. The Hun put more mustard over at night, commencing about ten p.m. and pumping it over for about three hours. We had to fire in the middle of it all, as a deserter had walked over and said the Hun was to attack at dawn, so we fired from midnight onwards as counter preparation and all the time the position was being shelled. But again we were disappointed and nothing happened and as a result of the mustard three or four of the men's eyes were affected and Cruickers got a whiff of it too.