Walford: Tuesday. In the morning, the captain had to go up and register a new barrage, as the 11th division had changed it at the eleventh hour, a great mistake, and how the British Army is to win a battle with the staff doing that sort of thing one can't imagine. I took two signalers with me and laid a wire up to O/Voillers {?} Ridge, so as the captain could observe from there in the afternoon. The spot he observes from used to be the old front line and must have been as good as a fortress at one time. The whole line was connected with huge big dugouts, which have been smashed in by our terrific bombardment, giving one an idea of the explosive power of our shells. The dugouts are all supported by a framework of 11 by 3 and 3/4 and the majority of them have cracked like matchwood and fallen in, even though they are some 20 to 30 feet under the ground. At twelve thirty-five, the show commenced, and we had a fairly difficult barrage to put up. Everything went well and we were in Thiepval and as far as Zollern before 15 minutes had passed and hundreds of prisoners were being sent back with arms extended in the air. Only one shell came our way, and it fell just to the left of one of the 9.2 guns behind us. After an hour of firing, the captain said I could come to the OP and watch the show. So I rushed up and by that time all the infantry were just advancing from Zollern towards Medway, [M?idwig?], their last objective, but they were held up there and remained in no-man's-land for a good hour and a half, having at length to return to Zollern. The Bosch seemed thunderstruck and did not put up much opposition in the way of a barrage. The infantry did well and it was a great day the way they just simply walked over to the Bosch trenches and sent Bosch back prisoners. A number of fires were observed. These were caused by our men throwing pea bombs down into the dugouts to clear them.
Bee: They kept us awake last night by putting over a lot of 4.2 gun and How shells. They kept it up solidly until one a.m. We had three men wounded. A shell burst in the trench they were sleeping in. It was a miracle they were not killed. One fellow had just got up as he got cramp and had just moved out of the trench when the shell burst. This brigade is extraordinary - last night at eight forty five p.m. they rang up and asked for the OC to be at Brigade Headquarters in half an hour, Walrond, of course, not knowing his way there in daylight. They evidently wanted to see how many BC they could kill off before the show started. The latter are not too plentiful either. Anyway Walrond got there and back safely but lost his way coming back and did not arrive until one a.m. This is mighty difficult country to find your way about in after dark. The first part of the show on our front started today at one p.m. The artillery round about where we are got off well together and the first 10 minutes were firing four rounds per gun per minute which made some noise. Our part of the show finished at four p.m. The last objective was to consolidate ourselves on a ridge. Before this show started, our line ran along the valley, the enemy's line looking down on us, with two strong redoubts on our left front, higher up than any other part, known as Zollern and Stuff Redoubts respectively. Our fellows gained all the high ground as far to the left as Zollern and got well over the top of the crest, which I think was a very good effort. If other divisions are run anything like this, the 11th, it is absolute chaos, even the Corps seem to have no fixed idea of their own. It has been an eye-opener to us. We might never complain of our staff again. We had a fairly quiet time at the battery during the show but down in the valley behind, about 60 yards away, where there is no end of traffic – wheel and foot and cookers [?] – it was not quite so quiet. Although they only put over odd shells, every one accounted for something. One rather pitiful sight was a shell landing under the horses of an ambulance, wounding three, two having to be shot. But the wounded men inside appeared to be unaffected, thank goodness. Another shell landed in amongst the cookers – about 10 of the latter – and knocked the chimney and a few wheels off, but seem to hurt no-one. It is rather funny how opinions have changed since the beginning of this show. We used to build very elaborate cages for prisoners before the show started but these days they wait until they have got the prisoners and then make them build a cage for themselves. There were a lot of prisoners taken but none came back this way. To cap the whole show, our worthy Brigade informed us at eight p.m. that our OP would have to be manned all night. It is bad enough to get there in daylight. Worse still, I was the poor unfortunate to have to go up. Two signallers and myself started off at eight thirty p.m. We walked fairly straight for 20 minutes and found ourselves up against an old tank which had come to grief in the previous show. So we retraced our steps until we found our telephone wire and started off with the wire in our hands. But we found it was not such an easy game to follow as one would think in the dark. The distance is only about three quarters of a mile in daylight but, after falling down shell holes and stumbling along, we finally arrived at the OP at one a.m. Very fed up and sick of all concerned in this show, we dossed down in a small hole and tried to sleep but were so cramped up there was not much chance. During the walk up, we got many frights. You could not distinguish big from small. I very nearly walked into a well but a veri light going up saved me. It was just a matter of a step. Then one of our 9.2 had a premature and the bits came very close and put the wind up me. Our people were shooting phosphorous shells, which are very pretty at night.
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