eight days later he said, "I am glad to get out of this hell-hole."
He was a great comfort to us, for he is very capable, and the entire battle
was largely fought "on our own", following the requests of the Infantry
on our front, and scarcely guided by our own staff at all.
We at once set out to register our targets, and almost at once
had to get into steady firing on quite a large sector of front.
We dug in the guns as quickly as we could, and took as Headquarters
some infantry trenches already sunk on a ridge near the canal.
We were subject from the first to a steady and accurate shelling,
for we were all but in sight, as were the German trenches
about 2000 yards to our front. At times the fire would come in salvos
quickly repeated. Bursts of fire would be made for ten or fifteen minutes
at a time. We got all varieties of projectile, from 3 inch to 8 inch,
or perhaps 10 inch; the small ones usually as air bursts,
the larger percussion and air, and the heaviest percussion only.

My work began almost from the start -- steady but never overwhelming,
except perhaps once for a few minutes. A little cottage behind our ridge
served as a cook-house, but was so heavily hit the second day
that we had to be chary of it. During bursts of fire I usually took
the back slope of the sharply crested ridge for what shelter it offered.
At 3 our 1st and 4th arrived, and went into action at once
a few hundred yards in our rear. Wires were at once put out,
to be cut by shells hundreds and hundreds of times, but always repaired
by our indefatigable linemen. So the day wore on; in the night the shelling
still kept up: three different German attacks were made and repulsed.
If we suffered by being close up, the Germans suffered from us,
for already tales of good shooting came down to us. I got some sleep
despite the constant firing, for we had none last night.