Diary Entry - 1st June, 1916

The morning was very quiet. It was a beautiful day and quite warm as French summer days go. At two thirty, the Captain told us there was to be a strafe on the German front line which was to begin at four five pm and the order was that we were to fire 120 rounds per hour. Everyone started at zero time and we all carried on until about one am. We fired bursts of gun fire about every four minutes. A few pip squeaks came over into our valley during the first hour but nowhere near the battery and they had enough to do with their own trenches. The whole show was a wash out and the infantry never left the trenches. All they seemed to do was grouse at their own guns for dropping short on our front. But, as our Captain observed all the shooting and also Captain Palmer (that of the 15th), it was absoulute rot. They declare there was German 77-mm battery enfilading our front line from Lievin or in that direction. I got to bed at one thirty am and most of the guns had stopped by then.