| Regiment | 5th Royal Berkshire |
|---|---|
| Location | France, Le Quesnoy |
| Entry | Baths at disposal of Battn. Cleaning up. No fatigues. Capt Rickman and Lieut Avary to Hospital. 2nd Lieut Stewart's Account of bombing attack made at 2p.m. on 14th inst. We had to leave our 3 Detachments in the Norfolk Lines for night of 13th. "Three West Spring Guns had been built into positions about A 9 a Central as shown on attached plan which also shows their line of fire and Targets which were A 9 a S5 and A 9 b o9. A telephone wire was also laid with instruments beside No 1 and 2 guns for observation purposes. Each gun had a team of 1 N.C.O and 5 men and was furnished with a box periscope and 60 MILLS Grenades. During the previous day registration had taken place on the targets selected. Shortly before the operations were to commence a trench mortar Bomb burst just in front of No 1 gun lowering the parapet so as to expose the arm of the gun each time it was discharged. Accordingly it was decided not to use this gun and its team was withdrawn into PARK LANE as a reserve. At 2pm both the remaining guns commenced firing and in 15 minutes [The remainder of this page has a sketch map drawn re: position of guns] [next page] fired No 2 gun 18 grenades and No 3 12 grenades. The Grenades from No 2 landed and burst very well. The first ones from No 3 burst high in the air but this was corrected at the expense of a few minutes and the remainder burst right in the Trench. At 2.15pm fire ceased and the two teams went to cover which had been previously selected. At 2.45pm fire started again and in the next 15 minutes No 3 gun fired 17 Grenades which burst well. During this second period No 2 gun was out of action as its team was unable to return to it as a trench mortar Bomb fell, during the half hour interval, at the junction of K Sap and SCOTTISH TRENCH completely blowing in the latter and making it impassable. The enemy retaliated only by fruitless shelling well to the rear and also by means of Trench Mortars which did some damage. A sentry was posted to watch for them and there were no Casualties in the gun teams. We rejoined the Battn that evening. |
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