through premature bursts, but even as it was, a number of guns in the Brigade did Mow up. We were unfortunate in having one of ours blow up early in the morning of July 13. The fourth piece, of which Ralph Farnsworth was chief, had been firing intermittently during the night. Farnsworth was acting as gunner and Dyer was playing No. 1. At 3.50 A. M. the gun blew up, instantly killing the former and badly burning the latter.

                There is nothing more morale breaking or terrifying to an artilleryman than the explosion of one of his own guns. Everyone of us was affected by this one of ours. From then on, we never took any chances in firing. We always fired with a long lanyard and every man took protection before each shot.

                On July 15, the first platoon relieved the second in the active position, the guns staying where they were. As usual in such cases, the cannonneers hated to leave their own guns. They did not welcome the idea of someone else fooling with their pet pieces. The same was true of the drivers. Let someone else touch their horses without permission, and there would be all kinds of trouble. In fact, there never yet was a section that did not claim that its guns and horses were infinitely better than those of the other sections.

                The enemy artillery, on the whole, did not cause us very much trouble. They frequently dropped big 210's on the woods and area just to our rear and they were wont to shell the road heavily near our silent platoon, but they never actually landed a shell in our position. On several occasions the wooded areas in front of us were heavily gassed with mustard gas,

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