and the knowledge of that fact made us realize that the attack had been successful. Sure enough, orders soon came in to move forward, and Lieutenant MacNamee went ahead to reconnoitre. The limbers were sent for from the echelon, and by dusk the firing battery was heading down the road into Lucy Le Bocage.

                The very idea of going down this road in broad daylight with the guns and horses, sent a real thrill through everyone of us. Up to the night before it was considered very risky for even one man alone to do it, the whole route being in direct observation of the Germans from across the valley. As we went along we could look down upon the northern battle­ field. Town after town was buried in great clouds of smoke and flames. Below us we could catch glimpses of Torcy and Belleau through the trees. They were now in our possession, but the Germans were battering them savagely.

                Our new position was barely 900 metres from the front line, on a fringe of Belleau Woods. A slight crest in front gave us good defilade from the enemy, but even with that protection we were a little too close for comfort, because the German sound-ranging stations were wonderful at locating our guns, and of course the closer one got the more chance the enemy would have of spotting him.

                We tried the experiment on our first night of registering our guns by moonlight. It worked very well indeed. We fired shrapnel on La Gonetrie Farm. Air bursts could easily be seen, and we were thereby enabled to check up on the "laying in" of our guns.

                We learned a terrible lesson in this Belleau Wood

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