TCD MS 10821 folio 30 recto
[July 13th 1916] wire. The Boche stood this for a couple of hours & then began to answer back with every kind of missile & we had a pretty heavy bombardment for a couple of hours though very scattered. As soon as it was dark we sent out two officers patrols to try & capture a Boche, but not one ventured outside their barbed wire. At 12.30 am our guns opened heavy fire on their lines & woke them all up out of sleep: all the trench mortars were firing too & there was a fearful din. It was however quite a pretty sight. They retaliated soon afterwards & we all retired to our dug outs for a while: we had two men wounded, who would poke their noses outside to see what was going on. After about 1 hour things quietened down & I thought but alas we were not allowed to get even a few minutes sleep. A lot of Phosphorous bombs were supposed to have been sent up, but some had gone astray & our company was unable to make a smoke screen. The Battalions however on our right started a smoke screen at 2.55 am & a wonderful sight it was. The Boche at once sent up red rockets & their guns & ours opened heavy fire which lasted for about an hour & a half. We had two more men wounded. After the show was over there was a regular kind