Strapping the camera on my back, my man taking the tripod, we started off. There was a light railway running towards Contalmaison. I followed this until I got near the spot brother Fritz was aiming at, hugging a trench at the side of a by-road. The bank was lined with funk-holes, which came in very useful during the journey, and I had to seek their shelter several times, but the nearest shell fell at a junction between that road and a communication trench. Just this side lay a very much dead horse. The shell came over. Down I went flat on my stomach. My man dived into a hole. The shell exploded, and the next thing I remember was a feeling as if a ton of bricks had fallen on top of me. I managed to struggle up and make quickly for the trench, my man following; and you may be quite sure I took care that I was well out of line of the next before I eased up. Beyond a few scratches on the camera-case and a torn coat, I was quite sound. I was told of a Hun battery of 77 mm. guns on the left-hand side of the valley leading to Pozières, so I decided to make for that spot. I enquired of a man as to the whereabouts of them. "Well, sir," he said, "you may come to them if you keep straight on, but I shouldn't advise you to do so as you have to cross the open. Bosche has a pretty sharp eye on anyone there; he knows the lay of the battery and he just plasters it. You _might_ get round at 'Dead Man's Corner,' on the Contalmaison Road. It's pretty bad there, but I think it's the best place to try, and once you are round the corner you _may_ be all right." "Well, which way do I take?" "Down this way, then turn to your left at the corner; the battery is about two hundred yards along on the hill-side." "But, man alive," I said, "they're strafing it like blazes. Look!" They were, too, and 8-inch shells were dropping wholesale. "No, I think I will take the risk and run over the open. Are there any dug-outs at the battery?" "Yes, sir, jolly good ones; forty feet deep; regular beauties. Evidently made up their minds to stay the winter. Electric light, libraries, and beds with real spring mattresses. My, sir, but they were comfortable. And what do you think I found there, sir?" "Heaven knows," I replied. "Well, sir, several ladies' fringe nets and hair-pins." "The devil you did. Well, Fritz knows how to make himself cosy." With that remark we parted, Tommy having a broad grin on his face. "You will see the place where you get out of this ditch, sir," he called out; "a shell has blown it in; strike off on your left straight ahead. You'll see them in front of you." The shelling was getting very unpleasant, and I had to keep low in the trench the whole of the time. At length we reached the point where we had to get over the top. "Well, come on, let's chance it," I said to my man. I saw the battery in the distance before getting over.