June 4th, 5th, and 6th produced barrages on the Messines Ridge; they took place each afternoon, and lasted for about an hour. It was understood that barely half of the guns to be employed on the day were in action, but it was a wonderfully awe-inspiring sight to watch the effect of the mass of shells crashing down on the slopes of the ridge. The heavies in Armentières and our own 18-pounders took part in these preliminary barrages, with the result that the shelling of Armentières by the enemy became intense, and particularly in the vicinity of battery positions, which constant firing had now revealed to the enemy, and produced the most severe counter-battery work on his part. Our trenches, too, received marked attention. The enemy seems always to have been suspicious of an attack on Frelinghien, and he set to work on the left and left-centre company sectors with great determination. Shells of a calibre not usually employed in ordinary trench warfare began to plough up our communication trenches, Irish Avenue especially. Cambridge House was frequently shelled intensely, and, in fact, there was no part of our sector that did not receive considerable attention daily. The wire-cutting on the right provoked the enemy terribly, and each time it was carried out severe retaliation took place. Houplines road was now shelled regularly with great bursts of 5·9's and heavy shrapnel. One 4·2 battery kept up such an incessant fire into the vicinity of Tissage Dump that we used to call it the "rising tide," the noise of the stream of shells as they passed over sounding not unlike the steady onrush of the sea. Quesnoy, nearly opposite to us, we used to bombard heavily, and some part of it was usually on fire. Frelinghien was frequently almost hidden in red dust, while Wytschaete Ridge for long periods at a stretch looked as if it were enveloped in a sandstorm. Every night north of the Lys one or both sides were raiding, and the rumble of barrages, the red bursts of shrapnel, and the stream of coloured rockets continued well on into the daylight. [Illustration: Photo by Gale & Polden, Ltd., Aldershot. SERGEANTS' MESS--WOKING, FEBRUARY, 1917.]