At 3.10 a.m. on June 7th the Battle of Messines opened with the most tremendous mine explosions and the most magnificent barrage that can be imagined. It was a lovely morning, and there was not a cloud in the sky. With a stupendous roar and upheaval that baffles description the mines exploded. Simultaneously the whole weight of the artillery gathered together for the occasion, and hidden away in every conceivable place, opened on the enemy. From their trenches lights of many colours shot into the air, mutely appealing for assistance from their gunners. These were not long in replying, but our counter-battery work, which had left them in false security during the preliminary barrages, was dealing faithfully with them now. For a few moments the ridge stood out clear and distinct. Then clouds of smoke and dust shut out the view, and it was only by the alteration in the sound that we knew that the barrage was creeping forward, and we waited anxiously for the telegrams announcing the result. During the first few hours we were unmolested. A 4·2 battery opened on Houplines ten minutes before zero, but switched as soon as the barrage opened. About 7 a.m., however, "whizz-bangs" came down in a regular barrage on the front line, and then high explosives up and down the subsidiary line for about a couple of hours. Between two and six in the afternoon the enemy concentrated on Tissage Dump, putting over 300 high explosive shells into that locality during the four hours. Aeroplanes were very busy, and a German machine dropped two bombs about fifty yards from Battalion Headquarters. The enemy balloons were in a state of great excitement, being hauled down whenever a plane appeared, till at last one of them apparently got tired of this, broke away, and sailed off out of sight. One thing that greatly interested us was that both this day and the next the enemy shelled his own front line opposite the Brewery. Up to the end of this tour the Germans continued intensely active, the left sector and Irish Avenue receiving the lion's share of the shelling. One very necessary piece of work was completed before we quitted the trenches--the cutting of the grass in front of the parapet. It was now so high and so close to the parapet that it entirely obstructed the view through the periscope, and made it quite possible for a man to work his way unseen right up to the trenches. Sickles had to be obtained and parties went out nightly to "cut the hay crop." To do this just in front of the posts alone would, of course, have revealed their exact position to any inquisitive airman, and a strip had therefore to be cut along the whole length of the front line.