The movement of Corps Headquarters to Bray-Dunes was effected on the 29th June, having been somewhat expedited by one of the periodical shellings of Dunkirk by a German long range gun. On the morning of the 27th a twelve-inch shell dropped on the Corps Offices in the Casino at Malo, and inflicted a number of casualties—luckily for the Company, it just missed the Signal Office. A few days later the Heavy Artillery Quarters moved back to the village of Oost Dunkirk, about six thousand yards from the line, and occupied the Villa Rosarie. During the first week in July a considerable increase in hostile shelling was noted, but not to an alarming extent, though a direct hit on the H.A. sections’ store rooms put a few telephones _hors de combat_; and no immediate operations were anticipated. The enemy, however, had decided to nip our attack in the bud by taking the initiative himself, and had only delayed to complete a crushing artillery concentration. Thus about 9.30 a.m. on the 10th July, when many batteries were not yet in position and many others not yet ready for action, an intense bombardment dropped over the whole Corps area up to nine thousand yards behind the front line. With the most admirable accuracy and thoroughness, every village and battery position was searched, and every road of approach swept by heavy shell fire. Forward communications failed almost at once, the bridges across the Yser below Nieuport were destroyed, the breastwork trenches melted away before the storm of high explosive, and when the infantry assault was delivered about 7 p.m. few survivors of the Brigade of the 1st Division that held the trenches across the Yser in front of Nieuport Bain, remained to resist, and the German front line was established on the Yser bank in this sector. On the other flank, at Lombartzyde, the 32nd Division managed by desperate fighting to retain most of the ground in front of Nieuport, but the main German object was achieved; the approaches to the bridgehead were now limited to the single entry of Nieuport, and the bridgehead itself was so reduced in area as to make a serious attack in force a very desperate venture.