25 May 1916

The Ross Mountain Battery got away soon after five this morning but our guns didn’t appear till nearly ten. They had got stuck in the sand – the sand tyres which we’ve been issued with to put on the wheels aren’t a great deal of use. The sand is very deep indeed here and it was all ten horses in a beam could do to get the guns along at all. We’ve got to keep twenty four draft horses (six teams) and four riding horses here, so that one section of the battery can be mobile, at least that is what the authorities seem to think, but we think we shall be very lucky if we can keep one gun and firing battery wagon mobile with that number in this heavy sand. All the other horses are at Romani; Elliott and Kenning are with them, I have left “Kitty” and Houghton there too.

The guns are in position about half a mile from our camp in an emplacement, but the major is going to try and get them to let us move the camp up close to the guns and also change the gun positions. Only one detachment have got to sleep at the guns at night as we have got outposts out in front and should be warned in time if the Turks are on the move. The battery is connected up by telephone line to the camp, and the O.Pip is also connected up to the battery in the camp.

The orderly officer has got to sleep at the O.Pip each night with one replacement. I am orderly dog today, so I’ve got to go out to the O.Pip for the night after mess. It is a sandbag dugout about a thousand yards to the right flank of, and in front of, the guns, just behind the infantry first line trenches. Garside turned up for mess this evening, he’d been seeing the horses of the Glasgow Yeomanry at Romani and they had to come and see these here. He is having the loan of my flea bag tonight as I am in the O.Pip.

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