civilians, wounding two boys & two horses & knocking Colour Sergeant Mann head over heels. Badham had a curious experience yesterday; he was knocked down by a bullet which penetrated his bully beef tin [in margin: emergency ration] – passed right through it but did not damage him. At 7am D Company & a part of A Company came in & I moved my headquarters on to the spur north west of Vailly where we had 2½ companies. I am very short of officers now & both machine [Sept 16th - crossed out] guns are out of action. At 11.30am the enemy showed signs of retiring & our batteries got into good positions north of canal. The artillery duel continued but no sign of infantry. Very cold and wet; new trenches had to be made to get a field of fire, but no movement could be made by day as it immediately drew fire. Worked at trenches till 11pm when rifle & gun fire was started by [in pencil: the front line]