disporting themselves along that sandy stretch & them as 'Beachy Bill' opened up scatter as one man for cover. The report of 'Beachy Bill' or 'Anafarta Annie' could always be heard a few seconds before their shell arrived & in that few seconds the crowd of bathers would get under – for undoubtedly shrapnel did lose its kick, unless very low bursting through water. Later on when the enemy got the exact range bathing was really dangerous & I know I reduced it to rare intervals after I saw 18 hit by one shrapnel burst on June 24th.
Let that then be an attempt to sketch the background I can now proceed to fill in odd details of Regimental life from May 16th.
On May 17th I note in my diary that things were quieter and that there were fewer casualties although Turks was persistently sniping the valley.
