July 2 11.15 a.m.
A quiet night. Fine sunny morning. Nothing happening at present. Fricourt and Rose Trench to be attacked again to-day. Everything all right on rest of XV Corps front. Greaves and I are to remain in Kingston Rond.
2.30 p.m. Adjutant just been up hcre, excited, optimistic and unshaven. Fricourt and Rose Trench have been occupied without resistance (there was no bombardment). Over two thousand prisoners taken by Seventh Division alone First R.W.F. took over two hundred. Germans have gone back to their second line.
I am lying out in front of uur trench in the long grass, basking in sunshine where yesterday morning one couldn't show a fïnger. The Germans are shelling our new front line. Fricourt is full of British soldiers seeking souvenirs. The place was a ruin before; now it is a dust-heap. Everywhere the news seems good: I only hope it will last.
A gunner Forward Observation Officer just been along with a Hun helmet; says the Huns in Fricourt were cut off and their trenches demolished. Many dead lying about — he saw one dead officer lying across a smashed machine-gun with his head smashed in - 'a fine looking chap' he said (with some emotion).
Next thing is to hang on to the country we've taken. We move up to-night. Seventh Division has at any rate done all that was asked of it and reached the ground just short of Mametz Wood; the Second Queens are said to have legged it as usual when the Bosche made a poorish counter-attack.
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