Item 01: Frank Hurley war diary, 21 August-28 October 1917 - Page 77
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[Page 77]
with the aeroplane control which was directing our 55th Battery. The object was some 5,000 yards away & very close to our own front line - a machine gun dugout which was effecting hampering operations. The infantry was removed for the firing, owing to the dangerous proximity & in case of our own fire falling short. The calculated range was telephoned to one of the guns, the Aeroplane wirelessed fire, to the group hea which was again telephoned from the control dugout. Then the gun boomed. A minute later the wireless message came down, stating so many yards long & so many to the left. Orders were telephoned to the gun to shorten range by ½ a degree & a suitable correction to counteract the elevation left was put on. The Aeroplane Wirelessed fire, again boom & so on until the object was hit. As soon as a hit would be recorded, fire would be kept up until the object would be pounded out of existence. The whole setting of the gun is purely mathematical calculation. The result is established by Aeroplane or balloon.