In September 1916, Mostyn Williams sees more action and is involved in various ways. His diary entries get longer, for example this one from 13 September:
Bombardment renewed with vigour, only interrupted by enemy aerial reconnaissance. We hear that Peter Read is wounded & a corporal of another Coy. killed.
Afternoon artillery moderated & got going again towards evening. At 7p.m we took over our places in the trenches, the enemy position was one mass of bursting shells. About 10p.m. the enemy opens fire with rifle & machine gun & promptly got a dose of shrapnel, this was followed by an intense bombardment, the enemy replying vigorously.
We had several very narrow escapes, about 3a.m of 14th, the 65th brigade attacked & were met with a murderous fire of rifles & machine guns at the same time dropping a curtain of shells between us & the firing line. We gained the trenches & we heard the faint British cheers, our artillery was magnificent with their curtain fire of shrapnel.
Towards day break, the enemy bombarded our positions generally, especially the village of Makucova. We returned to our bivouacs at 6a.m, sent to bury 2 mules at 2 o’clock, under observation & shelled, one high explosive burst about 8 yards away , a fragment hit my steel helmet, had to retire to bivouac,
on returning was sent up to trenches as observer, saw our men advance from Machine Gun Hill & attack The Dome, Prussians in huge numbers counterattack, we played havoc with our shrapnel but eventually had to retire, saw many of our boys wiped out with machine guns, wounded limping back to our trenches under murderous shrapnel fire, many ghastly scenes, too horrible to record. Our artillery sweep the crest of Machine Gun Hill so that nothing can live there, sent back to bivouac for rest & had the first sleep for 48 hours.