sector assaulted by the Grimsby Chums, a Pals battalion (10th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment). The infantry of the 34th Division, which was composed of Pals battalions from the English provinces, attacked the positions on either side of La Boisselle, of Reserve Infantry Regiment 110 (RIR 110) of the 28th Reserve Division, mainly recruited from Baden. When the main attack began at the Grimsby Chums occupied the crater and began to fortify the eastern lip, which dominated the vicinity; the advance continued to the (Green [second] position), where it was stopped by the 4th Company, RIR 110, which then counter-attacked and forced the British back to the crater. During the day, German artillery fired into Sausage Valley and in the afternoon began systematically to shell areas and then fire bursts of machine-gun fire to catch anyone who moved. German artillery also began to bombard the crater, where wounded and stragglers sought shelter, particularly those from Sausage Valley to the south of the village. British artillery began to fire on the crater, which led to shell bursts on both slopes, leaving the men inside with nowhere to hide. A British aircraft flew low overhead and a soldier waved a dead man's shirt, at which the aeroplane flew away and the British shelling stopped. Aerial observation The blowing of the Y Sap and Lochnagar mines was witnessed by pilots who were flying over the battlefield to report back on British troop movements. It had been arranged that continuous overlapping patrols would fly throughout the day. 2nd Lieutenant Cecil Lewis (3 Squadron) was warned against flying too close to La Boisselle during his patrol, where two mines were due to go up but watched from a safe distance. Flying up and down the line in a Morane Parasol, he watched from above Thiepval, almost two miles from La Boisselle, and later described the early morning scene in his book Sagittarius Rising (1936 [1977 ed]) As aircraft from 3 Squadron flew over the III Corps area, observers reported that the 34th Division had reached Peake Wood on the right flank, increasing the size of the salient which had been driven into the German lines north of Fricourt but that the villages of La Boisselle and Ovillers had not fallen. On 3 July, air observers noted flares lit in the village during the evening, which were used to plot the positions reached by British infantry. A