front line with little loss and moved on towards the second and reserve lines. The artillery Observation Posts (OPs) reported the signboards erected by the leading waves to mark their progress. However, the OPs themselves came under attack from the German guns, which laid a Barrage across No man's land preventing supplies and reinforcements from reaching the leading infantry waves who had entered the German trenches. The heavy guns tried to suppress the German artillery, but the commander of 56th Division commented that although 'our counter-battery groups engaged a large number of German batteries – the results were not apparent'. From 07.25 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty spent the day firing mainly at battery positions around Le Quesnoy Farm at ranges around . Left and Right Sections (two guns each) each took a different target, then switched to another pair of targets at 07.40. It was not until 09.30 that the CO of 48th HAG could report that one of the Group's target batteries had been silenced. 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty engaged the same four German batteries again at 10.46 and at 11.30, and fired on another battery near Adinfer Wood at 14.35, but none of these targets received more than 43 shells during the day (barely half the battery's allowance) and as the fire was unobserved the damage was probably negligible. (Although No 8 Squadron Royal Flying Corps identified 63 German batteries firing on VII Corps' front, many of these were out of range, and the aircrews were unable to spot fall of shot for the British guns because of smoke, haze and confusion.) By mid-afternoon, 56th Division's slight gains were being eroded by German counter-attacks, and all the remaining gains had to be abandoned after dark. VII Corps' costly attack was only a diversion from the main BEF attack further south, and was not renewed after the first day. Arras Over the next year, the 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty was moved from one HAG to another as circumstances demanded. It was transferred to 46th on 28 August, 47th on 13 September and 8th on 5 October before returning to 47th on 29 December. All these moves were within Third Army, which was no longer involved in the Somme Offensive. The obsolescent 4.7-inch guns were progressively replaced in the BEF by 60-pounders during 1916. In December 1916, the WO decided that all heavy batteries should be composed of six guns