The attack on 30 July took place in a fog which grounded British aircraft until about when 9 Squadron sent all of its aircraft on artillery observation, contact patrol and photographic reconnaissance. German artillery-fire had increased so much that ground communication failed, which made contact patrols and counter-battery artillery observation much more important. On 8 August, a 9 Squadron aircraft flew for hours, searching for mirror-flashes from British troops and delivered a map to the Corps headquarters; the same crew patrolled in the afternoon and found the headquarters of the three attacking battalions, which were still cut off from ground communication. On 18 August the afternoon attack on Guillemont was observed by a 9 Squadron crew during another hour flight, which called for fire on a trench full of Germans near Ginchy, as other aircraft located signalling panels and ground sheets identifying the attacking battalion headquarters, which showed that the right-hand division had failed to reach its objectives and aircrews also made machine-gun attacks on parties of German infantry in and around the front line. Observations early next day indicated that the Germans were making small withdrawals, which continued over the next two days and were seen by crews from 34 Squadron, 3 Squadron and 9 Squadron, many descending below to observe.