June 9.—We have had a very hot week and today I have been feeling very discontented, mainly because having got my Sam Brown yesterday I proceeded to put polish on far too thick, with the result that it looked patchy and covered with scales, However I am thinking of getting somebody who has had experience to get it into trim.
This week we have been composing tactical exercises without troops by syndicates of four. B. S. McL. and I went out after a discussion which sud. denly came out to the liking of all of us and the ground was suited to our idea. We went out on O.C.TU. bikes, We parked four, but on our return there were only three, imagine our consternation! However the Major was grieved, not irate, and if we are lucky we shall hear no more of it, Next day McL. heard that hi chaplain brother had died of won at Folkestone. He took it courageously and went off to see about it. So the three Devons were left. It took us all Friday morning to thrash out answers to the questions we had set, and in the evening I wrote it out neatly, We have been confined to barracks owing to duties, and several evenings we had to dig deep slit trenches to stand in if we ere bombed—in fact one night there was an air raid warning and we had to stand in them 15 minutes or so.
We are to do quite a lot of driving next week. On Friday we had an unannounced night op. I had to carry a heavy box of magazines over a fearfully gorsay common, We ended by crashing down a hill into cottage gardens, setting all the dogs barking.
Tonight I went to St. Mark's ard at the end I thanked the Vicar for all the help I had had from him while here. We have only one more Sunday and I may not be able to get along.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.