and good book [a novel about a mining community in the north of England]—he can make people hate his characters. zbn
A debate—’This House distrusts freedom of speech’. A lot of pointless drivel, below the usual standard, but just worth attending. zdb zpn
Sunday 22nd
This was about the happiest day so far this term, the weather was good … After doing the boiler room coke fetching, RJC and I walked off to Kelsey Head … we cut up to the top, and collected lots of rabbit bones for school certificate identification purposes. We then walked round the hill tops, looking down into clear green water with a rock-studded sandy bottom, and seeing the deserted sand hills behind Ellenglaze. … zwr zem zsu zwk zwl zsa zex zds
The first wheatears I’ve seen flew across when we were on the headland. On the ridge the N. Wind was pretty cold, despite the sun. … zfl zwr
I went to chapel … during an incredibly boring sermon, I read a good book on architecture. … zrl zmb
Tuesday 24th
… In JTC we had a tactical scheme—The senior Coy. [company] + recruits, constituting invading troops of ‘Depravia’, were advancing from the headland where they had landed by parachute. Battle expected between us and them W. of Pentire. … No. 4 platoon engaged them in a line through the Pentire, destroying the recruits and suffering heavily. I was in advance of our main lines, being just W. of the Pentire Hill in a well concealed nest, armed with six grenades. H and J (Depravians), armed with a bren and rifle, crawled along the bottom of the ‘spies house’ in the gutter. I fetched an Umpire, and when they had been shot, and grenaded by me, they became casualties. zct zlb zwp zfg zma
I then got a rifle from one of our casualties and rejoined R, my section leader. We dashed across the road in front of the Bay, and crawled through the barbed wire, intending to get back through the wire near Splash Point and be a nuisance from the rear. Unfortunately an indubitably pro-Depravian umpire killed us by some hypothetical enemy, and we missed the main attack on that sector. Muscott and section attacked our place, but were repelled by remnants of No. 4 and zct zlb zfg zwp zma
