Thursday 25th
Field day … I was with three other blokes, all of whom were temporarily put out for ten minutes. Then we advanced along a stream, ran into a machine gun post, which I managed to grenade … we later did it again, and were ourselves killed for a short time. After that casualties were casualties. … zct zlb zwp
Eventually I went up by a top stream where I had a hand to hand fight with B—I shoved his face under the mud, we both got filthy and gave it up … the whole thing was very enjoyable, except I got two blisters. Back … tea, bath (needed—we’d blacked our faces with burnt cork). zct zlb zfg
Friday 26th
Fine hazy day. A Henley [training aircraft] crashlanded in the sea, the crew, I believe, were picked up very soon by an RAF launch which I saw. … Bren gun in JTC. … zwr zpp zac
Saturday 27th
Lovely day. Uniform parade for Guard of Honour at 8.20 … After tea I went down to the harbour and learnt to dive—I improved a lot with valuable criticism. … zwr zct zsp
W has arranged a date next Sunday (tomorrow week) for M (who has a cousin at Benenden), H, who amused them, and one other—he asked me, and despite school cert. I did not say no! zso zse zfr
Sunday 28th
… I spent the whole morning doing geography and chemistry, learning a fair amount. About 2 cwt. of crude rubber covered with crude oil was washed up on Fistral beach. … zgk
Not a very exciting sermon—’Captain of my soul, master of fate’ or vice versa—I read physics ‘Light’. Walked back with W, talked about next Sunday and other things. He’s a bit of a cynic but has at the least some original ideas—some good ones—I quite like him on the whole. zrl zmb zfr zso zse
