Welcome back, Christine! BUNDY has overslept this morning, having spent much of the night updating "The Last Cruise of the Cumber", but I wil pass the mesage on. JP has been hors de combat for a while, but I hope he will be with us again soon.

Thursday, 8th June 1944

The men received two new items of equipment - a "Mae West" each and a trenching tool between two men; also string to tie the back packs, as the straps would no longer reach the buckles.

Each company had a three tonner and a 15 cwt truck for the march from Storrington to an anonymous railway station (probably Pulborough, but there were no place signs in those days, in case of enemy invasion).

Thus began our journey to another anonymous railway station (was it Eastleigh? Alternatively, could it have been Brockenhurst?). From there we marched to a forest where we camped for the night. There were many stops en route, and every train we saw was full of troops. So, they told us, was every train on the Southern Railway.

This day should have been pay day, but British money was not going to be much use to us from now on.

Friday, 8th June 1945

I worked on those statistics then took a walk to the boathouse and had a row on the Schweriner See. On the way, I noticed that the U.S. Forces Opera House was now the 15th Scottish Div. Opera House. The stalls, I discovered later, were strictly for the troops, but the gallery was available to civilians.

Saturday, 10th June 1944

We rose with the lark, shaving in cold water, with a sheet of polished metal for a mirror. It was odd how the memory latched on to minor differences like having brushless shaving cream and an Ever Ready razor. All the others tried to whip up lather for their Gillette razors.

We received a hot field breakfast, an issue of military francs and a field can opener each, and then off we went marching down Bugle Street to the Royal Pier, throwing away our British currency as we went.

Once on board the LSI (Landing Ship, Infantry), we stowed our kit and came up on deck to pose for a news camera operator on the pier. Soon we sailed down the Test into Southampton Water and the Solent and across a rather choppy English Channel. At midday, those of us who had managed to keep our breakfast down treated ourselves to self-heated cans of soup. This was where that field can opener came in useful. In the middle of the lid was a second lid, which one could lift off with the handle of the opener to reveal a strip of metallic magnesium, which we could ignite with a lighted cigarette. This in turn lit a stick of thermite, which heated the soup. If you shook the can and pierced it before it boiled, it made a satisfying meal; otherwise, it became a fair substitute for a hand grenade.

When darkness fell, we bunked down for the night wherever we could. There was nothing else to do, nothing to see - not that there was much to do or see by daylight. Some had played cards or dice, while others had grabbed bunks while they were available.

Sunday, 10th June 1945

Will Farmer and I went motor boating at 15th Scottish Div. Boating Club on the Beutel, a smaller lake connected to the Schweriner See. The boat was a dinghy with an inboard Ford engine (and gearbox!), cooled by filtered lake water.

haldav is having a problem connecting to the internet.

Thursday, 15th June 1944

The pump was now safe, but gave no water; until one man declared that it needed to be primed and donated some water for the purpose. The question now was "Is the water safe"? The men took no chances. We had received extra 24-hour packs to tide us over until our water tanker arrives, but what good were dehydrated rations without water?

The WD had foreseen that situation. In those packs were what one wag calls "dehydrated water" - tablets of calcium chloro-hypochlorite. One of these in a water bottle for 24 hours, then neutralised with a tablet of sodium hyposulphite provided safe, if not exactly tasty, water.

The old "Halt! Who goes there?" and the standard answers had become obsolete. Now password and reply replaced them and for this night these were "fish" and "chips".

Friday, 15th June 1945

15th Scottish Div. Opera Company presented “Congress Dances”. The player of the British Ambassador sang his part in English – to the stalls.

Friday, 16th June 1944

It turned out that St.Gabriel was an outpost of 21 Army Group main HQ, in fact the main concentration area, hence the special passwords. Rear HQ was in St. Paul’s School in London and 21 Army Group shoulder flashes were based on the school badge.

Weather was chilly for June, wet and stormy and the rest of the unit was still holding back somewhere. Assuming, conveniently, that we were too far from the front for Gerry's artillery, we stopped digging in and huddled in the barn. Someone had found some used cartridges, some of copper and some of mild steel. An hour later, we had converted these to "red" and white chessmen. Now we had a pastime, in addition to our seminars in field cooking.

Saturday, 16th June 1945

Corporal Farrier had found a full blade charger for my German razor and wanted to have the razor to go with them. I pointed out the falsity of his economy and he gave me the blades.