Tuesday 14th May 1940

A pleasantly languid day today; I had to “go sick” this morning instead of tomorrow and was duly sent (after an hours waiting) to Haifa, by ambulance. Quite a cheery ride; none of my six companions seemed really ill. We reached Haifa Hospital after about two hours and waited. We heard the MO talking to the orderly – fragments... “What have we got?” - “Jaundice... sand fly...bronchitis... - fever”. No one around me seemed bronchial.

“You got bronchitis old boy?”
“No”
“You?”
“No, sand fly”
“It must be you, mate!” laughed someone.

And it was! “Suffering six months months from bronchitis. Please X-ray.” read the form which I took to the X-ray department after a preliminary examination. Came back on the ambulance at 2p.m. without hearing the result of the X-ray. After Binyamina there were only three of us left (the other two were discharged men – my six companions of the mornings ride had all been detained) so I had full value for my money and lay down on the seat, haversack under my head. Pleasant to lie there, lethargic, “twixt sleep and waking”, watching the blue sky, clouds or tropical trees appear in the small window above me.