Wednesday 29th May 1940

A little riding and a good deal of digging, nowadays, for signallers.
News: British troops retreating “in good order” towards the Belgium coast.

Thoughts of the morrow spoilt this half holiday! First we heard that kits were to be stacked in a more profuse and meticulous way in the near future. In addition to the present arrangement of kit we are to place battle dress blouse and slacks, neatly folded, upon the bed boards. Then, on top of our SD slacks we shall place KD tunic (showing five buttons); this to be topped by the second KD tunic (which has no buttons) folded back-to-the-front. Above this we shall place the two KD slacks appropriately folded and on the crest of the whole ruddy pile a camouflaged shrapnel helmet (with red and blue flash to the front).

All that bullshit is one cause for gloom. The second reason is that signallers have to parade for riding school at 5:45a.m. tomorrow. Presumably we have to rise, wash, shave, dress and stack our kits in the 15 minutes between reveille and parade.
Oh, hell!