Saturday 14th September 1940

There were a sudden series of many far off rumbles about half an hour after we'd kipped down again. About a ton of bombs tumbled down somewhere! None of us took shelter this time. Fed up with it!

Learnt this morning that the first lot of bombs fell about a half mile this side of the station and did no damage. Chenery and Gayler arrived today from Palestine. Pleasant surprise! We'd heard that men in hospital would not rejoin us. Gayler is here now, having replaced Stevens in “L” truck.

Once again, by the way, I'm writing by the moonlight. (We are now in the slit trench again! Rumbles from Mersa way as I wrote the last sentence – then the bloody alarm.)

A bunch of letters came in from home today. Photos of Father and Richard in uniform. (There goes the “all clear!”) All made me long to be back! Snaps of them on a 21 days leave with Mother – she's now in Devonshire, thank God. From certain cryptic signs and scraps of code, I gathered that HMS Mercury had been bombed and sunk or put out of action but that they were both alright.

Back to bed now. A short alarm, that. They'll probably come again, tonight.