Thursday 7th August 1941

Last night – heat, airlessness, roaring of an electric air cooler. The Orderlies are fine – right from MDS to this Dock Hospital. Drifted uneasily into sleep whilst they sang in the ward. Awoke about 2a.m., got a bowl, retched awhile and finally vomited. There I lay, sweating, on the cold floor. The orderly let me move into another bunk, where it was cooler, nearer the mouth of the tunnel and there was less sense of claustrophobia.

5p.m. No one has gone yet but more have come so the ward is nearly full. The latest arrivals are wounded, not sick. Bloody bandages. Funny, very few of the men around look pale. They're sunburnt, that's why. I look fit enough (I'm not yellow) but feel dizzy, sick and as uncomfortable as though I were going to have a baby.