Thursday 3rd September 1942
We've had another parachutist stand-to. And fighting continues in heavy dust storms, up there.
During the next three days we all give our third lectures. It's a 15 minute lecturette, with criticisms by the instructor. I have been allotted a somewhat deadly subject: “The Corkscrew Rule and Flemings' Right Hand Rule.” Electro-magnetism, that comes under. So far my lectures have been famous not for the knowledge displayed, but for the bullshit. I approach my subject with an involved, amusing and picturesque introduction and the time limit is reached, and I am halted before getting into the deep waters of the main theme. I have so little to say about Fleming or his rules that I shall have to follow this method again!
In about a weeks' time I shall again be eligible to enter the draw for a half-day pass to Cairo.
A new draft came in today – from UK! They marched in - it was quite a parade – at breakfast time. In parties of 200 they marched along the tarmac road through the camp. They looked tired and unshaven – they had come a long way and had been in the train all night, I imagined. They all wore topees, although the sun had hardly risen. But the extraordinary thing about them all was their colour! Universal pasty white! I'd never imagined men could be such a ghastly white! Which just shows how sunburnt we've become, without noticing it, because everyone is the same.
At the rear of the procession staggered an amusing figure – a tall officer stooping like a letter “S”. He was white – and he carried a monocle. As he passed me, he wearily screwed the monocle into his eye, the better to survey the wilderness of tents around him.
Typical example of the effete English aristocrat! A Hollywood conception.
During the next three days we all give our third lectures. It's a 15 minute lecturette, with criticisms by the instructor. I have been allotted a somewhat deadly subject: “The Corkscrew Rule and Flemings' Right Hand Rule.” Electro-magnetism, that comes under. So far my lectures have been famous not for the knowledge displayed, but for the bullshit. I approach my subject with an involved, amusing and picturesque introduction and the time limit is reached, and I am halted before getting into the deep waters of the main theme. I have so little to say about Fleming or his rules that I shall have to follow this method again!
In about a weeks' time I shall again be eligible to enter the draw for a half-day pass to Cairo.
A new draft came in today – from UK! They marched in - it was quite a parade – at breakfast time. In parties of 200 they marched along the tarmac road through the camp. They looked tired and unshaven – they had come a long way and had been in the train all night, I imagined. They all wore topees, although the sun had hardly risen. But the extraordinary thing about them all was their colour! Universal pasty white! I'd never imagined men could be such a ghastly white! Which just shows how sunburnt we've become, without noticing it, because everyone is the same.
At the rear of the procession staggered an amusing figure – a tall officer stooping like a letter “S”. He was white – and he carried a monocle. As he passed me, he wearily screwed the monocle into his eye, the better to survey the wilderness of tents around him.
Typical example of the effete English aristocrat! A Hollywood conception.
posted by Paul Wilson at 8:06 pm
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