Somewhere in England
July 24th, 1940

Dear Mom,

I was discharged from hospital today and brought down here to No. 3 Infantry Holding Unit and put into "A" Coy. I was supposed to get three days Light Duty but when I got here I was detailed for guard tomorrow morning. That's what I call a raw deal and there is nothing I can do about it. They are so short of men that even cripples are going on guard. The only good thing about being transferred down here that I found a whole lot of mail waiting for me. By the way I got the nickel that you sent in my birthday cake. You seemed to worry a lot about it because you mentioned it twice in successive letters.

Now re. your advice on the BA Course. I'm afraid you have a very strange idea of barrack room life. I hardly have any time to myself at all and when I do - I try to get out as much as possible, otherwise I feel I should go crazy. And I have never even heard of an Unofficial War Diary at all. All these things that you read about in papers are not necessarily true you know. They are probably only ideas in the brains of some brasshat at home. Regiments on Active Service have neither the time nor the space to spare for keeping such things as Unofficial War Diaries. The official one is enough nuisance as it is.

I guess that is all for now as I have to go on a forty eight hour guard tomorrow

Love as always
Jim