16th December 1942

Wednesday

A dull, miserable day.  Office work not going at all well.  I have very little control over the girls.  Interviewed another one today, from my Father’s old school, Hamilton Road.  I think she will be useful, and she promises to start after Christmas.  This lack of control worries me.  I know I am very weak with them.

No cycle lamp batteries to be had anywhere, so I had to go back to Lawford by bus.  Heard a woman tell another that on Sunday night, when the German plane was being fired at, three shells landed quite near her house.  She said “I was that frightened I got in the lavatory, but my brother said ‘Don’t you worry, the’re not bombs, only shells!’”  I have heard a good many stories about AA shells falling without bursting, or else exploding on impact, due to the fuses being set wrong.

Very low clouds tonight, and a thin drizzle of rain falling, blowing before a S.W. wind.

In the “East Anglian” today it was reported that several youths have escaped from the Borstal settlement at Hollesley Bay, Suffolk, and have been roaming about Ipswich district armed with grenades and tommy guns.