next week". So I find written in my dairy under this date. That must have been the predominant feeling of many just then as I could judge by the commissions I got "If anything happens to me Padre, you know, this is my home address & there's a little girl ..." One calculated that ones chances of landing on the Peninsular & coming off unscathed were about as six to four against.
We were ordered to dispose of all surplus kit and keep only such things as could be carried on ones person & were all expectant to land that night. Why we did not is one of many military questions a layman can ask & receive no answer. A Landing under the cover of darkness was obviously safer than by daylight & later became the rule. At 10 p.m. we got orders to turn in for the night. The noise of the bombardment seemed incessant through the night.
We found a stowaway on board. A ingenious lad of 16 from Birmingham. He had deserted a trading vessel & this was the third transport he had boarded in the hope of effecting a landing
