September 1940

[At this time Granddad's diary stops listing things week by week but now summarizes it by month.]

We had the usual church parades on Sunday in the company area. Lt. Col Haldenby called in to the unit to say good-bye before leaving for Canada. We went on exercise to Worth Forest on Thursday 5 Sep 40. Codeword Cromwell issued on Sunday 8 Sep 40 and we were on 4 hours notice to move. Invasion of England was imminent. All prisoners were released except those awaiting court martial. Unit of 1 hour notice to move and tents and blankets put into storage. Raining and very miserable and the blankets and tents were re-issued for comfort. Usual training being carried out after being given notice of stand down on Sat 14 Sep 40. We were warned that we would be moving to billets anytime after 18 Sep. Saturday 14 Sep was the first night we did not have an alert since the night they raided the docks at London. 15 Sep usual church parades held and afterwards the unit played the recce squadron at softball. Some passes were granted for Horsham and the remainder of the free personnel went to Newdigate. Heavy barrage heard from the direction of London. Nothing heard in the immediate area. Capt. Warren appointed Adjutant. Use of buses for recreation transport were canceled due to shortages of patrol. Company church parades held on Sunday 23 Sep. Remainder of the day and Monday 23 Sep were spent in cleaning up the area in readiness for the move to the Kingswood area. Spent all day Wednesday settling in. 7 day privilege leave opened for 5% of the unit at any one time with transportation warrants. Battalion paraded to various churches in the area around Kingswood.

[On September 7th 1940 the German Luftwaffe bombed London, the beginning of 57 straight days of bombing. It was also during this month that Hitler planned for Operation Sealion (the invasion of the UK) to take place. The operation was untimely canceled on September 17th.]