immediately
replied: 'Oh, you will have to carry on with Sergeant Williams at
present; Sergeant Baldwin is going to remain with his old platoon'--7
Platoon! Giffin then asked whether Sergeant Williams would be going over
the top with him; Captain Andrews replied that it would probably end in
his doing so. Anyhow, Sergeant Baldwin is now definitely appointed to 7
Platoon. That is satisfactory. I am also quite satisfied with my section
commanders--Lance-Corporal Livesey (Bombers), Lance-Corporal Tipping
(Riflemen), Lance-Corporal Topping (Lewis Gunners), and Lance-Corporal
Segar (Rifle Grenadiers). The men in my platoon are practically the same
as they were when I first had 7 Platoon. So things are now much more
satisfactory. I hope they will continue so.

"While here we are under direct orders from Brigade. The Brigade-Major
has just been in with detail of working parties for this evening. I am
to take Sergeant Clews and a party of thirty men to carry ammunition
from one dump to another.

"I must now close. It is nearly dinner-time. It is 7.20 now; dinner at
7.30. I start with my party at 9.25."

My diary of July 10 states:

"Working party in the evening with Sergeant Clews--carrying ammunition
from a dump near White Chateau to a Brigade dump further on to the left,
behind Congreve Walk. A very quiet night."

On July 11 I wrote home as follows:

"We had Major Brighten and Captain Blamey in for dinner yesterday
evening. Major Brighten is delightfully optimistic; he is, like Captain
Andrews, positive that the war will be all over by October. He thinks
that the coming offensive will settle the dispute. We discussed the war,
its duration, and the coming battle. The other day I remarked to Captain
Blamey that a landing ought, during the heat of the action, to be
effected at a certain place, and that a certain famous General would
probably be chosen to do it, because he has already done it (but under
easier conditions!) on a former occasion. A day or two later Captain
Blamey was astonished to receive information from Major Brighten that
the very thing I had proposed, and by the very General I had suggested,
was going to be done! So he told him that I had said that this General
would probably be the one, because he had done it before; but Major
Brighten said that he did not think that he had done it before. Captain
Blamey said that he did not argue the point because he was not sure
himself, but he told me about it afterw