March 17, 1944, April 8, 1944                                   

The past week I spend on a pioneers’ course, getting a lot of special training crammed into a short space of time. I learned how to tie knots and lashings and handle high explosives, lay new roads of steel mesh, mend bomb craters in roads, fill pot holes and finally how to lay a mine field and unsow one laid by the enemy. The most important feature of the whole course was the handling of “booby traps” and Teller mines. I need not mention that I paid careful attention to this particular portion of the course. All in all, the course was a very good one and I enjoyed it very much. -----

I still have my beard, though my skin infection has healed completely. However, I expect to lose it shortly and will try to have a snap taken before this happens.