In an undated fragment of a letter Sherriff confides to Pips his feelings about the missiles the Germans send over: ‘[We] hope for the best and pray that we will always have the luck to steer clear of them – that is all we can do.’ Even the less highly explosive missiles had a demoralising effect: ‘Rifle grenades and aerial darts are very disturbing – you hear a Bump! as the missile is fired and then a noise like wish! wish! wish! wish! wish! getting louder and louder and your heart beats louder and louder – then crash! and you bob down.’ Of course, in his present job he was out of the firing line, and grateful for that, but he had noticed that ‘the less you are actually in the line the more reluctant you are to enter it.’

He was putting his spare time to good use, ‘writing a little historical story which, when finished, I will submit for your approval and criticism – of course, it may never be finished, but I hope so…’. [Unfortunately we do not know whether it was ever finished or not – but there is no sign of it in his files.]

[Next letter: 1 November]