As the lines of mules and packhorses were relieved of their heavy loads and taken to the water for a well-deserved drink, the men rested, snatched a hurried meal, filled their bottles and also drank to their heart’s content. But their respite was short, for the officers returned from inspecting the sand bar which was the proposed landing site for the gliders that would bring in their urgently needed supplies and take out their wounded. Having found the sand to be flat and hard enough, and the surrounding area clear of the enemy, they began to issue orders.

Jim, Ernie and Big Bert were sent to dig defence trenches while signallers unloaded their sets, driftwood was collected for signal fires, and men were sent out to reconnoitre their surroundings.

Jim kept an eye on the transport officers as he supervised the digging and got stuck in himself. They’d gone to the water’s edge to try and work out the best way to get two hundred and forty mules to swim a mile-wide river from a high and unstable sandbank to a narrow beach and soaring eighty-foot cliff.

‘I certainly don’t envy them that task,’ he muttered to Big Bert. ‘Mules are awkward bastards at the best of times.’

‘You can bet your life it’ll be us poor buggers having to get them over there,’ growled Big Bert. ‘When in doubt, send for the bloody sappers.’

They were all sweating profusely as the humidity soared and the black monsoon clouds began to gather overhead. The atmosphere was heavy with electric menace as lightning flickered back and forth and gunfire continued to the north. The hairs on Jim’s arms and neck prickled and he could feel the air crackling around him as he regarded the tinder-dry fields and tall reeds. One lightning strike and the whole lot would go up and spread faster than a steam train – but at least they had the advantage of water at their backs should they be faced with such an inferno.

The trench digging was finally completed at dusk and having bathed in the shallows of the river, eaten that day’s K-rations and smoked a cigarette, Jim was feeling very much better, so he dug out his notebook from his backpack and scrawled a hasty few words to Peggy.