Leave arrangements were again altered and the station will now close down every Sunday completely; every 2nd Saturday in the month 63 Squadron had an extra day off making a long weekend and every 4th Saturday 52 Squadron did the same.

January 29th 1940

Awoke to find with great relief that it had snowed overnight 1 ½ " - 2" which just made the roads possible in the Ford 8. Had another letter from Towning Trotter - lucky dog at Pembroke Dock on Sunderlands, he had been up to Scotland for a week and had seen two E.A while on patrol but could not get to grips.

January 27th 1940

Started to freeze up again with snow and sleet. The following day we had an extraordinary example of "super cooled rain drops" It had been snowing and must have been freezing on the surface when towards the end of the day it started to rain slightly - immediately everything was covered in a thick sheet of ice, hard and firm. We could have skated on the lawn at Bucklands late that night. The car was covered about ¼ " thick with ice, the roads were pure sheet ice, I have never seen anything so phenomenal happen so quickly.

January 24th 1940

24th & 25th - Two good days flying - got in five hours flying. Sgt/Pilot R.J.Barr was posted to "A" Flight from "C" Flight as the latter now started training pilots and observers on exactly thte same lines as "A" & "B".

January 19th 1940

Three days leave started. Jana and I stayed at Bucklands Hotel. Went out to dinner with the C.O. and then to a dance at Abingdon Mess. Not a very bright show ( Got a little tiddled and apparently told the C.O. what I thought of him, according to Jana. I don't remember this!) F/O Amie Philipsen, wife and child arrived to stay at the Bucklands. The Thames was frozen over completely in places and we actually walked right across on the ice. Still freezing, snowing and generally pretty cold.

January 17th 1940

A Tiger Moth landed in a field by Huntercombe Golf Club late in the afternoon. We were duty flight and so had to guard it. I got the C.O.'s permission to try and fly it out and Henderson and I went up there, boiled the car first time and returned to fill up and have another try. We spent about half an hour trying to start it when the Station Commander arrived and strongly suggested we should push off home! Not suprising as it was dark but there was a good moon and I had a flare path teed up at Benson.

January 16th 1940

After further tests with an aircraft empty of petrol save for 30 gallons the C.O. was out and flew the aircraft out of the field successfully.