18th January 1941

On 9th January I went to bed with a feverish chill, having over 102 for first week. During this week planes roared overhead every night and sirens sounded. Night before last at 11 p.m. I heard 3 bombs drop. It appears they fell near Exeter Hospital. Last night 3 more crashed down in Exmouth, these shook our bungalow at 1 p.m. About a dozen people were killed, including 2 sisters of our butcher and a family of 4, evacuees from London. Marion slept through it all, she had to go to bed on 16th January herself, with a chill. This forced me to get help and I was lucky to engage a London evacuee who has been here for 3 months with her little boy of 5. Before she came, the windows of her flat had been blown out and boarded up. Nevertheless, she intends returning there in February, to spend her husband's leave with him. She merely says, as to the danger, "Well, if it is our turn, then we must go!"