25 MON. Christmas Day. Cold, windy miserable day. Campbell and I went to a Communion Service in Locre Y M C A hut. Lunched at No2 and watched football match.

Our men had Xmas dinner up here. We had ours in evening. Turkey, mince pies. Cook drunk, turkey spoilt.

26 Tue. Boxing Day. Still day, rather thick ground mist. Balloons up and target registered. Lunched with Meyler and spent morning at Belgian balloon, watching their Silicol plant, which makes 420 cubic metres of gas per hour.

27 WED. Still day and fair view. Balloons up. No23 at Pop was attacked by a German machine. Anti aircraft put up barrage which stopped the aeroplane, Stevenson was in basket and made parachute descent. Very comfortable journey.

28 THUR. Rather windy foggy day. No ballooning.

Mitchell lunched here and after lunch we went in tender to YPRES. No shelling whilst we were there. Quite a rare occurrence. Found glass from Cathedral and tube from organ.

29 FRI. Very windy and wet day. Major, Campbell and Mitchell went down to No 1 Balloon Wing. Mitchell and Nelson are changing places. Very sorry Mitchell is going. No ballooning.

My promotion to 1st Lieut appeared in Orders.

30 SAT. Windy day. No ballooning. Went to St Omer to fetch Capt Foot, Recording Officer. Picked up Francis, 20th Squdn and Geogard, on the way. Lunched at Hotel de France. Bought Picture Postcard and sent to Brenda.

31 SUN. 1st after Christmas. Dull windy day. No ballooning. Went to No2 in morning and examined their new balloon. Valve line too tight. Col went to No1 Balloon Wing for night. Dearie dined here.

Saw new year in. Heavy bombardment by our guns at 12 midnight for quarter of an hour.