What it tells you about the pre-Dunkirk days, is just how arduous a task it was getting up to where the enemy was operating. Much of the journey was on foot.

Daily marches of 22 miles were not uncommon. One particular entry shows a march through Belgium which covered 60 miles.

Les was a carpenter when he was called up in July 1939 to serve at Maidstone with the First Militia on 1s. 6d. (15 pence)  a day. When he was transferred to the Fourth Battalion the Queen's Own Royal West Kents this went up to 2s..

Although at that stage they weren't in the front line, there were encounters with the enemy, and the diary records: "In action with the Germans at Oudenarde May 20 '40."

Two days later came the order to withdraw. "It took us several days to get to the coast, marching most of the time," he said. "The roads were packed with refugees. We had no food, although we did scrounge some from lorries that had been abandoned. We had to take what we could when we could."

The diary entry for May 29 reads: "Dunkirk, marched 45 miles."

"We didn't see any enemy aircraft until we got to Dunkirk," he said. "I finished up on the beaches where there were crowds of soldiers all waiting for transport to get them home. There was plenty of bombing from the dive bombers then.

"I was in the queue for two days, slowly working our way towards the water's edge. By the time I was picked up I had waded out up to my neck. I don't know what the name of the boat was that I came back on, but it was quite a big one because it had a gun mounted on it's deck.

"We were sent below and that was all I knew until I woke up in Margate."

Eventually Les found himself aboard the passenger ship "Laconia" bound for North Africa. On its return trip the ship, with hundreds of Italian prisoners of war on board, was torpedoed.

Les was involved in the Battle of El Alamein, spent time in Iraq, and was then shipped to India. After jungle training the Royal West Kents were sent to Burma, often operating behind the Japanese lines, before moving on to defend Kohima.