With no flying today and a month of desert life behind us, we find time to review the activities of the squadron in general terms.
Health
Apart from a prevalence of septic sores developing from minor cuts and abrasions, there have been no unusual cases of Illness owing to our changed mode of life. All ranks have been warned through the medium of orders of the necessity for giving the strongest attention to cuts and open wounds to prevent these turning septic.
Morale
Although many of the flying personnel were undergoing their first experience of enemy fire, there quickly developed a spirit of eagerness to come to grips with the enemy and above all to "hit him hard and often". The blending of experienced and non-experlenced (in operational flying) flying personnel proved invaluable and morale was of a very high standard.
Thrown together in a desert camp all ranks speedily settled in to make the most of things. Realising that cooperation was essential, all ranks joined in with a will and the compliments later paid by visitors to the comforts provided by our camp were tributes to the spirit of cooperation displayed.
Administration
The Administrative work carried out by the Squadron proved to be unnecessarily heavy. There appeared to be lack of centralisation of correspondence, which, for a squadron of this size seemed unnecessarily large. Letters on policy were received from various groups and wings – often duplicating or even in conflict with instructions already laid down – but it was hoped that with the establishment of a central South African wing in the desert, some satisfactory arrangement In regard to Administration would be arrived at. The present position calls for review at the earliest possible opportunity.