Suffice it to say he was ne­ver con­vin­ced.

36.  In October the Regi­ment was moved to Heath­field and was al­most im­me­di­ately warn­ed that it would be pro­ceed­ing to NOR­THERN IRE­LAND in pre­par­ation for a move to a the­atre of oper­ations.  Ex­cite­ment and mor­ale rose to new heights and were only tem­pered by the news that we were leav­ing all our equip­ment be­hind.  Af­ter all the care we had la­vished on our guns and ve­hi­cles, in­sis­ting on the high­est stan­dard of main­ten­ance, it was a heart­break to leave it all be­hind though lit­tle did the Regi­ment know how much of a heart­break it really was.  Chore hor­ses we had ne­ver used in order to save them for the “big day” were put away still un­used.  Guns and ve­hi­cles were put in a state of light pre­ser­va­tion while all R/T sets and tech­ni­cal equip­ment were put in a cen­tral dump.  Sten guns were re­placed by Tommy guns and the pro­mise of brand new Amer­ican equip­ment made the part­ing a lit­tle ea­sier.  On the 25th Oc­to­ber Ex­er­cise TIM­BER­WOLF be­gan and the Regi­ment en­train­ed for LI­VER­POOL em­bar­king after a trol­ley ride and a short route march through the city on the 26th Oc­tober.