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Friday, 30th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

End of month accounting: on June 30, 1945, there were 4,653,000 men and 437,200 women in His Majesty's armed and auxiliary forces.

During November, 1945, 317,764 men and 20,824 women were released under the Class A scheme; 29,046 men and 716 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 377,371 men and 24,535 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 995,950 men and 145,090 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

Data from Fighting With Figures: A Statistical Digest of the Second World War (HMSO, 1995).

Thursday, 29th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Captain John Baird, Labour MP for Wolverhampton East, made an appeal for amnesty in the House of Commons yesterday for soldiers convicted of desertion in the face of the enemy, reports the Times. Baird argued, based on his own experiences, that most men charged in this way were between the ages of 19 and 24 at the time and "failure of nerve" explained their behavior; while these men might have been failures as soldiers in wartime, there was every reason to think that their civilian lives might be more successful, and to handicap them so severely now that the war was over seemed unjust. Baird was challenged from the opposition benches by Perth MP Colonel Sir Alan Gomme Gomme-Duncan, who took exception to the possibility of an amnesty, arguing that if servicemen knew such an act of forgiveness would be generally applied after future wars then military discipline would become impossible. Jack Lawson, Secretary-of-state for War, responded for the government that there had already been a substantial concession to such men by the repeal of the death penalty; of the 3,156 under sentence for desertion on V-J Day, 59% hade already been released [all wartime deserters will finally be forgiven in a Coronation amnesty in 1953].

Wednesday, 28th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

A memorial has been presented to Prime Minister Clement Attlee by General Sir Hubert Gough, Vice-President of the Commonwealth Irish Association, appealing for prompt government action to avert the serious harship of volunteers from Eire who served in the wartime forces or in civilian war industry, reports the Times. All citizens of Eire forfeit the unemployment insurance benefits that they have contributed towards and earned during their war service if they return to their home country, a situation which General Gough believes may affect as many as 300,000 people. Other petitioners include the Archbishop of Westminster, George Bernard Shaw, and Sir Frederick Maurice, President of the British Legion.

Tuesday, 27th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

James Lansdale Hodson quotes a discussion with an officer just back from Greece. Because of demob and the shortage of experienced staff, "men are doing jobs after a week's training that they're quite unfit to do - for example, wrestling with enormous switchboards, and trying to use teleprinters. Messages get sent to any place but the right one, and it's nobody's fault - the men are overworked and undertrained." It's the same for the WRNS, apparently - "what with girls being overworked and on the point of being demobbed and not caring a damn in consequence, it's hard to get things done." Feelings at some overseas posts are raw and mercurial. At an RN air station someone (briefly) flew a red flag on VE-Day. "When the victory march-past was shown at the station cinema, the Americans were booed and the Russians cheered."

Monday, 26th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

The Daily Mirror reports on a concern amongst military psychologists that an "alarming number" of men in uniform are feigning mental distress in order to obtain an early discharge from the Forces, deceiving their unwitting unit doctors. Wing Commander Kenneth Bergin has suggested that threats of disciplinary action have produced a suspicious number of miraculous 'cures' amongst patients claiming to suffer from headaches, dizziness, bad memory, and other vague symptoms. "Almost without exception they deteriorate steadily until in desperation they are invalided out," he writes acerbically:

But what transformation between the time they are told they will be invalided and the date of their actual discharge - the lame leap for joy, the blind see, and dyspeptics eat large indigestible meals with no apparent discomfort.

 

Previous patients had my sympathetic attention, but now I refer more and more cases to the executive for disciplinary action with the most surprising and gratifying results.

Others are less cynical, however. Dr. John McCluskie insists that "the majority of men and women discharged from the services for neurosis are still under treatment." He warns that suspicious service MOs are treading on dangerous ground. Not all serious - even suicidal - patients initially exhibit obvious symptoms. "It may be some years before the sufferer joins the ranks of those poor wretches who blow their brains out in the Army or reach the overcrowded mental hospitals."

Sunday, 25th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

A letter in this week's Woman magazine illustrates that the reunion of many couples separated by war is by no means an end to their problems:

I have been married nineteen years, and was happy most of the time, until the war started. I then had my first baby and was very happy indeed until my husband told me he had given me the child just to keep me tied up while he was away. Since that time he has always tried to humiliate me and enslave me. He is being demobilized soon and he insists that when he comes home I should give up my friends and relatives and spend all my time looking after my little daughter.

Agony aunt Evelyn Home also comments on the mental agonies of the unhappy wife: “It seems harder to bear loneliness now, that the war is over. The girls write to me, finding the separation as difficult as it ever was - and also finding a lack of the old sympathy.”

Saturday, 24th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Soldier magazine, the weekly journal of the British Army of Occupation in Germany, includes a number of complaints from the lower ranks today. "Having survived the rigors of a 24-hour train journey from Ostend to Hamburg by the charities of the gods and a strong constitution," begins a RASC ranker, "I would like to find just one of the people who are said to break railway carriage windows and remove electric lamps ..."

I understand that men, possibly getting back to civilised life after years in the Army, are wildly and even riotously happy. I can understand that they may want to break things. But let them leave the railway carriage windows alone ...

Meanwhile, a comment on the sartorial qualities of the demob suit - or, more specifically, the tie which comes with it - from a craftsman in the Royal Tank Regiment. "I agree that the civilian ties lack taste, but not with the suggestion that regimental ties be issued in lieu of them ... we want to forget all about that when we leave the Army. It is our duty to help in the reconstruction of our country and to set an example to the world, not to stand aside and rest on the supposed laurels of the 'old school tie' clique ..."

 

 

Friday, 23rd November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

The Times comments on the less-than-satisfactory arrangements for service voters in last July's general election, a final statistical analysis now having been published by the government. The scheme promised well at the outset in May, when 2.9 million names of servicemen and -women were placed on the military register, but after the original registration flaws quickly began to emerge. Over 425,000 applications for postal votes were denied because the names of the applicants were not on the service register, and 14,000 votes were refused because the voter forgot to include a declaration of identity. About 58% of service voters were ultimately included, but it is hard to know how many were undeservedly excluded from the franchise because of errors in red tape. "The circumstances were inevitably difficult," conceded the Times ...  

This was a first attempt to collect the votes of citizens serving in three continents and on the high seas half way around the world. The lost votes are attributable to so many causes, including hostile action, that the responsibility does not rest anywhere in particular. Clearly, however, the arrangements for collecting service votes in another election in which, as may happen, substantial forces are still serving abroad must be more reliable as well as more expeditious.

Thursday, 22nd November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

"Family men with the BAOR who are shopping early for Christmas are coming up against some unexpected snags," warns the Daily Mirror:

Presents - which they are sending home to be hidden in a cupboard till Christmas Eve - are becoming  a source of worry to their wives, because many of the soldiers don't realise that high duty must be paid on some articles ...

 

Captain G.B. was alarmed at what happened to the gift he sent for his son. He tells the story and asks for help:

 

"I bought a camera from another officer who paid £2 - £4 for it new. As it was secondhand when I got it I gave the value for customs purposes at £2, which was surely reasonable. I sent the parcel home complete with a duty-free label. We are allowed six labels a year. When the parcel reached England my wife was told she would have to pay £14 duty, plus purchase tax ..."

The Mirror also reports on the red-tape troubles ex-servicemen are having establishing small businesses, sometimes because of misapplied regulations. A recently demobbed soldier who took boot repairing classes under the Army Education Scheme attempted to set himself up as a cobbler in Nottingham, only to be told by the local Board of Trade Footwear Repair Department that he was ineligible for a license because he had not been in business on his own account before the war. But apparently he was misinformed: he is eligible for a license, so long as he takes work with an existing cobbler for between six and fifteen months first.

Wednesday, 21st November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Blighty Bound (1945) - Herbert Andrew Jr. and Geoffrey Blackmore:

 

‘Tis three long years ago

since I sailed from Blighty’s shores

To fight in foreign lands across the blue

And I left my love behind just hoping she’d be true

And now my dear at last I’m coming home to you ...

 

I’m sailing on the next boat for Blighty

I’m sailing on the next boat for home

Gee! How do I feel?

Can’t imagine it’s for real

To be on my way

This very day

To that land across the foam

 

Oh! The hours seem like days

And the days seem like years

But I don’t care what time we take

Just as long as it’s Blighty Bound

For I’m sailing on the next boat for Blighty

And coming home to you, sweetheart ...