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 ..."
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