Alan Allport's website

Friday, 22nd February, 1946

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.

Samuel Charles Bolsom, a company director living on the Edgware Road, London W, was charged at Marlborough Street magistrates' court yesterday with conspiring to assist a large number of men with bogus medical discharges from the Army, reports the Times. It was alleged that Bolsom approached the men offering them a bottle of 'medicine' which would make them appear to be unfit to serve: "I have got dozens of people out of the Army and have helped hundreds ... you fetch along £150 and consider yourself out." Bolsom's medicine turned out to be a strong emetic, and it is not clear if in fact anyone was ever successful in fooling a medical board with it. Bolsom exacerbated his crime by allegedly trying to bribe the investigating detective with a bundle of bank notes stuffed into his hand. The trial continues.

Monday, 11th February, 1946

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 notes that the Home Secretary is preparing a formal statement to the Commons about future action to prevent the unlawful possession of firearms. This has been prompted by concern about the large number of weapons being returned from the European continent by homecoming servicemen, many of which have ended up in the hands of criminals. "There are thought to be a great many more than after the war of 1914-18, and their possession constitutes a serious public danger." 'Souvenir-collecting' has been severely discouraged by the military authorities, but continues regardless.

A letter from 'A Service Mother':

May I quote from a letter just received from Holland? 'We went to see the Airborne Cemetery which is at Oosterbeek about three miles from Arnhem. It was here that the main airborne landings took place. Every child in Oosterbeek has been given two graves to look after, and they have planted tulips on every grave.'

Saturday, 9th February, 1946

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.

"Experienced customs officials have given up trying to estimate the loss to state revenue caused by air smuggling during the past year," reports John Bull this week. The lowest estimate is believed to be at least £1 million, however. Smuggling is alleged to have become "the smart thing to do" in the RAF, with all ranks from senior officers downwards complicit in the fraud. Aircraft land in Britain from overseas on service airfields with no customs officers on duty, and the contraband is quickly passed along to West End racketeers who have established contacts with RAF aircrew. John Bull notes that the few prosecutions that have taken place have almost exclusively been of junior officers, though men of 'air rank' - Air Commodore and above - are believed to be just as guilty. "Many of the farewell demob parties given by senior officers have been fantastically lavish in liquor brought in by air - with no duty paid. The customs drive against this ramp should be aimed higher."

Wednesday, 6th February, 1946

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.

Despite the return of British authority to Hong Kong and other liberated colonial territories in the Far East, law and order in the region remains shaky at best, notes the Times' correspondent. Chinese pirates in armoured junks, equipped with Japanese weapons, are making the East Asian waters unsafe for all but the best defended ships. Last week one pirate vessel boarded the Macao-to-Hong Kong ferry, stormed the wheel-house, imprisoned the almost one hundred passengers in the hold, and robbed them of their clothes and possessions at machine-gun point. Royal Marine Commandos are now reinforcing the understaffed Hong Kong Water Police and the Royal Navy has been drafted in to provide launches, assault craft, and even submarines to locate and destroy pirate strongholds in the notorious Bias Bay area. But the pirates are formidable enemies. Their heavily armed and highly powered junks were constructed under informal Japanese wartime supervision, and their scouts and lookouts are expert at locating the most profitable and vulnerable carges.

The Thunderer also reports on the return to Britain of HMS Formidable, the venerable Illustrious-class aircraft carrier which was launched a month before the outbreak of war and survived the entire conflict (including serious bomb damage on a Malta convoy run and two kamikaze strikes) to take part in the final campaign against the Japanese home islands. She is now back from Australia with 800 demobbing sailors.

Monday, 21st January, 1946

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.

Yesterday, reports the Daily Herald, in the first press conference to be held at New Scotland Yard for twenty years, Sir Harold Scott, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, blamed "unsettlement due to the war, opportunities to dispose of goods in short supply, and the operations of deserters" for the present "serious and disturbing" crime statistics. Scott was keen for the press to understand the crime spike in context, however. "I do not deny that the position is serious," he said, "but London is certainly not like a saloon in the Middle West of the United States in the fifties of the last century." Indictable crimes in the capital over the past eleven months have risen sharply: the figure was 35.7 per cent higher than in 1938. The number of murders in London has however fallen slightly since before the war.

Saturday, 19th January, 1946

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.

Two letters in this week's John Bull discuss very different aspects of the homecoming experience. First, from Macclesfield:

We are told that there are fewer than 12,000 deserters from the British and Allied forces still hidden away in London and the big cities. They dare not come out and earn an honest living and are forced to resort to crime. Cannot the way be opened for them to become good citizens (as once most of them were) instead of hunting them and driving them to desperation?

And from Enfield in Middlesex:

Having served for over five years in the ATS as a teleprinter and switchboard operator and attained the highest possible grades in both trades, I am naturally anxious to find a job in which I can use my knowledge and experience. I had heard of these so-called Resettlement and Advice bureaux and went to make a call. Imagine my feelings when, having given details of my experience, I was told that two or three years of secretarial or clerical work would be necessary before I could hope to hold a worthwhile position in any office. Surely this is an insult to my education and to my common-sense?

Friday, 18th January, 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.

Ex-serviceman Mr. H.R. Bryan, of Eastbourne, lost his appeal for reinstatement in his pre-war job at an appeals tribunal in London yesterday, reports the Times. The case illustrates one of the inherent problems with statutory reinstatement: Mr. Bryan's former employer, Rootes Securities Limited, was part of the 'shadow factory' aviation expansion scheme and during the war employed 30,000 people in aircraft production: but now its workforce has been reduced to 30. R.W. Hammond, one of Rootes' directors, successfully appealed to the Reinstatement Tribunal that it was unreasonable under the circumstances to expect the company to reemploy its thousands of former staff who had in the interim served in the Forces.

In other news in the Times, Flight Lieutenant Frederick Dempsey was amongst those accused at a hearing in Richmond on Thursday of the alleged smuggling into Britain of 48 bottles of brandy, 12 bottles of champagne, and 812 bottles of perfume without the payment of duty. HM Customs and Excise are demanding a claim of £10,675 and five shillings against Dempsey, who pleaded not guilty. The case continues. 

Thursday, 17th January, 1946

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.

Another air trooping disaster blights the safety reputation of RAF Transport Command: A Dakota crashed into a hillside near Marseilles on Tuesday night, killing 22 of the 26 passengers and crew. As the Times reports, the aircraft burst into flames on hitting the ground, leaving the victims charred beyond recognition. In an extra tragic twist, the Dakota was en route to Britain from Catania in Sicily and is believed to have been carrying returning liberated prisoners of war from the Far East. The weather in southern France was especially bad on Tuesday, with snow and sleet reducing visibility to a minimum, and condensation of ice on the plane's wings may have been responsible for its crash. This is ninth air trooping accident involving fatalities since the beginning of November.

Also in the Times: Robert Henry Symons, a storeman employed by the RAF Comforts Fund Committee, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude at the Central Criminal Court yesterday for stealing 500 pairs of woollen socks and 400 pullovers donated to the service by civilian volunteers. Recorder of London Sir Gerald Dodson said: "This is a story of devoted people who had spent their time knitting these garments, fondly believing they would be used by the RAF, but you made use of their charitable outpourings to enrich yourself."

 

Wednesday, 16th January, 1946

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 correspondent, an Army Welfare Officer, complains to the Manchester Guardian about the difficulties in obtaining the release from military service of skilled men at a time of acute labour shortage: "Hundreds of thousands of men are kept idle and discontented in the Services, and the Ministry of Labour regards with complacency the totally inadequate rate of demobilisation. Recently I tried to assist a master plumber to obtain release of journeyman plumbers, and I found it took nearly three weeks to obtain an acknowledgement of my letter from the Ministry of Works.”

The Daily Herald reports on Private Walter Clifford Burridge's war, which ended yesterday in the dock of the Old Bailey. Burridge, of the 1st Btn. Welch Regiment, was being held in jail on Crete in May 1941 on the charge of shooting his platoon sergeant-major while in a drunken stupor when the German assault began. Every able-bodied man being vital to the island's defence, Burridge was temporarily released and was eventually captured by the enemy. He was sent to Silesia to work in the coalmines, twice tried to escape, and took part in a 1,000-mile forced-march to Bavaria when the Russian advance threatened to overrun his POW camp. Eventually he was liberated, demobilised, and returned incognito to Britain. But after two months the authorities caught up with him. Burridge, now 35, was sentenced to five years penal servitude, the original charge having been reduced from murder to manslaughter.

Saturday, 12th January, 1946

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.

"Have you just been released from the Army, Navy, or Air Force?" asks John Bull this week - for if so, "and if you are looking for a job or business proposition in which to invest your savings, watch out for the post-war philanthropists!" The magazine's 'special investigator' reports on a number of dubious or downright fraudulent schemes which have been established to part the unwary demobbed man or woman from their gratuity:

Among the racketeers are self-styled accountants. Company experts offer directorships or jobs in return from capital. Schemers have devised glittering get-rich-quick enterprisers. There are racing and investment 'money-getters,' employment-at-home advisors, and phoney estate agents who, pretending to have sound businesses for sale at the right price, are really out for the preliminary fees for which they do little or nothing ... don't part with a penny to anyone, no matter how plausible or convincing he or she may be, without asking for credentials and seeking proper and expert advice.

Meanwhile, Bombardier Arthur Harris notes the consolations of occupation in a letter home: “Life in Germany could be much worse – I don’t think there has been a quieter time in the whole of my army career. It is a home from home this unit, with practically no discipline as the army knows it, and plenty of Germans to do anything that wants doing for a cigarette or two.”