Alan Allport's website

Tuesday, 26th March, 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 quayside accident in Lisbon, Portugal, yesterday during a courtesy visit by the venerable battleship HMS Nelson caused one civilian to be killed and another 25 seriously injured, reports the Times. Nelson was opened to public view at about 1.30pm, but neither the British nor Portuguese authorities had anticipated the level of popular interest there would be; within an hour 6,000 people were on board, with a queue alongside the ship at least a mile long. By mid-afternoon it was decided for safety reasons that no more people could be taken onboard, and sailors were instructed to close the entrances. In response, many Portuguese visitors climbed onto four elevated gangways to get a better view of the ship; though constructed from iron and concrete, these were of a flimsy design and they were never intended to take the weight that was now placed on them. One of the gangways crumpled up, throwing people pell-mell more than fifty feet into the packed crowd below. The assembled onlookers, more than 30,000 strong at this point, were thrown into a state of panic, but fortunately the authorities were able to restore order before more lives were lost.

Admiral Syfret, the commander-in-chief of the Home Fleet, has issued an official statement confirming the facts of the event; the Portuguese Ministry of the Interior is investigating.

Thursday, 14th 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 spate of air trooping disasters continues: shortly after noon yesterday, the Times reports, an RCAF Dakota operating with RAF Transport Command crashed near Shelsham in Surrey as the aircraft, en route from Germany, was preparing to land with twenty passengers and eight crew on board. It's believed that eight of these were killed in the accident. Earlier on Wednesday morning an RAF Short Sunderland of Coastal Command which had just taken off for a journey to Sicily came down in flames about one hundred yards off the shore at Lee-on-the-Solent, just west of Portsmouth; apparently one of its starboard engines had caught fire. All ten crew members perished in the crash.

In lighter news, the Manchester Guardian makes a good point when it observes: “Mr. Lawson was able to triumphantly announce yesterday that letters [of complaint to the War Office] are down to a mere 54,000 a week. A British Army of the present size that complains in writing fewer than three million times in a year is obviously reaching an unheard of standard of contentment.”

Tuesday, 12th 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 rate of release from the services is being revised - downwards - reports the Times. Before the end of February the government will announce new proposals slowing the demobilisation of the latest Release Groups. The reason, however, is because military discharges in the first weeks of 1946 have greatly exceeded forecasts. It was originally supposed that in the first half of this year 1.6 million men and women would be released from HM Forces, bringing the overall total to 3.1 million. But more than 100,000 personnel have been discharged per week in January, and if that rate were to continue unaltered then the total by June 30 would be almost one million higher than anticipated - leaving the standing Army, Navy, and Air Force too weak to fulfill their global commitments.

The Times also reports that two soldiers were killed on Sunday night in a three-train pile-up at Potters Bar junction on the main LNER line twelve miles north of London. The Hatfield-to-London train, running several minutes late, hit buffers at the end of the platform, and its leading coaches were thrown right into the path of the King's Cross-to-Newcastle express. The disaster site was further thrown into chaos when the Bradford-to-King's Cross train collided with one of the derailed engines and it too came off the line. Gangs of men worked throughout Sunday night and Monday morning searching for survivors in the wreckage and clearing the tracks, using flares and the light of the moon to see.

Tuesday, 5th 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.

Chaos descended on Wigston Magna in Leicestershire yesterday afternoon, reports the Times, when an Avro Lancaster flying above the town exploded in mid-air, killing all six members of the crew, who were Polish. Eyewitnesses report that the aircraft was flying very low through a thunderstorm when a flash of lightning hit the plane and instantly destroyed it. Debris fell across Wigston Magna. In one house a family of seven were having lunch when the explosion caused part of their kitchen to collapse. A bus was also damaged, and wreckage from the aircraft littered the town's secondary school playground. A number of small fires broke out but were quickly extinguished.

In other news, the Times reveals that 458 British GI Brides and 175 babies arrived in New York harbour on the liner Argentina on Monday morning at dawn. The arrivals to the New World braved sub-zero temperatures as their ship was towed between ice floes to dock. Over fifty of their husbands were there to greet them. Eleven other ships carrying war brides are scheduled to arrive in New York this month alone.

Saturday, 2nd 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.

In today's Manchester Guardian, E.H. O’Donnell, Public Relations officer for the War Office, discusses (and attempts to quash) three rumors that have been circulating in Indian stations: first, that men due for release in Group 26 are being deliberately held back; second, that no men left India between December 13-31; and lastly, that only three ships left England for India in January taking only 15,000 men. O'Donnell hopes that rumourmongers will communicate this information to any troops in India that they are in correspondence with, "and also try to convince them that ‘the authorities’ and not conspiring to keep men in the forces for some sinister reason.”

More bad publicity for the RAF, already rattled by the stories of mutiny in the Far East: two of its aircraft crashed yesterday, killing four airmen, reports the Times. A Bomber Command Avro Lancaster on a cross-country training flight crashed near Lincoln, the plane bursting into flames on impact. Three charred bodies were recovered from the wreckage, but it is believed that other crewmembers may have been able to parachute to safety and a search is underway for them. Squadron Leader E. Ball, DFC, was also killed on Friday when his Gloster Meteor jet fighter crashed in flames in open country near Exeter [he is just one of 450 pilots who will be killed flying the Meteor during its operational career; the plane's unreliable engines and lack of an ejector seat will greatly exacerbate its poor safety record.]

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."

 

Tuesday, 15th 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.

Last Saturday, RASC Edgar John returned to his family in Guernsey for the first time in 13 years, after an army career spent in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma. His friends and family held a celebration party for him which ended in the early hours of Sunday morning. But then, reports the Daily Herald, two hours after the revellers had retired to bed, neighbours were awoken by the screams of John's mother - and found the house a blazing inferno. Mrs. John, together with her three daughters and serviceman son, were able to escape by dashing through the flames before the staircase collapsed. But John was trapped in a downstairs room, where he had fallen asleep on a settee; his brother tried to plunge through the smoke in a wet blanket to save him, but neither he nor firemen nor policemen were able to make their way through the burning house. The man's charred body was discovered in the wreckage.