Alan Allport's website

Friday, 31st May, 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.

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 May, 1946, 224,589 men and 22,155 women were released under the Class A scheme; 20,586 men and 180 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 254,712 men and 23,378 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 2,939,675 men and 306,719 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Tuesday, 30th April, 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.

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 April, 1946, 210,271 men and 20,441 women were released under the Class A scheme; 32,243 men and 445 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 255,509 men and 21,734 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 2,684,963 men and 283,341 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Sunday, 31st 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.

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 March, 1946, 289,408 men and 30,759 women were released under the Class A scheme; 34,933 men and 270 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 335,547 men and 32,618 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 2,429,454 men and 261,607 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Thursday, 28th 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, in playful mood, reflects on the war-winning importance of char:

Char has seen us a long way in this war. How peaceful, in retrospect, appears the desert brew, when some acknowledged master of tea-making, jealous of his prerogatives, cast the leaves into the disused petrol container with an almost hieratical gesture. Even when made with the brackish Tobruk water, with a dash of high-grade octane and sand to add picquancy, there was comfort in it. Later, in Europe, the untutored soldiery, with a lack of discrimination for the niceties, continued to take char where they halted, which was, as often as not, in the Grande Place of some newly liberated city. Here the smoke of their brew cans rose to high heaven, causing immense delight to small children, but drawing down the fulminations of the higher command, who held the practice to be undignified ...

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 February, 1946, 288,202 men and 30,328 women were released under the Class A scheme; 26,921 men and 192 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 329,665 men and 31,886 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 2,093,907 men and 228,989 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Thursday, 31st 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.

According to the Daily Mail, the commanding officer of the RAF recruit training center at Rattlesden in Suffolk yesterday telegraphed the Air Ministry to report on a self-styled 'underground movement' which has been organised by airmen unhappy about "foul oppression and despotic tyranny." This is the first incident in which men stationed in the UK appear to have been copying the tactics of the RAF strikers in the Far East. A typewritten newsheet circulated at the base, written by the 'Rattlesden underground movement,' complains of "restrictions, unecessary supervision, petty regulations, and a host of parades" making life "intolerable." Between 2-3,000 air force recruits are currently based at Rattlesden.

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 January, 1946, 381,100 men and 28,635 women were released under the Class A scheme; 25,843 men and 583 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 422,135 men and 30,869 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 1,764,242 men and 197,103 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Monday, 31st December, 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.

John Aubrey discusses the problems of wartime relationships led almost entirely by letter in the last News Chronicle of 1945. "Part of the trouble is that people take written words so much more seriously than when they are spoken, and when ordinary men and women sit down to write they say things that they don't really mean and expect their reader to take their true feelings for granted." Aubrey comments that this miscommunication was particularly and tragically marked in the letters exchanged between prisoners-of-war and their spouses, or men long separated from their wives by overseas service. "Sometimes the man abroad would give up in despair the task of making his wife understand the way he had to live, or would strain every nerve to avoid depressing her with his troubles while the wife worried because his letters told her very little or were infrequent." Aubrey quotes a letter from a typical housewife:

The last letter I received from him was in January, 1944. It was short, and he seemed to be under a strain, spoke of feeling depressed, and that 'nothing seemed to matter,' also that he couldn't hope to get home for another two years. After that I had nothing until June 1944, when I received two cables. One was to say that he was all right and writing, the other a birthday greeting. I never had a letter from him and as the months went on I got so desperately worried and started to make inquiries.

Despite being reunited now, many couples nurse old bitternesses because of these wartime failures to communicate.

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 December, 1945, 294,883 men and 17,916 women were released under the Class A scheme; 24,653 men and 920 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 346,157 men and 21,144 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 1,342,107 men and 166,234 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

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).

Wednesday, 31st October, 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.

"In view of the present acute shortage of teachers, I think your readers may be interested in the fate of nine people, seven qualified school teachers and two university lecturers," begins an letter from India in the News Chronicle:

We are serving in the Army Educational Corps. Since July 25, when we reported to the AEC depot at Wakefield, we have done nothing whatever. We were kept changing about for three weeks before we sailed, and on arrival in this country we have again been hanging around in a depot awaiting posting. We have received repeated assurances from the Army authorities in the past that being in the AEC would in no way prejudice our release ... this promise has now been broken. No fewer than 35 per cent of the troops in India awaiting demobilisation are in Groups 24 to 28. Why in this case have we, who are in Groups 27 and 28, been brought out here after the end of the Japanese war, when our presence can only make the shipping situation worse?

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 October, 1945, 200,700 men and 19,023 women were released under the Class A scheme; 20,598 men and 182 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 266,595 men and 24,006 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 618,579 men and 120,555 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Sunday, 30th September, 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.

"British soldiers are secretly marrying German girls," insists People correspondent Evadne Price in her latest fratting-scandal headline. "The secret wedding ceremonies are being performed in Roman Catholic churches," she continues, "and men openly boast that no power on earth is going to put their marriages aside ...

Many of the soldiers with whom I talked were faintly disgusted and rather cynical about the matter. What do they want to marry them for? All these girls need is a good chocolate and cigarette ration ...

On the other hand, I met several unmarried men who mean to marry their frauleins the day the law permits it. And I met two British soldiers who were actually trying to get their wives to agree to a divorce so that they could marry their Germans - one of them had three young children in London. I asked him what his wife had done. He answered: Nothing. I just like this one better.

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 September, 1945, 102,856 men and 19,000 women were released under the Class A scheme; 9,815 men and 39 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 131,543 men and 22,293 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 351,984 men and 96,549 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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

Friday, 31st August, 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.

Flying his pennant from the light cruiser HMS Swiftsure, Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt led a joint British and Australian fleet into Hong Kong yesterday to accept the Japanese surrender of the Crown Colony, three years and eight months after its capture, reports the Times. "The tragic episode in the life of the colony which began with its fall on Christmas Day 1941 thus comes to an end ... the curtain which for so long shut off Hong Kong from the rest of the world will be lifted."

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 August, 1945, 88,629 men and 25,292 women were released under the Class A scheme; 6,492 men and 9 women were released under the Class B scheme; with 111,437 men and 30,232 women being released in total (including miscellaneous discharges on compassionate and medical grounds).

Overall, since the start of demobilisation, 220,441 men and 74,256 women have been discharged from HM Forces.

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