Correspondents' mess Archives

August 11, 2023August 11, 2023

War Letters – NW Australia: 11 Aug 1943, Darwin; Pushing off to another camp

W.E. Pidgeon
C/O DPR Unit
APO Darwin

Wednesday morning
[11 Aug 1943]

Sweetheart,

Another hurried note to catch the mail as I am pushing off again down the road. I won’t be able to catch a mail further on. Nothing whatever has happened since I wrote you midday yesterday. Enjoyed “Sun Valley Serenade”¹ once more – The skiing was extra good. Got a real kick out of it. Fancy that wonderful season down south going to waste.²

I’ll be pleased to be home again soon – I don’t know – I like it up here but get sick of the lack of privacy & I miss you. Be a bit of alright if we had a house up here together. Have managed to get enough stuff together to keep me going for some time when I return so that even if I go to New Guinea we’ll be together for a few months. After 10 years³ you certainly get settled down into a routine existence. After the war we’ll have to get away more together. Make our own pleasures without the help or otherwise of others.

Fighter pilots⁴ are putting on a do this week celebrating some anniversary. Your art husband has been invited – I suppose he will feel a little poorly on the morning after.

I like to get away from the correspondents’ mess – there’s too much blasted proximity all the time. But miss your letters like hell. I won’t get one now until Monday next when I plan to return.

Have nothing more to add at the moment darling – will write again tonight. This is just so’s you’ll get something to remember me by you little beaut.

Notes:

1
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) starring Sonja Henie, John Payne and Glenn Miller and his orchestra. See also Wikipedia
2
Bill and Jess regularly went skiing at Kosciuszko with the Millions Ski Club
3
Wep and Jess were married August 24, 1933
4
RAAF 457 Squadron (Spitfires) at Livingstone Airfield

August 2, 2023August 11, 2023

War Letters – NW Australia: 2 Aug 1943, Darwin; Barber’s shop in a forward area

W.E.Pidgeon
C/O DPR Unit
Army Post Office
Darwin

Monday Aug. 1 or something
[2 Aug 1943]

Darling,

Sorry I growled about there being no letters from you. Very little mail arrived for anyone last week. Must have been some hitch. Happily I received two this morning and was thereby much delighted.

What - No Letters Blokes

You seem pretty lonely poor darling – it is obviously sickening to have to either stay home alone or still see the same faces & the same chatter. It’s lonely here as a rule when I’m not working. That is why I like to get out each week to some camp down the road and settle in to steady effort. There is a great deal round about here I want to get on to, moreover the general atmosphere of this mess is slow. At the moment all the correspondents are spine bashing. Apparently there is bugger all for them to find in the way of news with the exception of raids. Now that would be exciting if I didn’t catch a bomb. And the food up here is bloody awful. Margarine, dried eggs, macaroni pudding, stewed tea & leathered meat. That wouldn’t be so bad if the cook thought of something besides going on leave. Believe you me, I’ve been criminally spoilt.

On the beach again yesterday¹. Water really wonderful – the sunshine and Freds bountiful. I’m losing the lolly pink – changing chameleon like into tiger stripes owing to a little semi spine bashing of my own the other day. Curled up in a deck chair & came to with pink bands across my belly skin where the creases between folds of fat had been retained it lily white line. Got sunburnt on the flat yesterday – result – pink & brown now instead of original barber’s pole style. Nerves not much better – worry a bit about the job as I don’t know how I can remember all the different colour & tones of the scenes I have ideas of portraying. Most of the stuff I want to get down is of the rapid impression type –Much too quick even to get the drawing let alone tone, etc. The only painting I do is to note down appropriate backgrounds & incidentals to the job. Have written these blue lines while waiting for a haircut in a military camp.

He’s a hell of a little barber about as short & thick as a fart. An ex-ladies’ hairdresser from Farmers, or, some say Borrowmans – anyway he cuts a pretty hair. The charge is 1/- of which he gets 6^d & his unit comforts fund 6^d. You sit on a sawn off log in a parlour of the most delicate hessian. Whilst outside in the ante-room grim faced & spare witted troops purse lips and pen handle heads in the agonising concentration of writing the dear ones at home. I draw. Somebody asks how to spell Americans. I oblige.

Have returned to Happy Messy. This mail is due to go off in 10 minutes. So lots of love dear & keep on writing even if it kills you. Won’t be very long before I see you again. Thanks for the lipstick – tasted good. Love

Bill.

The Australian Women’s Weekly, 29 July 1944

Reading and writing letters whilst waiting for a haircut

Notes:

1
Most likely Mindil Beach

July 31, 2023August 11, 2023

War Letters – NW Australia: 31 Jul 1943, Adelaide River; Formal mess at the field hospital

W.E.Pidgeon
C/O DPR
APO Darwin

Sat. morning
[31 Jul 1943]

Darling,

I wish you were here to smother me. I’m not so damn hot this, for others, gay & cheerful morning. Some wild men from the hospital fixed me up last night. My dearest wish is that they suffer with me.

After being about the hospital grounds for three days I was invited to attend their formal mess. On these occasions there is supposed to be a little ceremony attached to the business of eating. In this case it was pretty free the only formality being the smart (but not from me) standing to attention & drinking the King’s health. The port was passed – somehow or other – due either to the shortage of decanters or the shape of the table – the grog was passed the wrong way round. Previous to going over the beer ration arrived & rather than pass it by I downed the bottle with great expediency (you wouldn’t know him). Vic Bitter it were & booful cold. Had a coupla gins before dinner, then the port & back to gin after the meal. Managed to do myself up fairly nicely with 3 majors. I repeat, I am not so hot. Hangovers in hot weather are not recommended.

Am going back to the home town today. It will be a hellova treat to get some clean clothes & a spot of spine-bashing. (Why lying down on bed is called spine-bashing is beyond me.) Darling, I love you. Our old friends from Admiralty House are due up here any tick of the clock. I will not be calling on them. May leave my card though. I don’t seem to be getting through the work very rapidly. Hope to start on the air force next week. Miss you a lot. Am working diligently when hangovers are not on deck. It is bloody hot work standing at an easel during the day. I should imagine I have lost quite a bit of weight what with the sweating & lousy sleeping.

Big wedding on at Darwin this afternoon. One of the doctors going off with a sister.

Am looking forward to your letters. Quite an event to return to Correspondents’ mess & receive my mail. Forgive me, dear, not writing more at the moment. I really am very faint. The old blood pressure wouldn’t squash a fly. – Plenty of love to you darling from little Willie.

Love to Mum & Dad. Hope they got my telegram on the right day.¹

Notes:

1
Jess’s father, George Alexander Graham celebrated his 79th birthday on Sunday, August 1, 1943