Table Tops Archives - Pidgeon Post

W.E. Pidgeon
C/o P.R. Unit
7 Murray St.
Stanton Hill
Townsville

Thurs. 10^th[10 February 1944]

Darling,

As you can see by the letter head I am back on the mainland, killing time while I wait for transport up to Cairns.¹ In all probability I shall be home in a week’s time. Have a nice steak in the house – and a cold bottle of course.

Will you please send me a page, or about 20 clothing coupons. Do not send the book as the Officer’s shop will accept loose coupons. I want to buy a pair of shoes they are very good and only 25/-. Post them as soon as you get this letter for I shall only be about 3 or 4 days up north. Shall then try and get home on the flying boat which gets to Sydney about 5 o’clock which, I hope, will just give us time to dash off a quick one at Coy’s.²

How are all the parlour geese there? Can Molly³ get through the swing doors now? Got any home brew?

Had a fine trip down from the island. Left at four on a slightly cloudy but moonlight morning and arrived here at 7.30 am. That’s good going. The dawn was really magnificent coming on while we were flying above the great cumulus clouds. The effect was brilliantly violent. It was a Superman sunrise.

Have struck Bill Marien⁴, who, by the way, is married to that girl and has a kid about 18 month’s old. We had dinner at the Officer’s Club⁵ and a quantity to drink. It affected me poorly and I am now happily feeling the retirement of the ragged hangover that accompanied my awakening. The rest of my time has been spent dismally sitting on my bum and gloomily reading old Lifes, Reader’s Digests, Mans and other sundry publications.

Have just heard that I will be moving off tomorrow.

If you happen to be going to town will you pop into Moore’s Bookshop next the Criterion Hotel and ask if they have a copy of the cheap edition of Laurence’s (sic)⁶ Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Also can you get me, at any bookstore a copy of Cleanliness and Godliness by Reginald Reynolds?

Have only had one letter from you so that if you have happened to send others I must presume their demise in the Jungle Hells of NG.

Nothing else of interest at the moment. So accept my utmost adoration. Your devoted willie.

[It is most probable that Bill visited the Atherton Tablelands on Saturday, February 12 where he sketched several men who had recently been awarded the Military Medal. They were Sgt Wyatt, Sgt. Marney and Pte. N. Blundell.⁷ Afterwards Wep hitched a ride with Major C.H. Cheong, editor of the Army newspaper ‘Table Tops’ who drove him to Cairns. It is estimated that he made it home by Thursday, 17 February 1944.]

Notes:

1
Permission had been granted for Wep to travel to the Atherton Tableland where he would make some sketches of several recipients of the Military Medal
2
Harold and Bassie Coy ran the Hotel Hunters Hill, a favoured drinking spot of Wep and Jess.
3
Molly Turton
4
Bill Marien was a former colleague of Wep’s at the Daily Telegraph and was now an Official War Correspondent working for the ABC.
5
Hotel Seaview on The Strand
6
T.E. Lawrence
7
Details of the incidents that earned these men the MM are available from James Parker’s site, Teller of Yarns – William Edwin Pidgeon: Sketching Battles of WWII. (2024, January 19). Retrieved from https://www.tellerofyarns.com/post/william-edwin-pidgeon-sketching-battles-of-wwii

Write to

W.E. Pidgeon

War Correspondent

Public Relations

1^st Aust Corps

Thursday 10.15 am

[19 Jul 1945]

Am bored to tears – am uncomfortably curled up (one cannot stay reclined) on a pile of mail bags – and am hanging about 8000 ft above an awful lot of ocean about half way between Morotai and Borneo. We left the island at 7 am this morning and will not land at Brunei until somewhere near (censored) – It’s a helluva long way to fly. All around is a vast hazy world of blue – the horizon is indistinguishable but you guess it is out where the blues change tone. Above us long fingers of cloud point their stationery directions while below white balls like anti aircraft shell explosions spot the sea. It is cold too and I sit dismally wrapped round in a blanket. There are nine of us sprawled about half of them are either asleep or near it. I’ve been pushed off to Brunei first because accommodation at Balik Papan is limited – There will be no need for you to worry about me copping anything as I understand that we have gained all objectives and are now content just to hold them. Could go a cuppa or a feed right now with certain relish. I don’t know why they always like to get you up at 4.30 am to catch planes that never leave (censored) or 7. It means a lousy nights sleep and a stupid wakening – no tea and no grub till we land. Is that good or bad?

The cigarette position is grim. They are rationed and the issue is 2 ozs tobacco and 30 or 40 cigs per week. I did manage to come by one carton of yank fags but these boys have woken up to their exploitation by the Australians – so they now charge 5 guilders a carton i.e. 16/8 Australian.

Morotai: mobile printing press for publishing the Army newspaper Table Tops

Night before last I had been trying to do a bit of work about the mobile printing press the Army newspaper is produced on. Unfortunately I decided on my return to the camp at 11 pm to call into the Public Relations tent & was inveighed into a game of poker – at 3.10 am I was only just awake & down 8 or 9 guilders when to my great good fortune an air raid alert was sounded & the lights had to go out. The game was abandoned & I trotted off to a much needed bed. The alert was a phony but it helped save poor Will from greater disasters. Enough of this for the moment – I need to rest.

Arrived safely at Labuan. Am with Cliff Eager, Alan Dawes, Jimmy Smyth & Noel Adams. Mail is leaving now will write tonight.

Lots of love to you and bub.

Bill