{"id":2327,"date":"2023-08-17T18:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2023-08-17T10:11:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T00:11:34","slug":"war-letters-nw-australia-17-aug-1943-darwin-back-at-the-correspondents-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=2327","title":{"rendered":"War Letters – NW Australia: 17 Aug 1943, Darwin; Back at the Correspondents’ Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

W.E. Pidgeon
\nC\/O DPR Unit
\nAPO Darwin<\/p>\n

Tuesday 17th
\n<\/sup>[17 Aug 1943]<\/p>\n

Sweetheart,<\/p>\n

Am back in the correspondents\u2019 mess again.\u00a0 Arrived in this morning after a car trip of some 4 hours.\u00a0 The weather here is certainly to be preferred to that at the bomber strip1<\/a><\/sup>Fenton airfield<\/span> which I reckon must be the hottest blarsted spot in the whole N.T.\u00a0 Think I might have got a touch of the sun yesterday after setting out in the middle of a glaring road with no shirt on.\u00a0 Felt quite sick after \u00bd hour or so although I didn\u2019t get burnt much.\u00a0 Possibly the glare of white paper with the sun shining on it may have been responsible.\u00a0 Anyway, I up & left.\u00a0 One of the yank officers reckoned I must have been a bit troppo to pick the spot in the first place what with the heat & thundering great trucks raising all smothering dust within 20 yards of me, etc.<\/p>\n

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At a water hole on a dusty Northern Territory road near USAAF camp, Fenton Airfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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At a water hole on a dusty Northern Territory road near USAAF camp, Fenton Airfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Trucks parked at a water hole on a dusty Northern Territory road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Study for Smok – Transport men are seen at a halting place near a waterhole on one of the winding, dusty roads of the Northern Territory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Smoko – Transport men are seen at a halting place near a waterhole on one of the winding, dusty roads of the Northern Territory.” – the Australian Women\u2019s Weekly, 26 Feb 1944, p9<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working out of doors in the middle of the day knocks you up alright.\u00a0 I feel positively exhilarated at the prospect of the cool Sydney spring.\u00a0 We\u2019ll go out places together \u2013 eh?\u00a0 I\u2019m practically certain to be down before your birthday.\u00a0 If I get transport accommodation OK.\u00a0 So when you get a telegram from me you\u2019ll know to meet me at Rose Bay.2<\/a><\/sup>Arriving via sea plane<\/span>\u00a0 I\u2019ll be looking for you \u2013 save up some juice.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be able to tell you much in the telegram I shall send when I leave \u2013 It will be up to you to find out time of my arrival.\u00a0 Put some beer in the frige for us.\u00a0 Which reminds me to tell you I am happily having my weekly bottle at the very moment.\u00a0 It\u2019s extremely good & most welcome as I have just finished doing the weeks washing & ironing 3 shirts 3 pants, handkerchiefs, underpants socks & towel.\u00a0 It\u2019s hot work in these h\u2019yar parts.\u00a0 The weather is getting warmer as the wet season approaches.\u00a0 Blarsted flies are banging about too \u2013 damn their wings.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about me drinking a lot.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t that much here!\u00a0 Even a few knocks everyone and I haven\u2019t had more than 4 real hangovers in 6 weeks.\u00a0 I don\u2019t suppose I have lost much weight really. Although one sweats to a prodigious extent water is consumed in replaceable quantities.<\/p>\n

Have now taken up my pew in the sunshine as I must bring you back some visible indication of the tropics.\u00a0 One\u2019s colour is said to disappear very quickly so I shall devote my last days here solely to the acquisition of a body tone you will really want to touch.\u00a0 Cunning little man!<\/p>\n

Have also switched radio on and am listening to short wave transmission from the eastern states \u2013 whether Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane I, as yet, don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Ah me \u2013 how I am suffering.<\/p>\n

Have just heard it was from Sydney.<\/p>\n

Am becoming quite benign in all my attitudes \u2013 the bottle is practically empty.\u00a0 My good intentions of a long letter weaken \u2013 my sole desire at the moment is to sit by radio and dream happily & nebulously about you.\u00a0 With the pilots I say \u201cI\u2019ve had this place\u201d \u2013 but also I say \u2013 \u201cI want to have you\u201d<\/p>\n

A week today to the 24th<\/sup>. Oh dear! I wish I could buy you something!\u00a0 Some little permanent thing we could keep for remembrance of our tenth.\u00a0 After all it\u2019s quite a while.\u00a0 If you should see anything buy it for me to you.\u00a0 Up the clothes, I\u2019ll buy them for you anyway.\u00a0 But I guess there is nothing left about anywhere.\u00a0 Maybe King in his second hand snoopings will see something.\u00a0 However don\u2019t worry pet, about it \u2013 one day I\u2019ll find something.\u00a0 Your best present to me will be to look your prettiest & to be ever so pleased about my being back.\u00a0 I think of you such a hell of a lot now.\u00a0 Seems as if I\u2019m back at the going out to Brighton stage in my love life.\u00a0 High time I changed the record \u2013 playing this old lonely note doesn\u2019t help either of us much.<\/p>\n

You appear to be living an extremely quiet life.\u00a0 For goodness sake honey don\u2019t drive yourself nuts.\u00a0 I hope you are eating something substantial occasionally for there has to be something left for me to grab hold of.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just come back from the pictures \u2013 a waste of time sadly regretted \u2013 the Ritz Bros in \u201c3 Roaring Romeos\u201d3<\/a><\/sup>“3 Roaring Romeos<\/a>” (1939) was originally titled in the U.S.A. in 1939 as “The Three Musketeers” starring Don Ameche and The Ritz Brothers<\/span> \u2013 My God! What a show!<\/p>\n

Have plenty cigs for you.\u00a0 Looks almost as if I have been receiving stolen goods.<\/p>\n

I should be able to write you for hours tonight as I am (believe it or not) the only inmate at present incarcerated in the asylum.\u00a0 All the others are out on their job.\u00a0 There\u2019s been quite a bit of plane activity about here lately and they are covering all the news angles from the pilots, bombardiers & so on and so forth.\u00a0 3 of the fighter pilots I was staying with bagged a bird each.4<\/a><\/sup>2022 Cooper, Anthony; Darwin Spitfires; the real battle for Australia; “The triumph of 17 August”, pp477-486<\/span>\u00a0 Nice going.\u00a0 You\u2019ll read about it all in the papers before this letter reaches you.5<\/a><\/sup>1943 ‘AUSTRALIAN PLANES IN N.-WEST THRASH JAPS.’<\/a>,\u00a0The Courier-Mail\u00a0(Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 – 1954), 19 August, p. 3<\/span><\/p>\n

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This particular aircraft is believed to be the wreckage of Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II reconnaisaince plane #2237, shot down on the morning of August 17, 1943 near Fenton Airfield by Sqn Ldr Ken James of 457 Squadron. Wep most likely encountered the wreckage when departing Fenton to return to Darwin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This particular aircraft is believed to be the wreckage of Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II reconnaisaince plane #2237, shot down on the morning of August 17, 1943 near Fenton Airfield by Sqn Ldr Ken James of 457 Squadron. Wep most likely encountered the wreckage when departing Fenton to return to Darwin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Crashed Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II, NW Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Site of crashed Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II, NW Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Site of crashed Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II, NW Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Site of crashed Japanese Mitsubishi ‘Dinah’ Ki-46 II, NW Australia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wish I had our coleman stove \u2013 I\u2019d set down right now to hot toast & asparagus.\u00a0 As things are I would have to build a wood fire.\u00a0 That\u2019s too much.<\/p>\n

Still haven\u2019t any butter.\u00a0 Altogether I\u2019ve had it only a week & a half since arriving.\u00a0 Oh boy, will I make a hog of myself down south.<\/p>\n

Have just turned on short wave radio to some oriental station broadcasting some indescribably mournful dirge which suits my present mood like a tight collar.\u00a0 It\u2019s really wonderfully glum.\u00a0 One of these days I must get me a short wave set \u2013 an amazing variety of stuff comes over \u2013 surely sufficient to suit every mood.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still trying to make up my mind as to whether I should or should not, wolf the asparagus.\u00a0 The betting at the moment is two to one on that I do.\u00a0 May as well get something inside me \u2013 you can\u2019t tell but that the yellow men may not be over later tonight.\u00a0 The moon is still perfect \u2013 they have had time to rest their bomber crews after the last raid \u2013 and they a getting a bashing from the yanks here \u2013 which sort of thing tends to make them a little angry.\u00a0 Perhaps I should remain awake a while \u2013 with no one in the house I may stay asleep at the wrong moment.<\/p>\n

Only 14 or 15 days before I clear off.\u00a0 I\u2019m beginning to count them.\u00a0 I suppose you will too, now that I have told you what I hope to do.<\/p>\n

Asparagus is out in front turning into the straight \u2013 it\u2019s no race folk \u2013 Asparagus wins pulling up, 3 bellyfuls in front of Some Bread and NO Butter.<\/p>\n

So lots of love and kisses
\nfrom yours
\nas ever<\/p>\n

Freddie
\nXXX<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/h3>