{"id":3294,"date":"2024-01-27T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T23:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=3294"},"modified":"2024-01-16T14:26:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T03:26:29","slug":"war-letters-new-guinea-27-jan-1944-scarlett-beach-casualty-clearing-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wepidgeon.com\/pidgeonpost\/?p=3294","title":{"rendered":"War Letters – New Guinea: 27 Jan 1944, Finschhafen; Scarlet Beach and an afternoon swim"},"content":{"rendered":"
W.E. Pidgeon \nC\/O P.R. Unit \nN. G. Forces \nMoresby<\/p>\n
Thurs 27th<\/sup> Jan [1944]<\/p>\n
Darling,<\/p>\n
Am writing by a 1 candle power lamp which as the mood suits the letter may be changed to cast either red, green or white light.\u00a0 Green is the color called for but unfortunately its illuminative qualities are quite on the blink.<\/p>\n
Red is not helpful.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Roy H is under his mosquito net growling about things in general and about the job he is on in particular.\u00a0 He has to reconstruct a beach landing made here a couple of months ago. Not the best of jobs in the world with the extremely limited facilities available.\u00a0 He has just yelled out his regards to you.\u00a0 Alice comes in for a lit of cracks \u2013 appears she had all sorts of affairs.\u00a0 Roy laughs a lot about it all.\u00a0 Says she is stinking to the girl he now takes out.<\/p>\n
Today is about the first time I have felt human since I arrived.\u00a0 Possibly because I have done a bit of modest work and am settled down for a few days.\u00a0 Am going round to the Casualty Clearing Station to see if there is anything of interest for the Weekly.\u00a0 Should be because the nurses there are closer to the front lines than any others.\u00a0 Did I tell you I travelled from Moresby in the plane with them?\u00a0 Fifteen there were, and no beauties amongst them.\u00a0 After that off to the Ramu Valley.<\/p>\nSketch study for ‘Barges and Swimmers’ depicting Australian troops sun bathing and swimming off two wrecked Japanese barges at Scarlet Beach near Finschhafen, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We had a swim this afternoon \u2013 it was delightful.\u00a0 Crystal water \u2013 cool, refreshing.\u00a0 Bombers going Japwards overhead.\u00a0 Lots of lads in the water & on the beach. We\u2019re getting pretty sick of the sight of bare bums & privates.<\/p>\nBarges and Swimmers – Depicting Australian troops sun bathing and swimming off two wrecked Japanese barges at Scarlet Beach near Finschhafen, New Guinea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCensorship Pass Expires 2\/12\/43. Passed by Operational Censor. Photo No. 16063. Issued by Department of Information, Commonwealth of Australia. New Guinea. Finschhafen Area. 37 dead Japanese were counted in these two wrecked barges at Scarlet Beach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Friday morning [28 Jan 1944]<\/p>\n
Disaster overtook this letter last night.\u00a0 Roy had borrowed this lamp I spoke of above from the Signallers \u2013 they implored him to look after it.\u00a0 At the above stage of my letter the bloody thing caught fire & I couldn\u2019t for the life of me blow it out.\u00a0 All my puffing & blowing served to feed the flames turning the whole gazaboo into the finest of blow lamps.\u00a0 The solder melted reflector and handle fell off \u2013 flaming kerosene spilled on Roy\u2019s drawing board \u2013 he was in a panic for his work \u2013 I was busy shovelling sand (rather mud) over the blaze.<\/p>\n
The lamps was a sorry sight.\u00a0 We laughed ourselves sick.\u00a0 Must have done me good for I slept till 6am.<\/p>\n
Lots of love darling \u2013 Taking it easy?<\/p>\n
Am going round to the Casualty Clearing Station to see if there is anything of interest for the Weekly. Should be because the nurses there are closer to the front lines than any others. Did I tell you I travelled from Moresby in the plane with them? Fifteen there were, and no beauties amongst them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1656,62],"tags":[2198,2199,1785,1873,1786,136,1779,1790,65,1984,245],"class_list":["post-3294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-guinea-jan-feb-1944","category-war-letters","tag-80yearsago","tag-otd","tag-alice-hodgkinson","tag-casualty-clearing-station","tag-finschhafen","tag-new-guinea","tag-roy-hodgkinson","tag-scarlett-beach","tag-war-correspondent","tag-war-letters","tag-wep"],"yoast_head":"\n
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