Correspondence relating to William Dunstan, August - December 1945 - Part 1

BY AIR MAIL

AIR LETTER

IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED

THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT

BY ORDINARY MAIL

[*LONDON E C 
7 15PM
2 AUG
1945
B*]

Mr. W. Dunstan

The Melbourne Herald

44-74 Fleet Flinders St

Melbourne

Victoria

Australia

Sender's name and address.

W. Dunstan

85 Fleet St

London.

 

309493

Capt. W. Dunstan

C/O Melbourne Herald

85 Fleet St

London.

2 August.

My Dear Dad,

This is just a quick

note before I dash off to Birmingham 

with Bill Christie. Thanks for the

letters I received today, dated

26 & 27 July.  Keiths letter was very

interesting - He must be having a

lot of fun in Borneo.

I still don't know when or where

I am going. I won't find our

until I return to Woolwich on 

22 August. The unit is not

going - I have left them and will

be by myself. I go as a replacement

for some officer coming back here

so presumably I retain my rank.

The difference in pay between a

Lieut and Capt. is only about

2/- a day so I wouldn't lose
much in any case.

I am sorry Mum is disappointed

because I don't send anything but

I tried to get some stockings in 

Brussels last week. Price 1300

francs which is about £8 sterling

per pair and didn't look as good

as the 5/11 type one would buy in

Australia before the war. All the

perfume is only cheap stuff put up

in pretty bottles to sell to the troops

at exorbitant prices. However, I 

have picked up some white parachute

silk which I will give to one of 

the many people here to take

home for me. It could be used for

almost any purpose.

Curtis Wilson has taken a

pair of Ross binoculars home for

me. They ^are 7 x 50 AA glasses

which I have used for some time.

They are British army issue but

I got them from someone who

will never have come to use them

in this world again.

Des Con has the two German

 

pairs but he doesn't leave here

until the end of the month.

There are is a tremendous number of

Australians in London at present.

I don't know what they are all

doing. I tried to fly to Australia

and back on this leave but was

informed that fthe fare was 

about £780 return so I didn't

worry about it after that.

Most of the RAAF here have been

given unlimited leave - a large

number of them are working in

breweries !! They are all fed

up with the air force and want

to get out.

Bill Christie has just arrived

in his usual hurry so I must

be off.

Lots of love,

Bill

44 Flinders Street, Melbourne.

August 4, 1945

Dear Bill,

I think I'm getting in a letter to you at

least once a week these days, but the weeks seem to fly

by so quickly I cannot keep count. All I seem to do is

work at intense concentration throughout the day and

often at night, get fairly late to bed and repeat the

same old programme ad nauseum. Saturday afternoons

a quick game of golf and Sundays doing the chores at home

and it's Monday before I know it and the programme

repeats.

Things are much the same as when I last wrote.

That is, at home.  All pretty well. I've been

sending Keith's letters on to you, so you know as much

from that source as I do.

Cables from Trevor Smith report - first, the

family had sailed and then because of engine trouble or

some other cause, they were back in England with no home

and probably delayed a couple of weeks. Very disappointing
for them.

Letter from Syd Rowell in which he said he hoped

to see you again and did I realize that by the time you

got home you would be able to sport six campaign ribbons,

that is, if you got to Burma as well. I hope you

won't be too modest to wear them. You've got to give

your parents some kick out of all your movements. There

are so many about us the was hasn't touched that at least

we must get this bit, even if it appears vanity to you.

Anyway, officers have to set an example.

Doug Wilkie's London Roundabout in the Herald

last Monday (July 30th) contained this ---

"DOING WELL -

"An Australian gunnery officer attached to the

British forces, just back on leave from Germany,

tells me that all the beer and skittles are not

confined to Potsdam.

"His unit, stationed in the lovely Harz mountains,

enjoys plenty of swimming, trout fishing and deer

stalking. 'The deer are a little tough, but all

right when soaked in burgundy', he said.

"I was almost glad to hear that the first breakfast
served him at a West End hotel was - bully

beef and weak tea"

I wonder - could that refer to you?

Letters from Jim Edwards, Surrey Dane, Gracie

Smith and others keep coming along, all saying how glad

they were to welcome you. All good morale stuff for

your Mother.

We are having a surfeit of Doris lately,

though don't mention when writing. John is in the

five-year class. Will he get his discharge or won't he?

P.T.O.

 

2.

The tide ebbs and flows and emotions too. She is

hard to bear. I can't even reason with her. She 

ought to have more sense and balance at her age. I'm

afraid she deludes herself 90% of the time. Officers

taking their discharge, do so voluntarily and I doubt

if John - with an M.C. and bar - will volunteer,

particularly as the Stock Exchange is still dormant.

George Caro is in Windarra Hospital with

pneumonia and a touch of pleurisy. You might tell

Jim when you see him. I think he is pretty sick. He

went in only Wednesday night last so there's not much

information. I saw him on Wednesday and thought he

didn't look too good.

No letters from you this week, so there's

nothing to answer. I rang up Des Cox's wife and

she said she had heard from Des in Norway. She

reports she is well if you see Des.

Letter from Alan Douglas reports they expect

to see action any day now and morale considerably up.

I hope they are not again disappointed.

CONTINUED - PART II

 

PART II
August 4, 1945

News through about Potsday yesterday. Nothing

sensational and Uncle Joe Stalin still holding off Japan.

This is sure to be a black mark in many quarters.

However, it can only be a matter of time now, but

consensus of opinion is that a landing will have to be

made on the Japanese Homeland before capitulation  is

likely. Next moves in Burma and Malaya must be very

interesting.

Regards to all my friends that you meet.
Be sure to remember George Goyder.

Take care of yourself.  Do you need any

money?

Fondest Love

 

August 7, 1945.

Dear Bill,

Two letters to-day - though short ones -

written from Antwerp.

I write in haste and in the hope of getting

in our Lancastrian mail pouch, to suggest that if you

have the option of going to Scotland fishing with Ronnie

Payne, you should take this in preferences to spending a

golfing holiday with Jim. You can see Jim often

enough, but you'll probably never again have the opportunity
of whipping a Scottish trout stream. I wonder

you hesitate. That's a treat never to be missed and

it also may be the last time you will see Major Payne.

Wasn't he the friend who secured you such a good time in 

Paris? Also it's a good idea to see how other people

live and learn something from the astonishing quality of

their hospitality.

Your trip to the Harz mountains must have

been enjoyable. Half your luck. I'd give an arm

or a let - certainly my dud eye - to do a few of the

things you have been able to do. Of course you know

you are getting all your rewards and memories in advance

and I must sound the paternal warning that you have to

earn them by working all the harder when you settle down.

So make the best and most of it.

Your news of Germany is not surprising.

Reading between the lines in reports from inside, it is

impossible for any intelligent person to believe this is

the last war. But to-day comes the news of an atomic

bomb dropped on Japan. Probably the greatest news the

world has ever been told. It's stupendous.  To

any scientist of any imagination at all it's the biggest

thing in the history of the world. This may be the

answer to war - making it too costly. It may also

mean the commencement of the destruction of civilization.

It's as big as that. A cup of water holds enough

atomic energy to drive the Queen Mary seven times round

the world. A lead pencil enough to generate all the

power required for Melbourne for thirty years. This

bomb was one-tenth the size of a 12,000 pounder with

2,000 times the blast. It's unimaginable. If the

/atom

 

2.

August 7, 1945

atom can be harnessed in this way it's only a matter of 

time when a tablet as big as an aspirin will drive a car

for ten years without refuelling. What next!

We are all well, but it's still cold and damp.

Letters from Keith are cheery and he seems to

be doing very well. Reported in last night's Herald by

A. V. M. Bostock that Labuan, where Keith holds his sway,

will be one of the main assault points for N.E.I. and

Malaya, so he should be busy.

Ray Spargo is home and has become engaged

after a couple of days. Quick work. The lass is in

the same rehabilitation school as Helen. She was

bridesmaid at Joan Spargo's wedding.

This is all the news.

Love from us all.

 

309493, CAPTAIN W. DUNSTAN

C/O Melbourne Herald Cable Service

85 Fleet Street, LONDON

August 3th. 1945.

My dear Mum,

I arrived back from Birmingham yesterday morning 

after a very pleasant, if rather "fluid" five days. Bill

Christie is good company on a trip like that and we really

enjoyed ourselves.

The "Brig's" friend "Blue" Archdale is a

Director of a machine tool works there and he looked after us

very well, showed us round the town and introduced us to a

lot of his friends.

I suppose you have been to Birmingham before,

but I thought it was just like London on a rather smaller

scale, except for the surrounding country which was very

beautiful. One of "Blue's" friends, Arthur Hollings, had

a car with plenty of petrol and drove us nearly 200 miles one

day right through Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire,
stopping at the odd little country pub for a meal or a

drink. We visited Stratford-on-Avon and saw all the

famous Shakespearian relics.

We also visited some old chap who has an

ancient manor house new Alcester - a remarkable old place,

the foundations of which were laid in 702. I would love 

to have stayed there for days.

We caught the train back to London at 1 a.m.

yesterday morning. I have never had a more unpleasant trip.

The train was packed like a can of sardines and the only place

to sit was on an overcoat spread on a square yard of the 

corridor.

I was shocked to hear of the news about Uncle

Stan. It must have been very sudden and must be causing

Dad a lot of worry.  I will write to Aunt Annie this week.

I am not certain of my immediate plans for leave

but I may go to Eastbourne with Dec Cox this week and to

Preston with Jim Edwards next week. The trains are so crowded

now that travelling is most unpleasant.

I am giving Bill Christie some stuff to take home

for you - just a few lengths of silk and a piece of parachute

which may come in handy. I will write again in a day or two.

Lots of love to all -

BILL

P.S. Three parcels this week!

 

309493, CAPTAIN W. DUNSTAN

care Melbourne Herald Cable Service

85 Fleet Street, London

August 17, 1945

My dear Dad and Mum,

I am writing this letter after a week of V.

celebrations. As soon as the atom bombs were dropped Hugh

Syme started to beat the place up to a certain extent. Last

Sunday I poured him into the plane after a rather riotous week-

end.

I then went to Eastbourne with Des Cox for a

few days. I had a wonderful time there and was sorry to

have to come back here. There are very few Australians left

there now, but I met several chaps who were at school with me

seven or eight years ago -- a good reason for celebration,

particularly as the two days I spent there were the holidays

to celebrate peace.

The end of the war came very suddenly and I

don't quite know what is going to happen to me. Of course,

my main idea is to get out of the Army as quickly as possible 

and do some work for a change. I am so homesick and fed up

with doing nothing that I almost feel like saying "damn the

Army" and coming home under my own steam.

Last night I went to the Savoy to Jim Edwards'

cocktail party which he gave to introduce an American engineer

named Worthington, to the London press people. Norman

McKinnell was there, also Eric Kennedy, Nesbitt, Charle

Baumgartner (who I think is a very nice bloke), Ken James who

met you in Australia about ten years ago, and many others of

your London friends. When I hear some of the things these

people say about my parents I am very proud of them indeed.

Saw Erl Gray last night.  He is a very good

bloke and I am glad he is going back to the Herald.

asked him to get you some silk stockings in South Africa,

Mum, if they aren't too expensive.

I must dash off now, but I shall try to give

some more news tomorrow morning.

Your very loving SON.