Diary of George Loughlin Blore - October 1940 - September 1941 - Part 2

Wrote to Jean

30.1.41

Leave cancelled at present owing

to A.W.L s what rotten

luck & what a system, I'm

fed up at present.

recollect

wrote to

home on 8^th Feb

Leave period from 4 PM

FRIDAY TO

MON. MIDNIGHT

4.2.41

Just back from a glorious

3½ days leave, every

minute crammed as one

can imagine 3½ days would

be. Firstly I visited 

M the Terrys at Red hill

staying overnight, then

catching an early train

next morning to London Bridge

Croydon, where I met a

very nice chap who

happened to be one of the

chief ticket inspectors for

the Southern railways, he

took me round about croydon

& showed me most of the

interesting places including

the cathedral,

very like St Paul's Melb,

leaving me at the station

he gave me his address

asking me to call

any time I was down

that way.

Reaching London I visited

St Pauls, what a miracle

indeed, fires on either

side & yet untouched.

gutted out buildings

yet there it stood,

symbolical of London &

its people I think.

Went to Euston where I

entrained for Coventry

reaching Kenilworth

at about 6 P.M.

where I gave Dick a big 

surprise

Next day we, that is the

Farrars & myself, drove

round Coventry where

I saw how greatly the

town had suffered

miles of buildings gutted

out by fire, high explosive 

& blast, the whole town

in the centre is gone.

& the outskirts have

suffered very heavily.

Mr  Wendel Wilkie was 

also there on Sun.

Drove back to the balloon

site where Dick is stationed

& went in to see how

the balloon is sent up &

controlled, it was just

going up as I get there.

looking very elephantine

in its ungainly strainings

at the base.

Next morning entrained

for Euston where I rang

Mrs Lambert who

asked me if I would

care to come with her

to the FORUM club

at No 6 Grosvenor Place

to hear Mr Morrison Healy

the B.B.C. man.

so of course I went

had dinner with

Mrs Lambert & proceeded

to the talk upstairs

afterwards about 70 people

I st would say were

present.

Altogether, the talk was 

so very interesting &

common sense was its

main point, the theme

being invasion.

After the talk I was amongst

others, introduced to 

Princess Marie-Louis

the kings sister? whom

I chatted with for 5 or 10 minutes.

She is very nice & certainly

frank enough on any

subject which she chooses

to enlarge upon.

Mrs L Received quite a

few invitations to different

homes, Mrs Lambert was 

kind enough to

drive me thru the 

main portion of London

where I saw the damage

done here & there.

Its certainly enough!

Well I xx very reluctantly

proceeded to Waterloo

catching a train home

to Milford.

very packed & interesting

time this 3½ days

8.2.41

Wrote to Jean 

21.2.41

At long last things are

happening, we shall soon be

on the move, wards are

being cleared out, beds

packed & taken away, stores

packed & branded & now

begins as usual the

fertile crop of rumors

wrote to Miss Carleton 21.2.41

also Mrs Mason

also to Jean

also to  home

which inevetably accompany

a move

Rumors up to date include.

Singapore, back to Aust to reorganize

Capetown, Rhodesia,

Kenya, Uganda, the east,

& Turkey or Greece quite a

fair range evidently!

4.2.41

Went to Bagshot today with

Bill Bolton, Bob Webster,

Wally Hennings, Jack Prowse,

the C.O. & Major Coburn,

to act as ambulance stretcher bearers,

in case of emergency

during manoeuvres of

the [P] unit, a

very special unit connected

with, or are themselves

headquarters, the phantoms,

they are called, nobody

knows much about

them or what they do,

except that quite a number

of officers are titled men

& very high up in military

& political circles.

To show how hard it

is to get into this

unit, out of 40 applicants

only 2 got in 38 were

rejected.

They do reconnaissance

work in & near the enemy's

lines in case of invasion.

I believe also other things,

& so much depends

on their information.

We had only one casualty

during xxx the day chap came off &

finished up with a

fractured arm we

sent him down to hospital

in our ambulance.

Its a very rough test, 15 miles

of it over all the worst

types of xxxxx country

imaginable

we enjoyed every minute

of it I took about

5 photos, hope they come out,

then later we

enjoyed a ride in a Bren

gun carrier, most enjoyable

fast & pitching & rocking

all the time

9.3.41

Went out at 10' o clock this 

morning in order to spend

the day taking photos.

A perfect day for photography

up to 11 o clock

then a fog came over

& blotted out everything.

Went to the Busbridge

Church of England for the

first time morning service.

10.3.41

Orders were issued today

re the packing of our kits

sea kits & packs.

Must get all the photos I can

while we still have a 

few days left

11.3.41 wrote to home 

& Jean

11.3.41

Friday 14.3.41

Obtained leave from 8 o clock

in the morning, went

to Reading by train,

first visiting Guildford.

Good day for photography,

manage to get a few

snaps of Reading & the Thames

also. Visited Boshiers in

the evening

Mr Menzies

visited us today

Sat 15.3.41

Went to see the Great dictator at

the "regal" Godalming last home

in England soon.

Sun 16.3.41

Moved off today from Milford

3^rd A.G.H. sanatorium.

for the last time, goodbye England,

for a happy 9 months,

amidst many good friends.

I shall always remember

to this period of my life

spent here, we had

beautiful surroundings

2 towns fairly close & leave

every evening & weekend. 

Train to Scotland via,

Reading, Leister York,

Newcastle, Edinburgh &

Glasgow, slept in the

train all night,

arriving at 8 o clock after

a journey of 21 hours in

the train.

17.3.41

We are now on the "Stratheden"

on a journey to an unknown

destination, so far,

the old "Canada" is in the

convoy again, also the

Strathnaver.

We are, at present anyway,

stationed on E deck,

in a jolly nice cabin 3 berth,

Had a look around after tea,

2 anti aircraft guns mounted

forward the latest pattern

160 rounds a minute.

(in theory,) usually a little less

than that except for crack

gun crews.

 

18.3.41

Not allowed ashore

unfortunately, which means

I shall not see much of 

Scotland after all though

we landed here first &

depart from it also.

19.3.41 wrote to Herb

Still in port, the rest

of our unit came on today.

making nearly 3,500

troops on board.

100 of our Chichester depot

walked off today, the

English M.P.s were

sent off in hundreds

after them.

wrote to Helen

20.3.41

Rose at 9.30, this har is

the 3^rd time we have arisen

at that hour so far

we have done nothing

except eat & drink.

Discovered a poem in Palgraves

Golden treasury which appealed

to me very much.

21.3.41

PH 5.

Saw a submarine close

in to us passing seaward

also several corvettes,

doubtless to clear the way

for us.

The gulls here are funny, when

sitting on the water they all face

the same way, when bread 

is thrown over, They wait

till it softens, then swallow

it

23.3.41

The troops are certainly overcrowded

on board this boat, soldiers

being jammed below in hundreds

& using their sleeping quarters

as their messing stations as

well, I though I notice that

the officers, as usual have the

best of everything, a good lounge

food & accomadation.

24.3.41

Still in the Firth of Clyde,

I should think that tomorrow we

will pull out. Spent the

evening on deck after supper

watching the boats riding at 

anchor & the searchlights across

the boom Curly Lean & I

had a long conversation

mostly on religion

Pulled out tonight

at 10 o'clock

27.3.41

For the last 3 days we have been

travelling out towards America,

though early today we

turned south down towards

Africa, included in this

convoy are the Andes,

Empress of Canada, Strathnaver

Louis Pasteur a new french

boat capable of high speed

about 35 knots I believe,

Warwick castle, Stirling castle,

Stratheden,(our boat)

Strathmore  Strathallen

Irion, Glenorchy Orantes,

& others the names of which

I don't know yet & a fairly

strong escort I believe

1 battleship & 1 battle cruiser are

cruising alongside us not

far distant, the Nelson

is the battleship, other

one I do not know.

Tonight I listened to a

concert on deck with

the Tommies they have

great talent in their

midst.

29.3.41

Weather very mild, tending

to be sultry, overcoats

discarded now, passed

islands midday to our

west, probably the "Azores".

This evening witnessed a good

display of skilful fencing,

it was well worth watching

I should like to take it

up again myself.

30.3.41

Calm & warm all day

so far have done no duties

since leaving the wharf

at Glasgow, still I suppose

it is too good to last.

A balmy breeze tonight

beautiful tropical nights now.

Concert on the boat deck

at x 6 o'clock, some good stuff

amongst the boys too.

31.3.41

Lazed on deck most of the

day, though after morning

parade we had some

P.T, for a while