It is difficult to date David's letters from 1942, but the August Chatham letters suggest he was going to Scotland and the letter from Dunoon is the most likely destination at this time. I think that he left Chatham around 21st August. He may have spent 4-6 weeks at Brontosaurus (CO training seemed to have been around that amount of time) which would make his return to Calshot around the end of September/early Occtober. The letter says 'it's been raining for the last 3 weeks' But this may be the 3 weeks before he got there, rather than it's taken 3 weeks for him to write home. H.M.S. Brontosaurus was at Castle Toward, and it seems David was doing training at No2 Combined Operations here. This picture looks plush, and his descriptions of the 'camp around' means where he stayed probably looked more like the image below (which is another training establishment nearby). As to the kind of training, that's also suggested by images below. This is from the time before David was assigned to LCI 185, which then was reassigned as LCH 185 in 1944. [these images are sourced from www.combinedops.com which is a mine of information] FX 83787 Mess 21 HMS Brontosaurus RN Wing Nr Dunoon Scotland Dear Mother Well it took me 23 ¼ hours to get up here and top this, its been raining for the last 3 weeks. What a hole. I slept in the guards van all the way up and had breakfast in Glasgow at about 6am. The three cars on the train where the only passenger cars, all the rest was mail vans. Well it’s like a muddy edition of hell up here. Not a house for miles and hills all around They are covered with clouds on top, so you can tell how high they are. The grub’s good and we have to live in tin huts. The huts are in the grounds of a big castle. It’s a beautiful place but spoiled by the camp around it. I don’t think we are up here for long and when I leave here I hope to get some leave. Every body talks Scottish up here, and I can’t understand half they say. I darn’t say a word against Scotland, as they are on my neck in a moment. When I arrived at Glasgow I asked a railway porter if this was Scotland, he replied by saying ‘I, och, I, it’s a bony country, but it’s a think I dener ken to spik aboot to ye heathens’ Even the (paids?) speak the same. When we arrived at blank station from Glasgow we had to cross the water on a blankety ferry, getting soaked to the skin. Loading the kit on a kit bag fell in the water. Two of the lads had to fall in, while trying to get it out, therefore nearly drowning themselves. I had the pleasure in pulling one of them out with a boat hook. When we reached the side, a three mile walk with our kit confronted us, so you know what it felt like.
But one thing I am pleased about is that we have the ATS in the camp. While I’ve been writing two of the lads have been trying to light a fire. They have been at it for a solid hour and yet its not alight yet. Well there’s nothing to go out for of an evening so it looks as if I will have to stay in. this won’t bother me. We started on the job right away now. There’s no hanging around up here thank you. There seems nothing more to write about now so I’ll say cheerio. All my love to you and Izzy and the rest. David |
David SaundersBorn July 31st 1923 Topics
All
|