The next letter comes from Ayrshire. David probably travelled there in Oct/Nov 1942 before going off to the States to pick up LHS 195. The departure for States was from Greenock so it seems likely he went to HMS Dundonald – where Combined Ops trained – before leaving. While this letter isn't dated, context suggests its a second trip to Scotland rather than his first. FX 83787
Mess Gym 1 RN Wing HMS Dundonald Troon Ayrshire Dear Mother, Well once again I’m somewhere else. The journey up here about puts the lid on all my woes. The camp looks OK but as I’ve only been in it two hours I can’t tell you much about it. Last night, while in London I scratched out the postcard, which no dought you have had by now. I might get some leave here, if little lady luck’s with me . We get weekends, but they are not much good as by the time I’d get home I would have to start back. I had a date yesterday afternoon over in Portsmouth and just as I was getting ready in the morning, they popped this onto me (nobody seems to have any sense of respectable ways of living in this mob. No sooner we seem to get anywhere, off we go again) so the date was off. As soon as I get this note off I’m getting my head down as I got no sleep last night. We have three nights ashore and one duty night in four. This is better than Calshot as I had to be duty every other night there. I feel right down in the dumps and will for a couple of days yet. Some dirty swine swiped my pay last night, out of my belt in the train while I was asleep, so I’ve five bob to last a fortnight on. Don’t let this worry you, as there’s not much to spend it on. But its just the fact of a fortnight’s work for nought. Some blokes are so low, they would nock your soul of if they could. The dinner to day was alright, as it could be, hot that’s the most important thing, with plenty of good hot soup. Drop me a line if you can when this reaches you as I would like to find out how long it takes to get down to London. It’s rather flat just here, for Scotland, but we saw some super country this morning, on the train. Well cheerio and all my love to you and the family, I must finis now as I’m dropping off to sleep over the pen cheerio David |
David SaundersBorn July 31st 1923 Topics
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