Letter from Pat Hogan to his father
Title
Letter from Pat Hogan to his father
Description
Writes of his first impressions of England and conditions onboard the boat over the last week. Mentions journey to his current location in a former holiday resort which he describes. Catches up with family news and says he is looking forward to upcoming leave. Mentions an air raid alert.
Creator
Date
1944-03-17
Language
Format
Two page handwritten letter
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EHoganPJHoganDH440314
Transcription
229859
MR D. H. HOGAN
67 CHAPEL ST.,
BENDIGO
VICTORIA.
AUSTRALIA.
Sender’s Name and Address: AUS 436464 SGT HOGAN P.J AUSPO LONDON Date: 14 FEB 44.
[date stamp 17 MAR 1944]
1
Dear Dad,
My first impressions of England are a lot better than I’d expected. Conditions on the boat over the last week or so were not so good and we were lead [sic] to believe things would be far worse here. On arrival we had a very long train journey and were amazed to have 3 beautiful meals almost in quick succession. Luckily we travelled mostly by night for the countryside from one end of England to the other is apparently just one long series of poky little 2 storied houses with quite old chimney pots by the thousands, occasionally broken by an open field. We are stationed in a densely populated former holiday resort and are quartered in the bigger hotels. The meals are excellent and everything is our way. Conditions are really smashing. Incidentally we had a Comforts Fund issue within 24 hrs of arrival with a promise of another in the near future so we’ve not done too badly from them. Our Melbourne issue was a beaut [deleted] and [/deleted] chiefly warm clothing and of course they came to [indecipherable word] several times on the boat.
This place is full of theatres and dance halls
PAGE 2
[page break]
229860
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
(all licensed) and about 700 very small hotels. The number of things they sell in the shops – things we were told they hadn’t seen for years – startled me. There does not seem to be any shortage of clothing at all. None of the shops or buildings are shuttered or sandbagged. In hundreds of cars, trucks and busses I’ve so far seen one gas producer. We expected to pay at least 10/- for a satisfying meal from what we’d been told but they are just as cheap as at home.
Did the girls receive the stockings I sent from Durban? – Sorry I missed on Kev but hope you bought him something on my behalf. I suppose he got my cable.
We have about a week’s leave coming up very soon and we are all looking forward to it of course. The boys had their first experience of an alert last night. There were a few Jerries over but little damage done here thank God. We were very weary when we went to bed last night & unfortunately no one in our room even knew it was on. I hope we show better form in future. I suppose it will be another 2 or 3 weeks before any of your mail arrives but we are all eagerly awaiting it.
Love to all at home. P.
MR D. H. HOGAN
67 CHAPEL ST.,
BENDIGO
VICTORIA.
AUSTRALIA.
Sender’s Name and Address: AUS 436464 SGT HOGAN P.J AUSPO LONDON Date: 14 FEB 44.
[date stamp 17 MAR 1944]
1
Dear Dad,
My first impressions of England are a lot better than I’d expected. Conditions on the boat over the last week or so were not so good and we were lead [sic] to believe things would be far worse here. On arrival we had a very long train journey and were amazed to have 3 beautiful meals almost in quick succession. Luckily we travelled mostly by night for the countryside from one end of England to the other is apparently just one long series of poky little 2 storied houses with quite old chimney pots by the thousands, occasionally broken by an open field. We are stationed in a densely populated former holiday resort and are quartered in the bigger hotels. The meals are excellent and everything is our way. Conditions are really smashing. Incidentally we had a Comforts Fund issue within 24 hrs of arrival with a promise of another in the near future so we’ve not done too badly from them. Our Melbourne issue was a beaut [deleted] and [/deleted] chiefly warm clothing and of course they came to [indecipherable word] several times on the boat.
This place is full of theatres and dance halls
PAGE 2
[page break]
229860
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
(all licensed) and about 700 very small hotels. The number of things they sell in the shops – things we were told they hadn’t seen for years – startled me. There does not seem to be any shortage of clothing at all. None of the shops or buildings are shuttered or sandbagged. In hundreds of cars, trucks and busses I’ve so far seen one gas producer. We expected to pay at least 10/- for a satisfying meal from what we’d been told but they are just as cheap as at home.
Did the girls receive the stockings I sent from Durban? – Sorry I missed on Kev but hope you bought him something on my behalf. I suppose he got my cable.
We have about a week’s leave coming up very soon and we are all looking forward to it of course. The boys had their first experience of an alert last night. There were a few Jerries over but little damage done here thank God. We were very weary when we went to bed last night & unfortunately no one in our room even knew it was on. I hope we show better form in future. I suppose it will be another 2 or 3 weeks before any of your mail arrives but we are all eagerly awaiting it.
Love to all at home. P.
Collection
Citation
P J Hogan, “Letter from Pat Hogan to his father,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31833.
Item Relations
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