Letter from Pat Hogan to Kevin Hogan

Letter from Pat Hogan to Kevin Hogan

Sending normal weekly bulletin to Kevin for a change but says he has little to report apart from him finishing a transport course. Writes of flying in an electrical storm which affected the engines, instruments and navigation. Asks about certificate from parachute company and mentions medical issues. Writes of Labour winning the election and philosophises over the reasons with comments on the state of England and other politics. Parts of the letter are damaged and unreadable.

1945-07-29

Four sided handwritten airmail letter

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EHoganPJHoganKG450729-01

A436464 P/O P. HOGAN
RAAF AUSPO
LONDON
29/7/45
[inserted] [underlined] P.S. [/underlined] I almost forgot to send thanks for the cable. I’ll write the Ryans direct. Thanks for the [indecipherable word] promotion on [indecipherable word]. It looks very nice [missing word] that but for the present I think it might be as well to have my correct rank in the address even if it is rather sproggish. Pat. [/inserted]
Dear Kev,
Just by way of a change I’ll send the weekly bulletin to you. Actually, as far as I’m concerned personally, there is little to report apart from the fact that now we are finishing off this Transport course with pukka instructors from Command itself & they are flagging us a bit. Still it keeps us out of mischief. Still doing our share of flying, of course, & had an experience during the week when we ran into [deleted] over [/deleted] an electrical storm which sent all our compasses haywire. We were steering due North from Lands End to get near Belfast & after we got out of the storm & sorted it all out I found we were out over the Channel & down near Cherbourg. It is experiences like that that may [sic] all these blokes fly into hills [indecipherable word] Leigh-Mallory.
Too bad none of the Grand National [missing word] materialised. I naturally bought a ticket in the Irish sweep when in Dublin. Incidentally I [deleted] b [/deleted] got back the snaps I took in Ireland a couple of days back & will forward them on in due course. I bought a very nice camera & as [missing words] there must shortly be a release of film, I hope to be sending home [missing word] Hence I think it might be an idea for you to procure an album for me & put any photos I’ve already sent home, in it & plonk in the others as they arrive. By the way have you yet sighted that certificate from the parachute company. If I remember rightly I also sent a squadron photo which would give you a fair idea of the size of the old Halibag. Incidentally although we are still stooging around in Halifax VI’s we’ll shortly be going on to Yorks in Cornwall & thence on the [indecipherable word] river. To use a Yorkshire expression I’m feeling rather “poorly” the last few days having had 3 needles which brought up the arm a bit.
This country got a complete surprise last Thursday when those workers & servicemen whom the Tories were unable to deprive of a vote, returned the Labour party for the first time with an overwhelming majority. As I see
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it, it will be the best thing that could have happened for in the interim between the 2 wars this country sank into a deplorable condition in filling the pockets of the moneyed men. Over half of the papers are controlled by the Beaverbrook chain & give a distorted view on anything including sport. On the other hand you have papers like the Daily Herald published by the out & out reds, & it is far too radical.
Clem Atlee is very solid but not [deleted] at [/deleted] brilliant. However Ernie Bevin is by far the most forceful man in British politics & has worked wonders [missing words] for Labour & I’m sure he’ll [missing words] well as Foreign Minister [missing words] needs brightening up for [missing words] failed miserably [missing words] & most of the [missing words] Ernie puts out no airs (rather like poor old Honest John was) & is very forceful & I hope for all our sakes that he is a little firmer with Uncle Joe at Potsdam than Eden was at Malta. Naturally Morrison is also very good, as also are Ellen Wilkinson, Tom Williams,. Edith Summerskill & others.
[underlined] 30/7/45. [/underlined] Sorry for all this politics but you see I’m quite pleased about the result for I spent quite a bit of time drumming every bloody Pongo I came into
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BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER
[two postmarks]
Mr K. G. Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Vic
Australia
AUS 436464
P/O P.J. HOGAN
RAAF AUSPO
[date stamp]