A Story of War

I ask for a 72 (hours leave) in London but W/C Pippet says he cannot allow it, but if I get over on my own steam then it’s OK by him. So I arrange to be flown over and back by Auster. I came over on Monday, over Walchem and Calais to Dover, where we proceed to get lost, and eventually touch down at Fair Oaks near Staines, refuel, and fly on to Hendon. Here I get into trouble with the Customs officer over a parcel of stuff for George’s wife which I say is bulbs, a clock, and five pound notes which I do not mention. He grills me hard and has me so nervous it’s hardly true, then says “OK, see the currency officer” and I am free – let go! He had threatened to search me for jewellery etc.

I get a bed in the Wings Club and take Louise Carriere out to the Brevet Club, 66 Grosvenor Club and some club of hers. I get eventually excited dancing with her and she warms up a little and we have quite a session on the stairs outside her flat afterwards, but nothing else, and I do not think there is anything there. Next day I go and delve into BOAC for a job in the traffic department, and there is a chance of one at £300 – or about £100 overseas, after I am de-mobbed, which in point of fact means starting all over again. That evening I go to Shepheards and meet Ken Harkisson and have a few beers, and then I meet S/L “Horse” Evans from Habbaniya in the Brevet Club, get bored at 9.30pm, and return to the Wings Club, where I encounter Wilfred Van der Walle, my Belgian friend, and we ride out on his motorcycle to the King George Club for some coffee.

Today I phone up Hendon about the Auster that was to bring me home and find it has not arrived, so I must go on a Dutch a/c to Valkenburg tomorrow, and it will be plain to all that I have been to the UK and I shall get into trouble. That’s if the weather doesn’t stop flying, in which case I shall have no bed. This Louise Carriere would be extremely nice – my, my, but she is aged 20 and has old fashioned ideas, also hosts of boyfriends. We have lunch today at 3 Grosvenor Square, or Washington Square, or Eisenhower Plaats!