John Patrick Hawker Bletchley Park diary,, 1944

Containers:

Box 1

Scope and content:

The manuscript journal was penned from 6 March to 19 June 1944, while at SIS Tattenhoe Camp in Far Bletchley, part of the Bletchley Park network, (a Secret Army Camp at the junction of Whaddon Way and Buckingham Road). Pat Hawker, then 22 years of age, inquisitive, ambitious, and exceptionally proficient in radio communications, describes his wartime experience with the covert establishments of British Intelligence divisions, mainly interaction with Bletchley colleagues, descriptions of the NAAFI, recreational excursions, entertainment, as well as his thoughts on the war as it unfolds. With only cryptic references such as "Hut E" of which he names his colleagues, remembering his time at 'H' [Hanslope Park], and working 'night shifts', he is mindful not to record specifics about his training, duties, or achievements, nor anything of the clandestine operations, though some commentary reveals the temptation to do. At the end of the volume a single page consists of a calendar of field assignments made with SCU9 unit to connect the Army with British intelligence agents during the final stages of the war. He travelled from London to Leigh-on-Sea, then Saint-Gabriei-Brécy and Paris, to Brussels then Eindhoven and Helmond in Holland, circling to and fro between these places and others, penetrating Germany in the North Rhine-Westphalia district and arriving at Süchteln approximately the 21st of May 1944, subsequently making his way to Bad Salzuflen, Bad Godesberg [the first major German city to be transferred to Allied forces control without a battle], and the district of Uedorf in the city of Bornheim (near Bonn). Together with a small photograph of 8 men in military uniform, loosely placed inside the volume. 118 pages.

Excerpts from Hawker's wartime diary:

March 6th 1944 - Tattenhoe. "... the next few weeks will see for me and for millions like me - the ending of an era. The shadow has been cast - only the events themselves remain as yet unrevealed...""l am a Lance Corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals engaged on wireless duties ... I, and some of my friends, will most probably be in on the 'Second Front' ... A party of twenty... My guess would be for April 5th. On that date I shall be twenty-two ... To be quite frank I do not particularly want this type of adventure... The Jack of civilized amenities... We may see things in other lands that will make us wonder how we ever tolerated life in dull Bletchley Bucks." "... Tattenhoe Camp. I am writing this in my cubicle E7 ...this chronicle is not only a diary of events but of thoughts and ideas I do not feel bound to keep to the confines of time." "Bletchley is a town of one street... leading up to the Park - that is at the Eight Bells - it wanders on under the railway bridge - past the Chi/tern Library past the dingy snack cafe, the many poor little shops to the Garden Cafe and the Studio Cinema and then meanders into Fenny Stratford... it is peopled by the strange mixture that work at the Park. The wrens, waafs and ats and most superior civil servants and dashing naval officers and slovenly army officers and occasional Americans... Unlike the other small towns in Bucks it cannot retain its own features. It seems to have been swamped by the invading army... All the local inhabitants have a timid frightened look in their eye as though wondering by what grace of God or Mr Griffin the Billeting Officer they are still allowed to retain part of their homes..."

15 March 1944. "Russian Events" "In Russia an important offensive on the whole of the Southern Front appears to be under way with an immediate objective in the port & base of Nikolaev [Mykolaiv] 20 miles from advancing Russians... With the crossing of this river, Odessa would be directly threatened and a general invasion of Bessarabia possible. Peace convoys from Russia are rumoured to be active in Istanbul following the Finnish-Soviet talks... apparently made little headway... further advance by the Red Army will almost certainly bring about peace talks..."

22 March 1944. "World at War [Htl..] has occupied the territory of his ally - Hungary... The seizure has been in Grand style. Regent Horthy the fleetless Admiral was summoned to meet [Htl..] and detained. Troops poured into Budapest at dawn... Spasmodic raids on London continue... In America, pre-Presidential elections activities are already clouding the picture..."

[Here a list of personnel in 'Hut E' interjects the chronicle of daily events.]

25 March 1944. "News from H [Hanslope Park]." "... the greatest surprise of the week... Bill Bernard... informed us that he had come to stay and gave us remarkable news of the old unit. This is no place for any discussion of the position there but many of my closest friends in that unit have suddenly been moved due to their 'suppressive' activities. Also caught in the storm were a number of the officers blamed for having allowed discontent to arise. For a long time my friends have been pressing for improved conditions in that camp..."

31 March 1944. "The Russian advance continues. Nikolaev has fallen and the Red Army is racing towards Odessa... are within a few miles of Hungary & Czechoslovakia. The German retreat is becoming disordered and reports of disintegration are... [On March 28, 1944 the city was liberated from German control, in part because of Soviet Senior Lieutenant Konstantin F. Olshansky's paratroopers and their daring raid, during which the majority of his troops were killed]" .... 'The Air Ministry has announced that we have a new fighter. The make and its name are 'official secrets'. But several weeks ago an American magazine article stated that the new Hawker 'Tempest' was being used by the RAF!"

3 April 1944. "Cycled to Newport Pagnell... Met several of the old crowd Wilt Allen, Dick Draper, Alf Taylor. Heard of several new moves, Jim Roghly to N.W. area, Fred Graham, Wilt Elmore to B ...it is now a place of haunting memories of people whom I have known but now seldom see. The old original fellows who went to H in 1941 - Des Downing, Matt Smith, Les Gorley, Stan Thomas, Peter Camello, Bill Windle, Bill Robertson, Bill Hutchford, Smudger Smith, Gilbert Moss, and many others. What talk did that dimly lit room hear... We were bound together by necessity. The only place in the neighbourhood where food was to be bought. In the days before WVS Canteens [Women's Voluntary Service] ..."

21 April 1944. 'The period covered by these notes has already been far greater than I had originally anticipated. How much longer before the balloon goes up? I believe that early May will witness the opening of the offensive... the Government withdrew all diplomatic privileges from its representatives of foreign powers - excluding only Russia & the U.S.A... No couriers can enter or leave the country, no coded telegrams... Heavy raids continue... Details of the Navy's use of 'human torpedoes' as long ago as Jan 1943 have just been released... yet another suicide job. Their only hope lies in being taken prisoner, as occurred in the Palmero raid... workers are feeling the strain of 4 1/2 years of ever increasing work and many are ready to strike... Leave in the Army is still suspended.

5 May 1944. 'Tonight at the NAAFI 'X' and I learned that E's posting has come through. She is leaving Wednesday. I am not at all sure that these notes are the right place to discuss the 'E' affairs..."

13 May 1944. "... cycle ride to Aylesbury... the opening of 'Salute the Soldier Week'... strange influence of visitors... Glider Pilot Regiment, Crippled Dutch Sailor, Yanks, Polish Air Cadets, woofs from the West Indies, Pilots form Australia, New Zealand and Ceylon, Nursing Auxiliaries, and the Services from all over England Scotland & Wales - all rubbing shoulders with the good people of Bucks..."

8 June 1944. 'The long drawn out overture has ended. The curtain has gone up. Two days ago, June 6th... Allied command had issued a statement that a new bombing phase had begun... warning the people of occupied Europe... German naval forces were in contact with Allied landing craft. So came D Day... At 9.30 came the official communqiue No. 1 from SHEAEF and statement from Eisenhower... the first reaction was of relief that at last the period of waiting was over. How that period affected us, has, I hope, been shown in these notes... I set out to record pre-invasion England. That England no longer exists... So it is with all major changes in the world... the beginning of a chain of events that slowly encompass us all... Everyone of them whether they cross the channel or stay here in Bletchley."

3 June 1944. 'The preparations as they affect our unit are as complete now as they are ever likely to be. We live then on short notice. /left Bletchley on the 8-1 5 train May 22 & returned by the 5-45 pm on May 24th. I had been home... for a few hours one leads a private life... For those hours one becomes Mr. So and So - Private Citizens. Back in Bletchley I entered an altered existence. For the first time for two & a half years I stopped working on shifts and became a 9 till 5 worker. An immediate result being my time for odd jobs such as writing journals seemed to disappear."

19 June 1944. "A few hundred miles to the south fierce fighting... The Americans have succeeded in reaching the West Coast of the Cherbourg peninsula... all reports indicate that - at least in Normandy - the behaviour of the German troops has been 'correct'... they have been accepted by the younger section of the population... the Germans have been sending pilot-less aircraft against London... too early to say how effective this new weapon s likely to be... the layman us inclined to the view that they must be very expensive in man-hours for construction and therefore the attack may dwindle... technical detailed are awaited with keen interest. 01

Epilogue, written at Minehead, Somerset, 2 July 1944: We left Bletchley 23rd June. We heard of our departure on the 19th - just after writing general notes of the previous pages... most of us went off feeling as though we were going to war - and a few hours later were settling in comfort at St. A Here there is a short memory of events after the last recordings... How am I to round off this diary? I feel that it must stand or fall on what has already been written. It is an account of someone in search of entertainment & a little enlightenment in a country that has been at war for too long. Frankly I have enjoyed these months despite their artificiality. And yet at the same time I have hated them. The war has always been in the background nagging at us... We had a job to do and we did it as well as we were able until the middle of May. We were asked to join a unit that offered little but discomfort... I hate discomfort. I am afraid of danger. I think war is unnecessary and the greatest of man's inhumanity towards man. But I want to see things f or myself. I can only hope that I will always believe in intellect rather than instrument and force.

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